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The Youngest Survivors of the Holocaust

They are your friends and neighbors.

They are scientists and career women, teachers and business men, homemakers, counselors, artists and engineers.

Though their lives are diverse, they share a common bond. As Jewish children living in Europe during World War II, they went into hiding to escape persecution and death.
In Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II, Jewish children were targeted for death.

Hiding was a way for Jewish parents to save their children -- or for the children to save themselves. Each hidden child had a unique experience. Some found refuge amid religious organizations. Others became maids, farm hands, or factory workers. Some stayed out of sight in cramped spaces underground, or hid in secret rooms.

Hidden children lived in constant fear of being discovered, captured, and killed. They lived day by day, longing to be reunited with family. Through their years in hiding, they focused on survival and maintained hope for the future.

The hidden children would not have survived the war without the help of non-Jewish people. Christian rescuers were from every social and economic class. Most shared their food, clothing, shelter and concern without recompense. Rescuers put themselves at great risk. Discovery meant arrest, torture, and a sentence of death.

In some countries, such as France and Belgium, an underground movement was organized that helped place Jewish children in convents with Christian families.
(Edith Rosen; Top center, Convent in Belgium)

In other countries such as, Poland, and Ukraine, where the local population did not have an organized effort to help, survival was nearly impossible. Leon Ginsburg, the only child to survive out of 5000 Jews in his town in Eastern Poland (Now Ukraine) stands with his cousin, Patty Gould, at a monument to 4500 Jews shot there on August of 1942.
For hidden children, coming out of hiding after the end of the war did not mean a return to the normalcy of their former lives. The hope that kept them focused on survival--that they would see their families again--was shattered for most upon learning of the deaths of their relatives.

Almost fifty years later in 1991, The First International Gathering of Children Hidden During World War II conference brought their experiences into the public eye. In celebrating their survival and acknowledging their histories, the hidden children began the process of coming to terms with the past.

These are the true stories of triumph against overwhelming odds as told through first-person narratives of seventeen former hidden children. From the joyful excitement of preschoolers to the fearful awareness of teenagers, their memories of years in hiding, family and friends left behind, and the rescuers who helped them survive are portrayed in words, photographs, and illustrations.

Accompanying the accounts of hiding are exhibit panels on the war era, identity, and the Christian rescuers, that help to place the narratives in historical context.

Looking back at the past in this award-winning exhibit, the former hidden children share their stories not to be pitied, but to honor their rescuers, to remember those who perished, and to educate people so that such persecution may never occur again.
Several of our members have their stories published:

Ilse Loeb's story appears in "We Survived The Holocaust" by Elain Landau. Published by Franklin Watts, 1991. It is a condensed account of her hiding in Nazi occupied Holland under very dangerous circumstances.
Leon Ginsburg and Lola Kaufman's stories appear in the book "The Hidden Children" by Jane Marks, Published by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, in 1993. Both stories tell of a life and death struggle to survive in the Eastern part of Poland (now Ukraine).
Cecile Kaufer's book "Good Bye For Always" The Triumph of the Innocence is the story of the youngest member of a Jewish family from Poland, only to be caught up in the Nazi occupation of France. Published by Hudson Cove, 1997.

Leon Ginsburg was interviewed by ABC for its special 20th century project. It has been shown on the History Channel, on cable TV and has a full page in the book "The Century" by Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster.

For other books and information visit the World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust online at www.wfjcsh.org

Hidden Children: The Youngest Survivors of the Holocaust was produced by The Historical Society of Rockland County, The Holocaust Museum and Study Center, and The Hidden Children of Rockland.

Total of 30 exhibit panels:
* 29 @ 2' 7 3/8" x 3' 7"
* 1 @ 1' 6" x 3' 7"
* Lightweight panels, wall mounting using 2 nails or screws recommended. Wire and hook mounting may be used.