Jewish Children example essay topic

The Holocaust was one of history's most horrifying and most talked about events. Millions of people were killed during this terrible time; many of these people were children. Innocent Children were caught in the middle of a war of which they were powerless to stop and at a loss to understand. The children of the Holocaust were taken from their families and were treated harsh like the adults.

These children should not have been dealt with this way and it is the responsibility of everybody to make sure it never happens again. On August 2, 1943 Adolf Hitler became the president of Germany and the commander in chief of the armed forces after the former President, Paul Von Hindenburg, died. (Alder 107) At that time, the German quality of life was low. Unemployment was high, and Germany was in a sort of depression. Hitler promised to improve the quality of life in Germany.

(Giblin 63) He convinced the people that one "race" was responsible for the problems, Jewish. He set out to "cure" Germany, and many other countries such as Poland, Italy, and Russia. (78) Hitler truly hated Jews which came from his dad who had some sort of Jewish background left him. By 1940 Hitler had completed taking over the continent. Jews that tried to escape to other continents were sent back, by appointed Hitler officials, to their homes to try and function as they did before. (Greenfield 21) This systematic elimination of Jews, and many of other types of people such as blacks, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and just about anyone who Hitler believed was not part of the "Master Race", was accomplished with tools of which came to be known as Concentration Camps.

(Bachrach 11) Most of these were originally labor camps where prisoners were sent to perform slave labor for "Their Reich", but were later used for elimination of people too old, young, or weak to work. This was done by way of the infamous gas chambers and crematoriums. The other poor souls were eliminated by simply being worked to death by their cruel overseers. (Kallen 10) As the extirpating of Jews began, Jewish children were no longer allowed to attend German schools in 1938 (Adler 110), and then in 1942 all Jewish schools were closed. (114) Jewish children were separated from any non-Jewish things, people, or places. This included schools, parks, and friends.

They were made to feel ashamed for themselves and scorned for being of their heritage. (Greenfield 21) To make their lives worse they were forced to sew the Star of David on all their clothing. As all this continued Jewish families were sent to ghettos where children were left in the streets to search through garbage for something to eat. (Adler 57) Most of the people in the holocaust were adults, but many were children who were taken from their families and sent far from home. (Abells 26) These lost and confused children were taken to their own prisons where they were reviewed and, if they were lucky, sent to work camps. While not so lucky ones were sent to be killed.

Babies and children had little chance of surviving the first selection and were sent immediately to the gas chambers. (Bachrach 52) Many of those that were killed were simply too young or not strong enough to be of any use. The people who were older than twelve years of age and younger than sixty-five were those that were usually placed in the work camps. (Dawidowicz 290) As children were taken to the camps they were crying for water, their mother's hearts were shattered because they couldn't help their poor souls. (Adler 27) The Nazis hated the children for the sole reason of being Jewish. (Abells 25) Many children kept diaries of this awful time of their lives.

One unknown boy wrote about the great hunger he experienced because he was given only about 33 ounces of bread a week. (Holliday 397) Another victim named Irene Freund was ten years old in 1940 and was deported with her parents from Germany to Guys and then to Rives altes (interment camps in southern France). A Jewish children society rescued Irene from the camp and took her to a Catholic Covent along with thirteen other Jewish girls. She was separated from her parents forever, for they were deported to Auschwitz- Birkenau, where they perished. (Bachrach 64) Werner Gal nik was also a child of the holocaust, and remembers seeing on April 22, 1944 all the children under the age of ten, who could not work because of their age, were taken to Auschwitz, and gassed or burned. (Holliday 60) He also told how he and his brother drug wheel-barrows for work, and how the Children was very hard.

(Holliday 59) Those children who had not yet been found by Nazis were forced into hiding. "The "Hidden Children" as they were called, faced many of the same horrors faced by those even less fortunate ones in the death camps, but they more often survived their ordeal. (Greenfield 33) They lacked food and water, and due to their hiding places, which were often basements or even crawlspaces. They also lacked such luxuries as indoor plumbing, and a comfortable place to sleep.

Those who did have such features as running water often times could not use it for fear of being discovered. (Greenfield 34) Many times in the war would a kind gentile family would take in Jewish, or children of any other religion who were running from the war, into their homes and hide them from the prying eyes of the Nazis. These children were hidden in such places as cabinets, crawl spaces, and even in holes which would be dug beneath the floor of the family's house hold. These methods were rather successful in rescuing children who were attempting to escape the war.

(Greenfield 33) Liberation of the survivors in the German concentration camps did not come quickly. Then in 1945, the Allies took Germany by storm and freed all the children and adult prisoners. The British and American soldiers were much more generous to these children. Accounts of people that were children in this time reported that these soldiers threw chocolate and chewing gum to these grateful survivors.

(Adler 56) Many of these children were reunited with their parents and traveled to the United States to start life anew. Others, who were not so fortunate, wandered through Europe and some found their way to other countries. Many ended up in America. Some who were not so lucky returned to Germany to find their homes and memories destroyed. Some were even killed as they wandered Europe. But none of these Children of the Holocaust will forget the horrific experience that changed their lives forever.

(Adler ix) The Holocaust was, and still is, one of history's most horrible, most unnerving, and most tear causing subjects. No one can tell you of its horror more than the people who were there, the children who watched history unfold before them, and the ones who lost their lives in the face of senseless racism. This pain and suffering of innocent people, of any magnitude, inflicted by another human being, is never the solution to any problems, and should never happen, though it sadly does. Even when polls were conducted about letting Jewish refugees and children into the United States, Americans voted against it.

(Adler 42) However, the results of this major occurrence in history should give us motivation to fight to prevent another event like one of this sort to happen again. Therefore it is the responsibility of today's society to be sure that the children in this world are never faced with or put through such traumatizing situations.

Bibliography

Abells, Chana Byers. The Children we Remember. New York: Green willow Books, 1983.
Alder, David A. We Remember the Holocaust. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1989.
Bachrach, Sudan D. Tell Them We Remember: The Story of the Holocaust. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1994.
Dawidowcz, Lucy S. The War Against the Jews 1933-1945.
New York: Bantam Books, 1975.
Giblin, James Cross. The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler. New York: Clan on Books, 2002.
Greenfield, Howard. The Hidden Children. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993.
Holliday, Laurel. Children in the Holocaust and World War II: their secret diaries. New York: Pocket Books, 1995.
Kallen, Stuart A. The Holocaust: The Holocaust 1940-1944.
Minnesota: Library of Congress, 1994.