Entrance to the "Children in the Holocaust" Exhibit

 Children in the Holocaust

1933 - 1945

Jewish children across Europe were some of the most vulnerable victims during the Holocaust. Life changed after the Nazi Party’s rise to power in Germany in 1933. The implementation of antisemitic policies in 1935 impacted Jewish families’ income and where Jewish children could go to school. Once Nazi Germany expanded across Europe with the Anschluss (annexation) of Austria on March 13, 1938, and the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, Jewish children in multiple countries experienced the terror of the Nazis’ racial, biological, and political policies. Additionally, children with mental or physical disabilities, Romani children, and the children of partisans were targeted by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.            

The murder of children in the Holocaust is one of the most heinous of the Nazi crimes and one of the least documented, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Thousands of Jewish children survived, however, because of Gentile rescuers who helped them hide. Hidden children faced constant fear, dilemmas, and danger. Many parents sent their children into hiding with Christian families or at religious institutions hoping they could pass as “Aryan,” while others hid in attics and cellars, fearing discovery for months or years. Children who fled unaccompanied or with family members also survived. For example, the Kindertransport (Children’s Transport) was a humanitarian program from November 1938 and September 1939, which helped approximately 10,000 Jewish children escape from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia to Great Britain. 

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Exhibit curated by Dr. Angela West