The Survivors

Liberated but certainly not completely free

What does this mean? -- They were no longer prisoners physically, but were still bound to their memories, and their loss.

Freedom to mourn, to become conscious of the loss, to feel guilty at surviving

Psychological and spiritual trauma

Few wanted to hear the stories right away

This was a definite negative in terms of dealing with their feelings. To have no outlet was no good – imagine all that had been experienced, and having to keep it bottled up inside… -- That would be horrible. You would feel like you could have exploded!

“Even after his defeat, the enemy continued doing his evil…”

Homelessness – where to go?

In many cases, families had been destroyed

Didn’t we say earlier that as Jews were deported, Aryans or at least local non-Jews moved into the vacant stores and businesses? What happened to a Jew, or to the people who had moved in, if the Jews tried to come and take their possessions back after the war? -- More often than not there was violence. Not all Jews tried to go “home” – some couldn’t see returning to the place where the nightmare started. Yet if you’ll look just a bit lower on the screen, you’ll see that there were even murders that took place as Jews returned to society.

Silence

Memories of death

Wounded souls

Aftermath for survivors, 1945-50

60,000 Jews alive in Germany

1^st post-war home was a Displaced Persons camp

Included children who had been rescued or placed in Christian homes

In Western Europe, Jews returned and were sometimes welcomed

In the east life had to be reconstituted

In Poland, 1000 Jews were murdered between 1945-47

Polish antisemitism still aflame

This is of course what I referred to a moment ago.

July 4, ’46: pogrom at Krelce

46 Jews murdered

This pogrom spurred an exodus…

B’richa: flight or escape to Palestine

Often went to Germany first

Traveled on trains in cattle cars from Poland to Germany!

But weren’t they just happy to be going somewhere besides the camps? -- Yeah, but think: even if they thought they were, would you be so willing to trust people who are putting you back on the mode of transportation that you most associate with the ordeals you’ve so recently been through?!? -- Yes, and look just a bit lower in the notes and you’ll see another idea one would have associated with the camps: barbed wire fences with armed guards.

Birthrate in DP camps was high

Highest Jewish birthrate in the world

I want you to think about what we’ve said about one of the Jews’ survival techniques, one that refers to normalcy. – Like when you said they washed in cold or dirty water; they did whatever they could to feel human, or normal. – Right. And often when you hear about man’s basic needs the list includes food, clothing, and shelter. Some would add sex as a basic human drive.

United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA)

Immigration to Palestine was still blocked by the British

Illegal immigration was plentiful

55,000 Jews were interned on island of Cyprus

British island; behind barbed wire

Nov. 29, ’47: UN vote to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab parts

What happened almost immediately after Israel became “official”? -- Their Arab neighbors attacked them. – It’s like you said earlier in our Holocaust study: the problems between Israel and Palestine don’t have a start 50 years ago, they have their roots around 4000 years ago.

Many survivors fought and died in 1948 battle for independence

By 1950, approximately 200,000 survivors called Israel “home”

USA

1945-’48: only 12,000 Jews immigrated due to quotas

That’s only 3000 Jewish immigrants per year! We weren’t exactly rushing to help them get back on their feet, were we?

1948: Displaced Persons Act allowed around 100,000 Jews to come to America

After this we watched more of the “Liberation” tape. Students’ interest continued to be held. As the tape went on, from time to time images of the topics being discussed were shown. That really added to the viewpoints of those giving their testimonies. Students were surprised at times as to the length of time survivors spent in the DP camps. I again related part of Nesse Godin’s story as she spoke of meeting her husband in the camp. I believe she said that she is pretty sure they had never kissed prior to their wedding. High school students always want to talk about such things as arranged marriages, etc. where romance is often secondary. We had a good talk about that.

Children and the Holocaust

1.7 million European Jews under 16 in 1939

Only 11% survived the Holocaust

1 ½ million children died

What about being under the age of 16 might have saved someone? -- Probably physical size or strength. – What about luck, or hiding?

Thereseinstadt ghetto: 15,000 Jewish children passed through

Only 100 survived

So does “passed through” mean that there weren’t that many kids in the ghetto at any one time? How would they know that only 100 survived if we’re talking about a transient population? -- In answer to the first question I would say that yes, those 15,000 are over time. As for the second question, I think the number is first of all an estimate, but I would guess that through either records the SS kept or through documentation the Jews provided we have this 100 as a rough estimate; Thereseinstadt was a gateway to Auschwitz.

Child smugglers of Warsaw ghetto

Could squeeze through cracks in the walls

Why else might children have been useful? -- Besides being small, maybe they were fast. – Maybe they thought because they were kids the guards would be lenient on them. – That is probably unlikely, but reminds me of a part of the film “Mein Kampf” where they use an SS propaganda film to demonstrate how Jews tried to “cheat” the Nazi “system”. They showed a trio of guards shaking down a couple of very young kids. They were maybe 8 and 5; the guards stood around them while the children were made to bounce up and down. Vegetables just dropped out of their coats…

Child couriers of Minsk who led a total of 10,000 out to partisans in the forests

Some children fought in the war

Some children in Auschwitz lied about their age and survived, such as Elie Wiesel

Many went to the gas if they were not tall enough to touch the bar set out by the SS

You can imagine that if anyone was caught trying to tiptoe beneath the bar they were probably shot on site.

Many children were unborn, aborted by Jewish doctors in the camps because birth would have condemned both child and mother

It is a belief in Judaism that when the life of both the unborn child and the mother are endangered, every effort should be made to save the mother (Donin 140-41). – So Judaism condones abortion? – No, I would not say that. I would say it just like I just did – in an extreme circumstance of the health of the mother being endangered, the baby might be taken. It is never to be meant for a form of birth control.

Twins in Auschwitz collected by Josef Mengele for experiments on increasing the Aryan birthrate

July ’42: hundreds of Paris children sent to Auschwitz by French police

Hidden children – Anne Frank the most famous

Decision to go into hiding

Often meant separation of family

Some children were saved in this way

Who can relate the scene in Maus that I’m thinking of right now? -- You’re talking about when Vladek and Anja make the decision to send Art’s older brother into hiding. Shortly after that the Gestapo comes to the village where they are residing and the woman who is hiding them decides to give them cyanide rather than let the Nazis kill them. – Yes, so we see that there is the initial pain of deciding to separate the family, and then of course the danger of what might happen once your eyes are off them. A major issue for families is that after the war there was no way to know if the kids were even alive. What did Vladek and Anja do after their liberation? -- They traveled all over Europe to orphanages and the Jewish registrations trying to get information on their son.

Hiding in private homes

If discovered in the East, all involved would die

Punishments were less severe in West

Why the disparity in punishments? -- I think it goes back to the fact that the Nazis owned the East and could do whatever they wanted there, but the West was still subject to prying eyes of the Allies and journalists. Plus, even though we’ve seen that most Germans knew something, the less overt the Holocaust was in Germany or Austria the better. – The West had more Aryans, also.

Cases in which children were exploited

Hiding in institutions

Monasteries, nunneries, orphanages, etc.

Often placed there by rescue networks

Rescue networks

Zegota in Poland saved between 4,000 and 6,000 Jews

Organization to Help Children, France

Similar organizations in other countries

Hiding in plain sight

Aryan features

Cute, endearing to adults

Could be out, go to school, etc.

Some had to remain invisible

Can you imagine years without seeing the sun? For some, it was like that.

Hiding on the run

Obtain false papers

Went from house to house

Transferred by network workers

That sounds like the Underground Railroad. – Right. Remember when I mentioned the book Salvaged Pages? One of the diaries in it is written by a child whose family was transient, always passing.

Hide in forests

Sometimes family camps maintained by the underground

Even some kids hidden in slave-labor camps

Reasons for survival

Luck

That will be #1 on the lists of survivors and soldiers alike as to why they survived.

Adaptability

Looks (Aryan)

Resourcefulness

Assistance from righteous Christians

Problems and difficulties of hidden children –

Constant fear of discovery

Boy hiding in seminary refused to take showers with other boys for fear they’d see he was circumcised

Only the Father Superior knew he was Jewish

To be constantly vigilant, alert

Could never relax or be comfortable

Difficulties of confinement

Could never go out or even go to a window

Some children were isolated or alone

They had to develop mental and psychological toughness in order to survive

Forced maturity

Had to “grow up” much too soon

Lost innocence

Dissimilation

Forced to pretend; be what you weren’t

Identity confusion

We often speak of situations of assimilation – this means you have to forget what you knew, not learn…

Coping with a variety of situations

Incomprehension of what was happening

It seems like it would be a whirlwind, like it was all happening so fast to them. -- Yeah, even when it was over all these years, I think once it arrived to where you lived, it would just take over. -- I suppose people said, “It can’t happen here” or “It can’t happen to me”.

Survival skills

Keep hope alive