DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 439 035 SO 030 773

AUTHOR Wukitch, Lauren . TITLE Using Primary Sources To Develop an Understanding about : Curriculum Project. Fulbright-Hays Summer Seminar Abroad Program 1998 (Hungary/). SPONS AGENCY Center for International Education (ED), Washington, DC. PUB DATE 1998-10-25 NOTE 120p.; For other projects from the 1998 Hungary/Poland Program, see SO 030 774-781. PUB TYPE Guides Classroom Teacher (052) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC05 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Anti Semitism; *Cultural Context; *European History; Foreign Countries; Grade 10; High Schools; *; *Nazism; *Primary Sources; Social Studies; *World War II IDENTIFIERS Europe; Fulbright Hays Seminars Abroad Program; Hitler (Adolf); *Holocaust; Hungary; Poland

ABSTRACT This Holocaust curriculum project is designed for a 10th grade world cultures class that meets for 80 minutes per day during one semester. The students use selected primary sources including poems, diary excerpts, and a short novel written by victims and survivors of the Holocaust. They also examine profiles about the rescuers. Additional documentaries and films also may be integrated into the unit as time'and resources permit. The curriculum project is divided into the following sections: (1) "Introduction"; (2) "Objectives";. (3)"Teaching Strategy"; (4) "Materials"; (5) "Questions"; (6) "Evaluation"; (7) "Appendix A: Selected Poems"; (8) "Appendix B: 'Learning about the Holocaust: A Resource Booklet for Students'" which also contains a Holocaust chronology; (9) "Appendix C: Diary Excerpt from the Lodz Ghetto";(10) "Appendix D: Diary Excerpt written by "; (11) "Appendix E: Profile on Jan Karski";(12) "Appendix F: Profile on Gustav Mikulai"; and (13) "Appendix G: Profile on Alex and Mela Rosen." (Contains 23 references.) (BT)

Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Fulbright-Hays CurriculumProject:

Using Primary Sources toDevelop anUnderstanding About the Holocaust:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Erlhis documenthas been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to Cr) improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. Lauren Wukitch O North Hills High School Cr) O Pittsburgh, PA 15237 October 25, 1998

BEST COPYAVAILABLE

2 Table of Contents

Introduction page 3

Objectives page 3

Teaching Strategy page 4

Materials page 8

Questions page 10 Evaluation page 10

Appendix A selected poems page 11

Appendix B Learning About the Holocaust: A Resource Booklet for Students page 12

Appendix C diary excerpt from the Lodz Ghetto page 13

Appendix D diary excerpt written by Mary Berg page 14

Appendix E Profile on Jan Karski page 15

Appendix F Profile on Gustav Mikulai page 16

Appendix G Profile on Alex and Me la Rosan page 17

Works Cited page 18

2

3 INTRODUCTION:

This project corresponds with the travel and lecturesI participated in as a recipient of a Fulbright-Hays Award during thesummer of 1998.As a result of the Fulbright-Hays Award, I have developeda Holocaust unit in which students will utilize poems, diary excerpts, anda short novel written by victims and survivors of the Holocaust. To conclude the unit, students willalso examine various profiles about rescuers.Additional documentaries and filmsmay also be utilized as available. [e.g. Night and Fogor Schindler's List]

I intend to implement this unit intomy World Cultures class. The World Cultures 1 course is required for all 10th grade students at North Hills High School. Theclass meets for 80 minutes a day during one semester. A typicalproblem for most instructors of World Cultures is the abundance of informationto cover in a limited amount of time and this project adds to this problem. Mysolution is to substitute some of the time spent on the World Wars for time to be spenton the Holocaust. I have found that my studentsare entering into class with a strong working knowledge of and World War II fromtheir 9th grade American History course. Consequently, I will havemy students work on World War II independently, through a series of review questions that willfocus on the major facets of the war as covered in their textbook. During theclass periods, normally reserved for World War II,I will introduce and work on materials about the Holocaust. The material that isnew to the students will be covered in class while the out-of-class work will be mostly review.

OBJECTIVES:

The main objectives are as follows: Define the term Holocaust and how it appliesto World War II. Identify the reasoning behind the Nazi goalto eliminate "inferior races." Identify the means by which the Nazis carriedout their goal. Determine how several individuals reacted to the Holocaustand how the world reacted. Examine the conflicts arising between Hitler and the Jewishpeople of Europe in a specific cultural sphere, Europe between 1933-1945 (majorityversus minority group). Understand how a governmentcan use concepts such as culture, ethnicity, race, diversity, and nationality as weapons to persecute, murder, and annihilate people. Read and comprehend various types of literature andpoetry from the Holocaust. Recognize the deeds of heroism demonstrated by children,teenagers, and adults in ghettos and concentrationcamps. 3

4 Study how people living under Nazi control usedart as a form of resistance (art including poetry, diaries, sketches, etc.).

A secondary goal is to compare the fate of Jews inHungary and Poland during World War II by studying the lives ofa men, women, and children from both Hungary and Poland. In studying bothmen and women, children and teenagers, I hope to present a broad balance of how the Holocaustaffected the complete family unit and society.By using specific illustrations from Hungary and Poland,I can utilize my travel by showing students pictures of whatremains of the ghettos and concentration camps.

TEACHING STRATEGIES: The following is a broad sketch of how I intendto teach about the Holocaust to high school students. I have broken the unit down into fivemain phases. After reviewing these materials, if you do not think thatyou could use the entire unit, because of the class time required, I inviteyou to pick out a phase that fits for your class and curriculum.I strongly encourage you touse phases two (2) and four (4) though. The second (2) phase will provide studentsthe intellectual foundation for the defining and comprehending the Holocaust. Thefourth (4) phase utilizes a novel written by Elie Wiesel,a survivor of Auschwitz. Night is a phenomenal story of the human spirit triumphingover the forces of evil.

Phase 1 Introduce unit by having each student reada different poem written by a child in the Terezin Camp. Througha class discussion, identify the various attributes about camp life that the authors try to convey to the reader through the poetry. Theclass will also create a list of conditions, emotions, desires, andfate (or expected future) from the poetry.

The poems I have chosen touse are collected from the Terezin (Theresienstadt) ghetto located outside Prague, Czech Republic. A totalof 15,000 children under the age of fifteen passed through the Terezin Concentration Camp between 1942-1944; less than 100 survived. (I Have Not Seena Butterfly Around Here, 11)

There are many sources available for Holocaustpoetry. I have chosen to use the Terezin collection for severalreasons. The Terezin collection of poetry is easily available and well known.

Terezin was considered a modelcamp and was used to show foreigners how prisoners and Jews were being treated during thewar. It became a stop for prisoners 4

5 before they were sent to Auschwitz. Over 15,000 children went through theTerezin camp. (Volavkova, 102) Only 100 came back. These children used art and poetry to escape the harsh realities of camp life.

I also had the opportunity to visit the camp during thesummer of 1998. I have some documents and pictures of the camp to use in class.

Citation for sources: I Have Not Seen a Butterfly Around Here: Children's Drawings and Poems From Terezin. Prague: The Jewish Museum, 1993. Volavkova, Hana (ed.)...I Never Saw Another Butterfly...New York: Schocken Books, 1993.

Estimated dass time: 1 class period

Phase 2 For the second phase, students will be working from Learning About the Holocaust: A Resource Booklet for Students. As a class we will need to work through the information contained in this pamphlet. This can done inmany ways, depending upon personal teaching style and audience. I will use a combination of lectures, discussions, study guides, and films to highlight the material.

I have included a copy of the Learning About the Holocaust: A Resource Booklet for Students in Appendix B for your convenience.

Citation for source: Learning About the Holocaust: A Resource Booklet for Students. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1993.

Estimated class time: 3 class periods

Phase 3 For the next phase of the unit, students will be readinga diary excerpt. In an out of class assignment, that can be done while we are working in the second phase Learning About the Holocaust, students will be reading a brief diary excerpt. From these diaries, students will be able to see what daily lifewas like in the camps, in the ghettos, or in hiding. Using Laurel Holliday's Children in the Holocaust and World War II: Their Secret Diaries, students will read an assigned diary excerpt. In small

5

6 groups of three (3) students each, the group will review thediary and discuss the reading with the group. (Group sizes will bedependent upon class size, but I would like to see groups of 3 students workingon the same diary excerpt.)

Suggested selections are listed below by author,country, and age. The first five selections, listed below, are 6-14pages in length which might be a good choice for lower-level readers. Selections six throughnine are at least 20 pages in length. I particularly enjoyed the short reading byThe Unknown Brother and Sister of Lodz Ghetto and the excerpt written by MaryBerg. The Berg excerpt is quite fascinating in that Mary is an American who survives theWarsaw Ghetto. She is able to smuggle the diary out when she is released ina prisoner exchange. The brief selection is full of details about life in the ghetto.

1. Ephraim Shtenkler, Poland, 11years old, 2. Janina Heshele, Poland, 12years old 3. Dawid Rubinowicz, Poland, 12years old 4. Sarah Fishkin, Poland, 17years old 5. The Unknown Brother and Sister of LodzGhetto, unknown age and 12years old 6. Janine Phillips, Poland, 10years old 7. Eva Heyman, Hungary, 13years old 8. Mary Berg, Poland, 15years old, 9. Hannah Senesh, Hungary and Israel, 17years old

Again I have included a copies of two diaryselections in Appendix C and D. Appendix C is the sevenpage except from The Unknown Brother and Sister of Lodz Ghetto.This diary is brief, but powerful. It iseasy to read and requires little prior knowledge about the Holocaust. Anexcerpt from Mary Berg's diary is also found in Appendix D.

Citation for source: Holliday, Laurel. Children in the Holocaust andWorld War II: Their Secret Diaries. New York: Washington Square Press, 1995. Estimated class time: 2 class periods

Phase 4 Students will be reading the novel, Night, by ElieWiesel.I use the novel, Night, by Elie Wiesel, because of the central theme ofthe autobiography never to forget. As a survivor of the concentrationcamps, Wiesel is determined to document his past and to keep alive the memories which turneda civilized society into a 6

7 systematic killing mechanism.

As a social studies teacher, it ismy goal to prepare young people to be educated, active citizens. The Holocaust leftan indelible mark on everyone who lived through it, the politicians, the generals, thesoldiers, and the world. By reading Elie Wiesel's Night, the students will geta powerful and moving account of one teenager's experience in the concentrationcamps. Also, the themes of prejudice, racism, and extreme nationalismare found throughout history and in the Holocaust. If students were to have theopportunity to read Night, perhaps they will regain their ability to understand those whoare different and invoke compassion for others not like oneself.

Elie Wiesel, the recipient of the 1986 Nobel PeacePrize, is a remarkable man, known for his perseverance, strength, and dignity.Wiesel is active today in encouraging people around the world to bemore tolerant of others through his sponsorship ofa national scholarship for high school students.

Night, by Elie Wiesel, isa wonderful learning tool for students because the student is transported into the mind and life ofan average family living in Eastern Europe during World War H. World War II dramaticallychanged Europe and the globeas new technologies were used in the name of waron men, women, and children without discrimination. The story is compelling,compassionate, vivid, and heartbreaking. I love to use Wiesel's story ina classroom setting because it is written in a style that is enjoyable for studentsto read, filled with information, but unforgettable.

Citation for source: Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Bantam Books,1960. Estimated class time: 4-6 class periods

Phase 5 To complete this unit on the Holocaust andto bring bring some closure for this dramatic unit, the students will be readinga 3-5 page profile on a rescuer.I hope that this profile will help address the students'questions such as "How could this have happened?" and "Why didn'tanyone try to stop the Holocaust?"

Listed below are the names of ten(10) Polishand Hungarian rescuers profiled in the book Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Couragein the Holocaust.In order to maximize the efforts of the class and to learn aboutmore than one rescuer, students will work in small groups of 2-3 people, thesame groups that were used for the diary excerpts. 7 Students will read the profile individually, work withtheir group to compile information about the specific profile, and share the informationin a class discussion. The profiles vary in length, but theyrun usually 3-6 pages.

The profile on Jan Karski is my personal favorite. Theaccount given by Jan Karski is wonderful. It is filled with daunting acts of heroism,daring escapes, and painful memories.Mr. Karski currently lives in the U.S. and teachesat Georgetown University. I have included a copy of his profile in AppendixF.I have also included the profile of Gustav Mikulai's,Appendix G, because I think some students will relate well to hissense of humor. A final profile is included on Alex and Mela Roslan. I felt it was important to includethe Roslan profile because it includes the discussion about the boys whowere saved by the Roslan's. The Roslan profile also highlights the conflicts thatarose after the war when some people are able to emigrate to Israel and othersare not able.

1. Zofia Baniecka 2. Gertruda Babilinska 3. Jan Karski 4. Agnieszka Budna-Widerschal 5. Stefnia Podgorska Burzminski 6. Alex and Mela Roslan 7. Irene Gut Opdyke 8. Stefan Raczynski 9. Malka Csizmadia 10. Gustav Mikulai

Citation for source: Block, Gay and Malka Drucker. Rescuers: Portraits of MoralCourage in the Holocaust. New York: Holmes Sr Meier Publishers, Inc.,1992. Estimated class time: 1-2 class periods

MATERIALS: These sources are the foundation for the unit. It is essentialthat every students has his/her own copy of the following: 1. Learning About the Holocaust: A Resource Booklet forStudents. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum,1993. 2. Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Bantam Books, 1960.

I have included a copy of Learning About the Holocaust:A Resource Booklet for 8

9 Students in Appendix B so it can be copiedat minimal cost.I intend to use this pamphlet in place of my textbook to for theauthoritative source on the Holocaust. Elie Wiesen Night is found in most bookstoresand runs under five dollars for the soft back. So if you are limited in time, Iencourage you to use these two sources.

The other sources that I will be utilizing shouldbe on file in the libraryor with the instructor so students can pickup a read a short selection.It would be wonderful to have dassroom copies available, but I realizethat financial restrictions area factor. The more copies available, themore access students will have to the materials.

Block, Gay and Malka Drucker. Rescuers: Portraitsof Moral Courage in the Holocaust. New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers,Inc., 1992. Holliday, Laurel. Children in the Holocaust andWorld War II: Their Secret Diaries. New York: Washington Square Press, 1995. I Have Not Seen a Butterfly Around Here:Children's Drawings and Poems From Terezin. Prague: The Jewish Museum, 1993.

Volavkova, Hana (ed.) ...I Never Saw Another Butterfly... New York: Schocken Books, 1993. Washington Square Press, 1995.

I also suggest that you contact the HolocaustMemorial Museum for sources suchas: Learning About the Holocaust: A Resource Bookletfor Students. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Holocaust MemorialMuseum, 1993. Teaching About the Holocaust: A Resource Book forEducators. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum,1993. Resources Center for Educators U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW Washington, D.C. 20024-2126

Telephone:(202) 488-2661 Fax: (202) 314-7888 fax e-mail: [email protected] web site:

9

10 QUESTIONS: Listed below is a series of questions thatcan be used to further student study on this subject. Depending upon time constraints, students couldstudy a particular aspect of the Holocaust around each of these questions.

What spiritual resistance is evident in the materials read? What moral choices, or absence of choices,were confronted by the young and old in the readings? Why did the Nazis' censor the fine arts and literatureduring this period? To what extent was the Jewish culture able to survive andmaintain its traditions and institutions following the Holocaust? Identify other examples of discriminative public policy. Identify U.N. and/ or U.S. Government effortsto develop and adopt human rights bills. Reflect upon the moral and ethical implications of theHolocaust as a watershed event in world history. Examine the close ties between science and technology andgovernment policy. Identify examples of a nation utilizing its scientificexpertise to the detriment of mankind.

EVALUATION:

Evaluating student understandingon this unit will include writing samples, testing assessment, student feedback, interest generated, and class andcommunity discussions.

Integrating pieces of literature into historical context isa personal objective I have for my classes.I would like to "turn on" students to history through thehuman experiences of history where there are heroes and villains, royaltyand peasants, good and evil, and life and death. I hope that throughthese primary and secondary sources, students develop a better understanding of the Holocaust and what it meant to live through this period.

10

11 Works Cited

Bachrach, Susan D. Tell Them We Remember. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1994. Benesova, Miroslava and Vojtech Blodig. The Small Fortress Terezin 1940-1945. Prague: Terezin Memorial, 1996. Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1993.

Block, Gay and Malka Drucker. Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust. New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc., 1992.

Eby, Cecil D. Hungary at War. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998.

Hilberg, Raul. The Destruction of the European Jews. New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc., 1985. Hogue, Donald R. Night Curriculum Unit. New York: The Center for Learning, 1993.

Holliday, Laurel. Children in the Holocaust and World War II: Their Secret Diaries. New York: Washington Square Press, 1995. I Have Not Seen a Butterfly Around Here: Children's Drawings and Poems From Terezin. Prague: The Jewish Museum, 1993.

Klein, Gerda Weissmann. All But My Life. New York: Hill and Wang, 1957.

Learning About the Holocaust: A Resource Booklet for Students. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d.

Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1958.

Madajczyk, Czeslaw, "Poland," Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, (1990 edition), 3, 1143- 1151.

Ranki, Gyorgy, "Hungary," Encyclopedia of the Holocaust (1990 edition), 2, 693-698.

Rossel, Seymour. The Holocaust: The Fire That Raged. New York: Franklin Watts, 1989.

Rossel, Seymour. The Holocaust: The World and the Jews, 1933-1945. New York: Behrman House, Inc., 1992. 18

12 Siegal, Aranka. Upon the Head of theGoat. New York: Penguin Group, 1981.

Teaching About the Holocaust: A ResourceBook for Educators. Washington,D.C.: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1993.

.New York: Schocken Volavkova, Hana (ed.).. I Never Saw Another Butterfly. . Books, 1993.

The Ghetto: The 50th Anniversaryof the Uprising. Warsaw: Drukarnia Naukowo-Techniczna, 1993.

Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: BantamBooks, 1960. Willenberg, Samuel. Revolt in Treblinka.Tel Aviv: Israel Ministry of Defense,1986.

Zeinert, Karen. The Warsaw GhettoUprising. Brookfield: The Millbrook Press,1993.

19

13 AppendixA:

Selected poems from the Terezin Camp

11

14 esititoiftWitiftitAT TEREZIN I'veEatWhat,EverythingWhen blackgot aon tonew thepotatoes? stay? seems child ground It's strangecomes No!dirty I have Not here! to tohim.I! lie? AndTheHereI'll floorwhy,I'm get thesupposed all sound dirty! look, ofto shouting,sleep it's dirt, on it? cries,I fear! AndOooh,EveryoneHere oh,when something inso knows Terezin,I'llmany go flies flies.homebit life me!carry is again, hellWasn't disease. I can't that yeta bedbug? tell. 1 L 410,Teddy 1943 15 BESTCOPYAVAILABLE 1.6 3 , , Vze. OP dollminak4tamtTheTHE last, BUTTERFLY the very last, So Perhapsrichly, brightly, if the sun's dazzlingly tears would yellow. sing against a white stone. . . . ItIsSuch, wentcarried such away lightly a yellow I'm 'waysure becauseup high. it wished to kiss the world good-bye. AndTheButPennedFor sevenI dandelionsthe have up white weeks insidefound chestnut call I'vewhatthis to livedghetto. meI branches love in here.here, in the court. ButterfliesThatOnly butterflyI never don't saw was live another the in last here, butterfly. one. in the ghetto. BESTCOPYAVAILABLE of 4. 6. 1942 Pavel Friedmann 18 HOMESICK 4110mierammir.I've lived in the ghetto here for more than a IAndIn can Terezin, when love itI inremembermore the blackthan I townyear,did, somehow. now, my old home so dear, AndHereWhyAh, home, whendidthe theyweak theyhome, tear die die, easyme they away? as die a feather forever. ItBefore,I'd nevermakes like to seemedwhen mego backthink I used so home ofdear tosweet live andagain, atspring fair. home, flowers. ButI remember maybe I'llnow be thosegoing goldenthere soon days again. . . . People walk along the street, ThatYouWhereThere'sA seeplacethere's at bitoflittleonce ghetto evilby to on bit,and eat here,each it's ofand horrorfear.you much meet to to live. want, WhenYetTheBut noweworld we'll oneall turnshope gomust home and thegive timetimesagain. up! will change. come AndNow often I know I remember how dear it. it is 9. III. 1943 Anonymous 19 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 20 47 TEREZIN AndThat all aroundbit of filth barbed in dirty wire, walls, Somewhere, far away out there, childhood sweetly sleeps, TheirAndWhoAnd once own 30,000once willblood willsee souls spilled. wake who sleep ThereWhichAlong thatmyo'erwas mother paththat once houseamong mygave pride methe andbirthtrees, joy. into this world ButThatThreeI was now child onceyears I amwho a ago. little no longed morechild, fora child other worlds. AndInSo the I oncecould flame perhaps weep... of candles I'll understand by my bed, I sleep IFor haveam I ahave knowngrown-up learned fear, to hate. person now, ThatAmongTheseAs I littlewas 30,000 theassuch this trees a souls song.little will thing, whowake, sleep ThatButThat'sBloody anyway, something words I still and believedifferent a dead I daythan then, only sleep today, bogie man! AAndOpen lot because eyes they see LovesLikeI'll go a back motherhimbell withwhichto childhoodwith aching wakes an ailing woman's sweetus fromchild wake up, child again, and start like a briar rose,a dream, to laugh and play. They'll fall asleep again... To HowWithsay: tragic,enemies,this for then,the with foris children good, thatgallows foryouth the ropes, bad. which lives on your lap love. 21 22 BEST COPY AVAILABLE HANDS HACHENBURG, 12.7.1929 - 10.-12.7.7944 23 NIGHT IN THE GHETTO AfterAgainIntoAnother the dusk, it bottomlesshas dayhe wounded longs has gonepit for aof bandages,man, for time. keeps held captive by his brethren. ToButFromFor weary softin all theeyes hands the ghetto, thathorrors to allshield darkness, day that thelong stare too, by is day. kind have had to watch. eyes r.r3.,,. got EmbracingDawnOnly crawls a car all likeagain who a walkalonggreeting this the from way.ghetto a long-gone streets world ThatGobblesAlongAnd sweet heals upthe darkness thestreetsthose dark wounds come that with falls light fieryillumined upon and eyes ranksthe by soul the day . of people . . 23 BESTCOPYAVA1LABLE Like a long black ribbon, loomed with gold. 1943 Anonymous 24 INK =II =II =II INN OM MN me Nis Mt Mill OM MI SIM 1111111-,11111111 ;-,1tWelY..e..sioon, loriequeue with:,Nc.got a aimed-upplate usedin waterto.sitrdinF. with a in salty line or.at: a sevencoffee,PotatoeS: o'clock flavor. We in Or .gotthe else morning,-'used they to gave sleeping at us without a bed, CO saluting again ..at'..seven,o'dock in the evening. We stood in a our hand, into which they ladled a little ,::: 4fne4t,to seeing p.ilid7up.coffinsc-kitiorks:ii t and filth Wefull gotanclt6of corpses, accustorned seeing to seeingthe to helpless seeing the sick people doctors. amid die We in theirgot used own toexcre- it that not2tb-ivalk on-the'We: Sidewalks got :uSed and to undeservedthen again toslaps,- walk blows, and exe- : . and that, from time to time, another thousand unhappy souls would .to:tima,: one thousand. unhappy souls would come here. go away. . . From the prose offifreen-year-old Petr Fisch' (born September 9, 1929), who perished in Auschwitz in 1944 25 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 26 TERF7iN AndThat allbit aroundof filth in barbed dirty walls, wire, Somewhere, far away out there, childhood sweetly sleeps, AndWho once30,000once willwill souls seewake who sleep . WhichThereAlong thato'erwas paththat once houseamong my pride the and trees, joy. ThatThreeTheirI was childown years once whoblood ago. a longedlittle spilled. child, for other worlds. AndThereInSo oncethe I my could flame motherperhaps weep... of candlesgave I'll understand me by birth my intobed, this I sleep world ButIFor haveamnow I ahave Iknowngrown-up am learned no fear, more person to a hate. child now, ThatAmongTheseAs Ilittle was 30,000 theas such this trees a soulssong. little will thing,whowake, sleep That'sThatButBloody anyway,something I'll wordswake I up, and different child a dead again, than day bogieand then, start man! to laugh and play. still believe I only sleep today, AndOpenA lotbecause eyes they see. LovesLikeI'll go a back motherhimbell whichwithto childhoodwith aching wakes an ailing woman's sweetus fromchild like love.a dream,a briar rose, They'll fall asleep again.. ToWithHowHow say: enemies,tragic, tragic,this then,for then, withthe is good,gallowsyouthfor children thatwhich ropes, for on lives the your bad. lap 27 22 BEST COPY AVAILABLE HANUS HACHENBURG, 12.7.1929 - 10.-12.7.1944 23 28 QUESTIONS, AND AN ANSWER FEAR ,BeautyWhat of women, use,use areathe freshworld humansun, asthat's when May?art mereand there's science? illusion? no day? TheAnCloseToday evil victims in thesickness its ghetto grip,of its spreadsDeath knowsshadow wields a a weepdifferent terror an and inicy fear, its writhe.scythe. wake, ToOrWhatOr arot new are isbeneath God wehumankind merelyfor? the Only yoke beasts to to fashion?of chasten? passion?who suffer AAndToday bitterNow mothers a childrentax father's is takenbend chokeheartbeat theirfrom and headstheir tells die bands. hiswithinto fright theirtyphus hands. here, TheKnow,What world is son, lifea rampart for,all things if life against is are torment, as light? they are here ThanPerhapsWhileMy heart watchingfriends it'sstill better beatsdepart this, inside tofor die other mytoday? breastworlds. who can say? That you may be a man! And fight! WeNotNo, wantwatchno, my to toour God,have work numbers wea we better want must melt world,to notlive!away. die!

HANUS HACHENBURG, 12.7.1929 - 10.-12.7.1944 EVA PICKOVA, 15.5.1929 - 18.12.1943 29 36 BEST COPY A AILABLE 37 Appendix B:

Learning About the Holocaust:A Resource Booklet for Students

12

31 1 7%mi UNITED`t-r- STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM

1 Dear Student:

Thank you for requesting "Learning about theHolocaust: A Resource Booklet for Students." This packet contains three historicalreadings, a chronology, and a bibliography to assist you with furtherresearch. If you requested information about a specific Holocaust-relatedtopic, additional materials have been enclosed with this packet. 1 Other research tools are available on the Museum'swebsite , including the databases of the Museum's 1 Library, Archives, and Photo Archives.

':e can be of further assistance,please contact us in one of the following v vs:

U.S. Mail Address: Resource Center for Educators U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum 1 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW Washington, DC 20024-2126

Fax: (202) 314-7888

1 Telephone Hotline: (202) 488-2661 E-Mail: [email protected]

Sincerely,

1 BEST COPY AVAILABLE

Resource Center Staff

A Project of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council l00 Raoul Wallenberg Place. SW, Washington, DC 20024-2150, Telephone (202)488-0400. Fax(202) 488-2690 32 Table of Contents

Frequently Asked Questions pg. 3

The Holocaust: A HistoricalSummary pg. 5

Children and the Holocaust pg. 12

Chronology pg. 17

Bibliography: Middle School pg. 22

Bibliography: High School pg. 30

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

33 Frequently Asked Questions

The brief answers offered here areonly meant as an introduction to thecomplex history of the Holocaust. Scholars have spent yearswTiting and researching about these questions. 1. What was the Holocaust?

The Holocaust was the state-sponsored,systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by and itscollaborators between 1933 and 1945. Jews were the primary victimssix million were murdered: Gypsies, thehandicapped, and Poles were also targeted for destruction ordecimation for racial, ethnic, or national reasons. Millions more,including homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses. Sovietprisoners of war, and political dissidents,also suffered grievous oppression and deathunder Nazi tyranny.

2. Who were the Nazis?

"Nazi" is a short term for the NationalSocialist German Workers Party, a right-wing political party formed in 1919 primarily byunemployed German veterans of World War I. became head of the partyin 1921, and under his leadership the party eventually became a powerful political forcein German elections by the early 1930s. The Nazi party ideology was strongly anti-Communist,antisemitic, racist, nationalistic, imperialistic, and militaristic.

In 1933. the Nazi Party assumed power inGermany, and Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor. He ended German democracy andseverely restricted basic rights such as freedom of speech, press, and assembly. Heestablished a brutal dictatorship through a reign of terror. This created an atmosphere offear. distrust, and suspicion in which people betrayed their neighbors and which helped theNazis to obtain the acquiescence of social institutions such as the civil service, the educational system,churches, the judiCiary, industry, business, and other professions.

3. Why did the Nazis want to killlarge numbers of innocent people?

The Nazis believed that Germans were "raciallysuperior" and that there was a struggle for survival between them and "inferior races."Jews, Roma and Sinti (Gypsies), and the handicapped were seen as a serious biological threat tothe purity of the "German (Aryan) Race" and therefore had to be "exterminated." TheNazis blamed the Jews for Germany's defeat in World War I, for its economic problems. andfor the spread of Communist parties throughout Europe. Slavic peoples (Poles. Russians.and others) were also considered "inferior" and destined to serve as slave laborfor their German masters. Communists, socialists. Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals,and Freemasons were

Prepared for distribution by the United States Holocaust MemorialMuseum. BEST (.',CPY AVAILABLE 3 4 persecuted, imprisoned, and often killed on political and behavioral (rather than racial) grounds. Sometimes the distinction was not very clear. Millions of Soviet prisoners of war perished from starvation, disease,and forced labor or were killed for racial or political reasons.

4. How did the Nazis carry out their policy of genocide?

In the late 1930s the Nazis killed thousands of handicapped Germans by lethal injection and poisonous gas. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, mobile killing units following in the wake of the German Army began shooting massive numbers of Jews and Gypsies in open fields and ravines on the outskirts of conquered cities and towns. Eventually the Nazis created a more secluded and organized method of killing enormous numbers of civilianssix extermination centers were established in occupied Poland, where large-scale murder by gas and body disposal through cremation were conducted systematically. Victims were deported to these centers from German-occupied western Europe and from the ghettos in eastern Europe that the Nazis had established. In addition, millions died in the ghettos and concentration camps as a result of forced labor, starvation, exposure, brutality, disease, and execution.

5. How did the world respond to the Holocaust?

The United States and Great Britain as well as other nations outside Nazi Europe received numerous press reports in the 1930s about the persecution of Jews. By 1942 the governments of the United States and Great Britain had confirmed reports about "the final solution"Germany's intent to kill all the Jews of Europe. However, influenced by antisemitism and fear of a massive influx of refugees, neither country modified their refugee policies. Their stated intention to defeat Germany militarily took precedence over rescue efforts, and therefore no specific attempts to stop or slow the genocide were made until mounting pressure eventually forced the United States to undertake limited rescue efforts in 1944.

In Europe, rampant antisemitism incited citizens of many German-occupied countries to collaborate with the Nazis in their genocidal policies. There were, however, individuals and groups in every occupied nation who, at great personal risk, helped hide those targeted by the Nazis. One nation, Denmark, saved most of its Jews in a nighttime rescue operation in 1943 in which Jews were ferried in fishing boats to safety in neutral Sweden.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

Prepared for distribution by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 35 The Holocaust: A Historical Summary

The Holocaust was the state-sponsored.systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany andits collaborators between 1933 and 1945. Jews were the primary victimssix million were murdered; Gypsies, thehandicapped. and Pole, were also targeted for destruction or decimationfor racial, ethnic, or national reasons. Millions more,including homosexuals. Jehovah's Witnesses. Soviet prisonersof war, and political dissidents. alsosuffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi tyranny.

The concentration camp is most closely associatedwith the Holocaust and remains an enduring symbol of the Nazi regime. The first camps opened soonafter the Nazis took power in January 1933; theycontinued as a basic part of Nazi rule until May 8, 1945, when the war, and the Nazi regime, ended. The eventsof the Holocaust occurred in two main phases: 1933-1939 and 1939-1945.

1. 1933-1939

On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was named Chancellor,the most powerful position in the German government, by the aged President Hindenburg,who hoped Hitler could lead the nation out of its grave political and economic crisis.Hitler was the leader of the right- wing National Socialist German Workers Party (called the "NaziParty" for short); it was, by 1933, one of the strongest parties in Germany, eventhoughreflecting the country's multiparty systemthe Nazis had only won a plurality of 33 percent of the votesin the 1932 elections to the German parliament (Reichstag).

Once in power. Hitler moved quickly to end German democracy.He convinced his cabinet to invoke emergency clauses of the Constitution that permittedthe suspension of individual freedoms of press, speech, and assembly. Special securityforcesthe Special State Police (the Gestapo), the Storm Troopers (SA), and theSecurity Police (SS) murdered or arrested leaders of opposition political parties (Communists,socialists, and liberals). The Enabling Act of March 23, 1933, forced through aReichstag already purged of many political opponents, gave dictatorial powers to Hitler.

Also in 1933, the Nazis began to put into practice their racial ideology.Echoing ideas popular in Germany as well as most other western nations well beforethe 1930s, the Nazis believed that the Germans were "racially superior" and that there was astruggle for survival between them and "inferior races." They saw Jews. Roma (Gypsies), and the

Prepared for distribution by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 36 handicapped as a serious biological threat to the purityof the "German (Aryan' ) Race," what they called the "master race."

Jews, who numbered nearly 600.000 inGermany (less than one percent of the total population in 1933), were the principal targetof Nazi hatred. The Nazis mistakenly identified Jews as a race and defined this race as"inferior." They also spewed hate- mongering propaganda that unfairly blamed Jewsfor Germany's economic depression and the country's defeat in World War I (1914-1918).

In 1933, new German laws forced Jews to quit their civil servicejobs, university and law court positions, and other areas of publiclife. In April 1933. a boycott of Jewish businesses was instituted. In 1935, laws proclaimed at Nuremberg madeJews second- class citizens. These "Nuremberg Laws" defined Jews not by theirreligion or by how they wanted to identify themselves but by the religious affiliation of theirgrandparents. Between 1937 and 1939, new anti-Jewish regulations segregated Jewsfurther and made daily life very difficult for them: Jews could not attend public schools, go totheaters, cinemas. or vacation resorts, or reside, or even walk, in certain sectionsof German cities.

Also between 1937 and 1939, Jews were forced from Germany's economiclife: the Nazis either seized Jewish businesses and properties outright or forced Jews tosell them at bargain prices. In November 1938, this economic attack against German andAustrian' Jews changed into the physical destruction of synagogues and Jewish-owned stores,the arrest of Jewish men, the destruction of homes, and the murderof individuals. This centrally organized riot (pogrom) became known as Kristallnacht (the "Night ofBroken Glass").

Although Jews were the main target of Nazi hatred, the Nazis persecuted other groups they viewed as racially or genetically "inferior." Nazi racial ideology was buttressedby scientists who advocated "selective breeding" (eugenics) to "improve" the human race. Laws passed between 1933 and 1935 aimed to reduce the future number of genetic "inferiors" through involuntary sterilization programs: about 500 children of mixed (African-German) racial backgrounds' and 320.000 to 350.000 individuals judged physically or mentally handicapped were subjected to surgical or radiation procedures so they could not have children. Supporters of sterilization also argued that the handicapped

' The term "Aryan" originally referred to peoples speaking Indo-European languages. The Nazis perverted its meaning to support racist ideas by viewing those of Germanic background as prime examples of Aryan stock, which they considered racially superior. For the Nazis, the typical Aryan was blond, blue-eyed, and tall. = On March 11, 1938. Hitler sent his army into Austria, and on March 13 the incorporation (Anschluss) of Austria with the German empire (Reich) was proclaimed in Vienna. Most of the population welcomed the ,-Inschluss and expressed their fervor in widespread riots and attacks against the Austrian Jews numbering 180.000 (90 percent of whom lived in Vienna). These children, called "the Rhineland bastards" by Germans. were the offspring of German women and African soldiers from French colonies who were stationed in the 1920s in the Rhineland. a demilitarized zone the Allies established after World War I as a buffer between Germany and western Europe.

Prepared for distribution by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

37 BEST COPY AVAILABLE I

of Germany's 30,000 Gypsies burdened the community with thecosts of their care. Many along with Blacks, from intermarrying were also eventuallysterilized and prohibited. laws combined traditional with Germans. Reflectingtraditional prejudices. new Gypsies. by "race," as prejudices with the new racismof the Nazis which defined "criminal and asocial."

1930s was the arrest of Another consequence of Hitler'sruthless dictatorship in the "undesirables" and political opponents and tradeunionists and others the Nazis labeled imprisoned in "enemies of the state." Some five- tofifteen thousand homosexuals were concentration camps: under the 1935Nazi-revised criminal code, the meredenunciation Jehovah's of a man as "homosexual" couldresult in arrest, trial, and conviction. early as Witnesses, who numbered 20,000 inGermany. were banned as an organization as April 1933. since the beliefs of thisreligious group prohibited them fromswearing any confiscated. and oath to the state or serving in theGerman military. Their literature was welfare benefits. Many they lost jobs. unemploymentbenefits, pensions, and all social and their Witnesses were sent to prisons andconcentration camps in Nazi Germany, children were sent to juveniledetention homes and orphanages.

Between 1933 and 1936, thousandsof people, mostly political prisonersand Jehovah's Witnesses, were imprisoned inconcentration camps, while severalthousand German round-ups of Gypsies were confined in specialmunicipal camps. The first systematic 30,000 German and Austrian Jews occurredafter Kristallnacht, when approximately several hundred Jewish men were deported to Dachauand other concentration camps and Jewish women were sent to local jails. Atthe end of 1938, the waves of arrestsalso 1939, about included several thousand German andAustrian Gypsies. Between 1933 and Jews (1938-39) half the German Jewish populationand more than two-thirds of Austrian Latin fled Nazi persecution. They emigratedmainly to Palestine, the United States, America. Shanghai (which required novisa for entry), and eastern and westernEurope (where many would be caught again inthe Nazi net during the war). Jews whoremained under Nazi rule were either unwilling to uprootthemselves or unable to obtain visas, countries, including the sponsors in host countries, orfunds for emigration. Most foreign United States, Canada. Britain, and France, wereunwilling to admit very large numbers of refugees.

II. 1939-1945

On September 1, 1939, Germanyinvaded Poland and World War II began.Within days, the Polish army was defeated, and theNazis began their campaign to destroyPolish culture and enslave the Polish people, whomthey viewed as "subhuman." KillingPolish leaders was the first step: German soldierscarried out massacres of universityprofessors, artists, writers, politicians. and many Catholicpriests. To create new living space for the "superior Germanic race." large segments ofthe Polish population were resettled,and German families moved into the emptied lands.Thousands of other Poles, including

Prepared for distribution by the United States HolocaustMemorial Museum.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 38 I

Jews, were imprisoned inconcentration camps. The Nazis also "kidnapped" as many as 50,000 "Aryan-looking" Polishchildren from their parents and took them to Germany to be adopted by German families.Many of these children were later rejected as notcapable of Germanization and sent tospecial children's camps, where some died ofstarvation, lethal injection, and disease.

As the war began in 1939, Hitlerinitialed an order to kill institutionalized, handicapped patients deemed "incurable." Specialcommissions of physicians reviewed questionnaires filled out by all state hospitals and thendecided if a patient should be killed. The doomed were then transferred tosix institutions in Germany and Austria, wherespecially constructed gas chambers were used tokill them. After public protests in 1941, the Nazi leadership continued this euphemisticallytermed "euthanasia" program in secret. Babies. small children, and other victims werethereafter killed by lethal injection and pills and by forced starvation.

The "euthanasia" program contained all theelements later required for mass murder of European Jews and Gypsies in Nazi death camps: anarticulated decision to kill, specially trained personnel. the apparatus for killing by gas.and the use of euphemistic language like "euthanasia" that psychologically distancedthe murderers from their victims and hid the criminal character of the killings fromthe public.

In 1940 German forces continued their conquestof much of Europe, easily defeating Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium,Luxembourg, and France. On June 22, 1941, the German army invaded the Soviet Unionand by September was approaching Moscow. In the meantime. Italy, Romania. andHungary had joined the Axis powers led by Germany and opposed by the Allied Powers(British Commonwealth, Free France, the United States, and the Soviet Union).

In the months following Germany's invasionof the Soviet Union, Jews, political leaders, Communists, and many Gypsies were killed in massexecutions. The overwhelming majority of those killed were Jews. These murders werecarried out at improvised sites throughout the Soviet Union by members of mobilekilling squads () who followed in the wake of the invading German army.The most famous of these sites was Babi Yar, near Kiev, where an estimated 33,000 persons.mostly Jews, were murdered. German terror extended to institutionalizedhandicapped and psychiatric patients in the Soviet Union; it also resulted in the mass murderof more than three million Soviet prisoners of war.

World War H brought major changes to the concentration camp system.Large numbers of new prisoners, deported from all German-occupiedcountries, now flooded the camps. Often entire groups were committed to the camps, such asmembers of underground resistance organizations who were rounded up in a sweep across westernEurope under the 1941 "Night and Fog" decree. To accommodate themassive increase in the number of prisoners, hundreds of new camps were established inoccupied territories of eastern and western Europe.

Prepared for distribution by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 39 During the war, ghettos, transit camps.and forced labor camps, in addition to the concentration camps, were created by the Germansand their collaborators to imprison Jews, Gypsies. and other victims of racialand ethnic hatred as well as political opponents and resistance fighters. Following theinvasion of Poland. three million Polish Jews were forced into approximately 400 newlyestablished ghettos. where they were segregated from the rest of the population. Largenumbers of Jews were also deported from other cities and countries, including Germany. to ghettosin Poland and German-occupied territories further east.

In Polish cities under Nazi occupation. like Warsawand Lodz. Jews were confined in sealed ghettos where starvation. overcrowding, exposure to cold,and contagious diseases killed tens of thousands of people. In Warsaw and elsewhere.ghettoized Jews made every effort. often at great risk, to maintain their cultural. communal,and religious lives. The ghettos also provided a forced labor pool for the Germans.and many forced laborers (who worked on road gangs. in construction, or other hardlabor related to the German war effort) died from exhaustion ormaltreatment.

Between 1942 and 1944. the Germans moved to eliminatethe ghettos in occupied Poland and elsewhere, deporting ghetto residents to "exterminationcamps"killing centers equipped with gassing facilitieslocated in Poland. After the meeting of senior German government officials in late January 1942 at a villain the suburb of Wannsee, the decision to implement "the final solution of the Jewish question"became formal state policy, and Jews from western Europe were also sent to killing centersin the East.

The six killing sites, chosen because of their closeness to rail linesand their location in semi-rural areas. were at Belzec. Sobibor. Treblinka. Chelmno, Majdanek,and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Chelmno was the first camp in which mass executions werecarried out by gas. piped into mobile gas vans: 320.000 persons werekilled there between December 1941 and March 1943 and between June to July1944. A killing centerusing gas vans and later gas chambers operated atBelzec, where more than 600,000 persons were killed between May 1942 and August1943. Sobibor opened in May 1942and closed one day after a rebellion of the prisoners on October 14. 1943; up to200,000 persons were killed by gassing. Treblinkaopened in July 1942 and closed in November 1943; a revolt by the prisoners in early August 1943 destroyed much of thefacility. At least 750,000 persons were killed at Treblinka. physically the largest of the killing centers. Almost all of the victims at Chelmno. Belzec.Sobibor, and Treblinka were Jews; a few were Gypsies. Very few individualssurvived these four killing centers, where most victims were murdered immediately after arrival.

Auschwitz-Birkenau, which also served as a concentration camp and slave labor camp, became the killing center where the largest numbers of European Jews and Gypsies were killed. After an experimental gassing there in September 1941 of 250 malnourished and ill Polish prisoners and 600 Russian POWs. mass murder became a daily routine; more than 1.25 million people were killed at Auschwitz-Birkenau, 9 out of 10 of them Jews. In

Prepared for distribution by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 4 0 BESTCOPYAVAILABLE addition. Gypsies, Soviet POWs. and ill prisoners of all nationalities died in the gas chambers. Between May 14 and July 8. 1944. 437.402 Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz in 48 trains. This was probably the largest single mass deportation during the Holocaust. A similar system was implemented at Majdanek, which also doubled as a concentration camp and where at least 275.000 persons were killed in the gas chambers or died from malnutrition, brutality, and disease.

The methods of murder were the same in all the killing centers, which were operated by the SS. The victims arrived in railroad freight cars and passenger trains, mostly from ghettos and camps in occupied Poland. but also from almost every other eastern and western European country. On arrival, men were separated from womenand children. Prisoners were forced to undress and hand over all valuables. They were then driven naked into the gas chambers, which were disguised as shower rooms, and either carbon monoxide or (a form of crystalline prussic acid, also used as an insecticide in some camps) was used to asphyxiate them. The minorityselected for forced labor were, after initial quarantine, vulnerable to malnutrition, exposure. epidemics, medical experiments, and brutality: many perished as a result.

The Germans carried out their systematic murderous activities with the active help of local collaborators in many countries and the acquiescence or indifference of millions of bystanders. However, there were instances of organized resistance. For example, in the fall of 1943. the Danish resistance, with the support of the local population, rescued nearly the entire Jewish community in Denmark from the threat of deportation to the east by smuggling them via a dramatic boatlift to safety in neutral Sweden. Individuals in many other countries also risked their lives to save Jews and otherindividuals subject to Nazi persecution. One of the most famous was Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who led the rescue effort that saved the lives of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews in 1944.

Resistance movements existed in almost every concentration camp and ghetto of Europe. In addition to the armed revolts at Sobibor and Treblinka. Jewish resistance in the led to a courageous uprising in April-May 1943, despite a predittable doomed outcome because of superior German force. In general. rescue or aid to Holocaust victims was not a priority of resistance organizations whose principal goal was to fight the war against the Germans. Nonetheless, such groups and Jewish partisans (resistance fighters) sometimes cooperated with each other to save Jews. On April 19, 1943, for instance, members of the National Committee for the Defense of Jews, in cooperation with Christian railroad workers and the general underground in Belgium, attacked a train leaving the Belgian transit camp of Malines headed for Auschwitz and succeeded in assisting several hundred Jewish deportees to escape.

After the war turned against Germany and the Allied armies approached German soil in late 1944, the SS decided to evacuate outlying concentration camps. The Germans tried to cover up the evidence of genocide and deported prisoners to camps inside Germany to prevent their liberation. Many inmates died during the long journeys on foot known as

Prepared for distribution by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 10

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 41 conditions in the remaining "death marches." During thefinal days, in the spring of 1945, concentration camps exacted aterrible toll in human lives. Evenconcentration camps Bergen-Belsen, became death traps for never intendedfor extermination, such as thousands, including Anne Frank,who died there of typhus inMarch 1945. the camps ceased to exist In May 1945, Nazi Germanycollapsed, the SS guards fled, and Some of the concentration camps, as extermination,forced labor, or concentration camps. Germany, were including Bergen-Belsen, Dachau.and Landsberg, all in Allied-occupied turned into camps for displaced persons(DPs), which included formerHolocaust victims unable to be repatriated.

The. Nazi legacy was a vast empire ofmurder, pillage, and exploitation thathad affected every country ofoccupied Europe. The toil in lives was enormous.The full magnitude, beginning to be and the moral and ethicalimplications, of this tragic era are only now understood more fully.

BEST COPYAVAILABLE

Prepared for distribution by the United States HolocaustMemorial Museum. 11

42 Children and the Holocaust

Up to one-and-a-half million children were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators between 1933 and 1945. The overwhelming majority of them were Jewish. Thousands of Roma (Gypsy) children, disabled children, and Polish children were also among the victims.

The deaths of these children were not accidental: they were the deliberate result of actions taken by the German government under the leadership of Chancellor Adolf Hitler. The children were killed in various ways. Many were shot: many more were asphyxiated with poisonous gas in concentration camps or subjected to lethal injections. Others perished from disease. starvation, exposure, torture, and/or severe physical exhaustion from slave labor. Still others died as a result of medical experiments conducted on them by German doctors in the camps.

During the Holocaust, childrenranging in age from infants to older teenswere, like their parents. persecuted and killed not for anything they had done. Rather, Hitler and the Nazi government believed that so-called "Aryan" Germans were a superior race. The Nazis labeled other people they considered inferior as "non-Aryans." People belonging to non-Aryan groups, including children, were targeted by the Nazis for elimination from German society. The Nazis killed children to create a biologically pure society.

Even children who fit the Aryan stereotype suffered at the hands of the Nazis during World War 11. Non-Jewish children in occupied countries whose physical appearance fit the Nazi notion of a "master race" (fair skin, blond-haired, blue-eyed) were at times kidnapped from their homes and taken to Germany to be adopted by German families. As many as 50,000 Polish children alone may have been separated from their families in this manner. Some of these children were later rejected and sent to special children's camps where they died of starvation or as a result of the terrible living conditions within the camps. Others were killed by lethal injections at the concentration camps of Majdanek and Auschwitz.

The experiences of children who were victims of Nazi hatred varied widely. Factors such as age, gender, family wealth, and where a child lived affected their experiences under German domination. Generally, babies and younger children deported to ghettos and camps had almost no chance of surviving. Children in their teens, or younger children who looked more mature than their years, had a better chance of survival since they might be selected for slave labor rather than for death. Some teens participated in resistance activities as well.

Children who were victims of the Holocaust came from all over Europe. They had different languages, customs, and religious beliefs. Some came from wealthy families; others from poor homes. Many ended their schooling early to work in a craft or trade; others looked forward to continuing their education at the university level. Still, whatever

Prepared for distribution by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 12

43 I

their differences, they shared one commonality: by the 1930s,with the rise of the Nazis to power in Germany, they allbecame potential victims and their lives were forever changed.

Nazi Germany, 1933-39

Soon after the Nazis gained power in Germany, Jewish childrenfound life increasingly difficult. Due to legislation prohibiting Jews from engaging invarious professions. their pare:its lost jobs and businesses. As a result, manyfamilies were left with little money. Jewish children were not allowed to participate in sports and social activitieswith their "Aryan" classmates and neighbors. They could not go to museums, movies,public playgrounds. or even swimming pools. Even when they were permitted to go toschool, teachers often treated them with scorn and encouraged their humiliation by other students. Frequently. Jewish students were subject to being tauntedand teased, picked upon and beaten up. Eventually,Jewish and Gypsy children were expelled from German schools.

Gypsy children, like Jewish children, faced many hardships in Nazi Germany.Along with their parents, they were rounded up and forced to live behind barbed wire inspecial municipal internment camps under police guard. Beginning in 1938, Gypsy teenagers were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

Murder Under Cover of War

With the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, life became much harder for children all over Europe. European children of all backgrounds suffered because of the war, experiencing displacement, inadequate diets. theabsence of fathers and brothers, loss of family members, trauma, and confusion. However, only certain groups of children were singled out for "extinction."

Wartime, Hitler suggested, "was the best time for the elimination of the incurably ill." Among the first victims of the Nazis were disabled persons, and children were not exempt. Many Germans, influenced by Nazi ideas, did not want to be remindedof individuals who did not measure up to their idealized concept of a "master race." The physically and mentally handicapped were viewed by the Nazis as unproductive to society, a threat to Aryan genetic purity, and ultimately unworthy of life. Beginning almost simultaneously with the start of World War II, a "euthanasia" program was authorized personally by Adolf Hitler to systematically murder disabled Germans. Like disabled adults, children with disabilities were either injected with lethal drugs or asphyxiated by inhaling carbon monoxide fumes pumped into sealed mobile vans and gas chambers. Medical doctors cooperated in these so-called "mercy killings" in six institutions, and secretly at other centers, in Germany. Though some were Jewish, most of the children murdered in this fashion were non-Jewish Germans.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

Prepared for distribution by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 13 44 I

With the onset of war. Jewishchildren in Germany sufferedincreasing deprivations. Nazi from Jewish homes. including government officialsconfiscated many items of value food rations were curtailed radios, telephones. cameras,and cars. Even more importantly. for Jews as were clothing rationcards. Jewish children felt moreand more isolated. from Similarly, as Germany conqueredvarious European countries intheir war effort Poland and parts of the SovietUnion in the east, to Denmark,Norway, Belgium. France. and the Netherlands in the westmore and moreJewish children came under German and very control and, with their parents.experienced persecution. forced separations. often, murder.

Throughout eastern Europe, Jewishfamilies were forced to give up their homesand relocate into ghettosrestricted areas set up by the Nazis as"Jewish residential districts." Most of the ghettos were located inGerman-occupied Poland: most wereestablished in the poorer. more dilapidated sectionsof towns and cities. Ghettos werefenced in. typically with barbed wire or brick walls.Entry and exit were by permit or passonly; like a prison, armed guardsstood at gates. Families inside the ghettoslived under horrid conditions. Typically, many familieswould be crowded into a few rooms wherethere was little if any heat,food, or privacy. It was difficult to keepclean. Many people in the ghettos perished from malnutrition,starvation, exposure, and epidemics.Typhus, a contagious disease spread by body lice, was common, aswas typhoid, spreadthrough contaminated drinking water.

Some children managed to escape deportation toghettos by going into hiding with their families or by hiding alone, aided by non-Jewishfriends and neighbors. Children in hiding often took on a secret life, sometimesremaining in one room for months or even years. Some hid in woodpiles.attics, or barns; others were locked incupboards or concealed closets. coming out infrequently andonly at night. Boys had it more difficult, because they were circumcised and couldtherefore be identified.

Children were often forced to live lives independentof their families. Many children who found refuge with others outside the ghettos had to assume newidentities and conform to local religious customs that were differentfrom their own in order to survive. Some Jewish children managed to pass as Catholicsand were hidden in Catholic schools, orphanages, and convents in countries across Europe.

Everyday, children became orphaned and manyhad to take care of even younger children. In the ghettos of Warsaw and other cities, manyorphans lived on the streets, begging for bread and food from others in theghetto who likewise had little or none to spare. Exposed to severeweather, frostbite, disease, and starvation, thesechildren did not survive for long. Many froze to death.

In order to survive. children had to be resourcefuland make themselves useful. In Lodz, healthy children could survive by working. Smallchildren in the largest ghetto in occupied Poland. Warsaw. sometimes helped smugglefood to their families and friends

Prepared for distribution by the United States Holocaust MemorialMuseum. 14

45 by crawling through narrow openings inthe ghetto wall. They did so at considerable risk, as smugglers who werecaught were severely punished.

Deportation to Concentration Camps

The Nazis started emptying the ghettos in 1942and deporting the victims to concentration camps. Children were often the target of specialround-ups for deportation to the camps. The victims were toldthey were being resettled in the "East." The journey to the camps was difficult for everyone. Jammedinto rail cars until there was no room for anyone to move, young children wereoften thrown on top of other people. Suffocating heat in the summer and freezing cold in the winter made the deportation journey even more brutal. During the trip, whichoften lasted several days, there was no food except for what people managed to bring along. There were also no water or bathroomfacilities and parents were powerless to defend theirchildren.

Two concentration camps (Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek) and four other camps (Chelmno, Sobibor, Belzec, and Treblinka) functioned as "killing centers."All were located near railroad lines in occupied Poland, and poison gaseither carbon monoxide or Zyklon B was the primary weapon ofmurder. At Chelmno, Sobibor, Belzec, and Treblinka, nearly everyone was killed soon after arrival. At Auschwitz and Majdanek, individuals were "selected" to live or to die. Stronger, healthier peopleincluding many teenagerswere often selected for slave labor, forced towork eleven-hour shifts with minimum provisions for clothing, food, and shelter. Some who survived the camp "selection" process were used for medical experiments by German physicians.

The great majority of people deported to killing centers did not survive. For those who did survive the selection process, children and adults alike, life in the camps presented new challenges. humiliations, and deprivations. One became aprisoner: clothing and all possessions were removed. Hair was shaved off. Ill- fitting prison uniforms were distributed. One's name was replaced with a number often tattooed on the arm. Many people scarcely recognized their own family members after they had been processed in the camps.

Camp "inmates" were crowded into barracks fitted with wooden bunk beds stacked three or four on top of each other, and several people had to fit per level on theplank beds that had neither mattresses nor blankets. Lice were everywhere and contributed to the spread of disease, which was an ever-present enemy. Standing in roll calls for extended periods in all kinds of weather and working long hours took its toll on everyone. Daily rations of food consisted of a small piece of bread and coffee or soup. As a result of these brutal living conditions. many people died. Few lasted more than a month or two. Even among those that survived, one's vulnerability to "selection" had not ended at the point of arrival. The sick, the feeble, and those too exhausted to work were periodically identified and selected for gassing. BEST COPYAVAILABLE

Prepared for distribution by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 15 46 1

Liberation

Near the end of the war in 1945,the German concentration camps wereliberated by Allied soldiers. By this time, manyof the children who had entered camps as teenagers were now youngadults. For most, the food and gesturesof kindness offered by liberating soldiers were the links to life itself.Children who had survived in hiding now searched the camps trying to locate family memberswho might also have survived. Returning to hometowns, they had hopes that a formerneighbor might know of other survivors.

It was rare for an entire family to survivethe Holocaust. One or both parents were likely to have been killed: brothersand sisters had been lost; grandparents were dead. Anticipated reunions with family members gavesurviving children some hope, but for many. the terrible reality wasthat they were now alone. Many found themselves sole survivors of once large extended families. A few wereeventually able to locate missing family members.

Life as it had been before the Holocaust wasforever altered. Though some individual survivors attempted to return to their former placesof residence, Jewish and Gypsy communities no longer existed in most of Europe.Family homes had, in many instances, been taken over by others; personal possessionshad been plundered. Because returning to one's home in hopes of reclaiming whathad been lost was fraught with extreme danger, many young survivorseventually ended up instead in children's centers ordisplaced persons camps.

The future was as uncertain as the present wasunstable. Many young people had had their schooling interrupted and could not easily resumetheir studies. Merely surviving took precedence over other concerns. Owningnothing and belonging nowhere, many children left Europe and, with assistance provided byimmigrant aid societies or sponsorship from relatives abroad, they emigrated.usually to the United States, South Africa. and/or Palestine which, after 1948, becamethe State of Israel. There, in these newly adopted countries, they slowly developed newlives.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

Prepared for distribution by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 16

47 Chronology

January 30, 1933 Adolf Hitler is appointedChancellor of Germany.

February 28. 1933 German government takes awayfreedom of speech. assembly, press,and freedom from invasion of privacy (mail, telephone,telegraph) and from house search without warrant.

March 4, 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt is inauguratedPresident of the United States.

March 20. 1933 First concentration camp opens atDachau. Germany. for political opponentsof the reizime.

April 1. 1933 Nationwide boycott of Jewish-ownedbusinesses in Germany is carried out underNazi leadership.

April 7, 1933 Law excludes "non-Aryans" from governmentemployment: Jewish civil servants, including university professors andschoolteachers, are fired in Germany.

May 10, 1933 Books written by Jews. political opponentsof Nazis, and many others are burnedduring huge public rallies across Germany.

July 14, 1933 Law passed in Germany permitting theforced sterilization of Gypsies, the mentallyand physically disabled, African-Germans, andothers considered "inferior" or "unfit."

October 1934 First major wave of arrests of homosexuals occursthroughout Germany, continuing into November.

April 1935 Jehovah's Witnesses are banned from all civilservice jobs and are arrested throughout Germany.

September 15, 1935 Citizenship and racial laws are announced at Nazi partyrally in Nuremberg.

Prepared for distribution by the United States Holocaust MemorialMuseum. 17 4 8 RFSTCOPYAVAIIABLE I( March7.1936 Hitler's army invades the Rhineland.

July 12, 1936 First German Gypsies are arrested and deported to Dachau concentration camp. 1 August 1-16, 1936 Olympic Games take place in Berlin. Anti-Jewish signs are removed until the Games are over.

March 13, 1938 1 Austria is annexed by Germany.

July 6-15, 1938 Representatives from thirty-two countries meet at Evian, France, to discuss refugee policies. Most of the countries refuse to let in more Jewish refugees. 1 November 9-10, 1938 Nazis burn synagogues and loot Jewish homes and businesses in nationwide pogroms 1 called Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass"). Nearly 30,000 German and Austrian Jewish men are deported to concentration camps. Many Jewish women are jailed.

November 15, 1938 All Jewish children are expelled from public schools. Segregated Jewish schools are 1 created. December 2-3. 1938 All GypSies in the Reich are required to register with the police.

March 15, 1939 German troops invade Czechoslovakia.

June 1939 Cuba and the United States refuse to accept Jewish refugees aboard the ship S.S. St. Louis, which is forced to return to Europe.

September 1, 1939 Germany invades Poland; World War II begins.

October 1939 Hitler extends power of doctors to kill institutionalized mentally and physically disabled persons in the "euthanasia" program.

BEST COPYAVAILABLE

Prepared for distribution by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 18

49 Spring 1940 Belgium. Luxembourg, the Germany invades anddefeats Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, and France.

October 1940 Warsaw ghetto is established.

i1/larch 22, 1941 public schools in the Reich. Gypsy and African-Germanchildren are expelled from

A./arch 24, 1941 Germany invades NorthAfrica.

April 6, 19-11 Germany invades Yugoslaviaand Greece.

June 72. 1941 mobile killing squads, German army invades the SovietUnion. The Einsatzgruppen, begin mass murders of Jews,Gypsies, and Communist leaders.

September 23, 1941 Soviet prisoners of war and Polishprisoners are killed in Nazi testof gas chambers at Auschwitz in occupied Poland.

September 28-29, 1941 Nearly 34.000 Jews are murderedby mobile killing squads at BabiYar, near Kiev (). 1 October-November 19-11 First group of German andAustrian Jews are deported toghettos in eastern Europe. 1 December T. 1941 Japan attacks Pearl Harbor;

December 8, 1941 Gassing operations begin atChelmno "extermination" camp inoccupied Poland.

December 11, 19-11 1 Germany declares war on the UnitedStates. January 20, 19-12 discuss the Fifteen Nazi and government leaders meet atWannsee, a section of Berlin, to "final solution to the Jewish question." I

Prepared for distribution by the United StatesHolocaust Memorial Museum. 19 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 50 a

1942 Nazi "extermination" camps locatedin occupied Poland at Auschwitz-Birkenau. 1111 Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec. andMajdanek-Lublin begin mass murder of Jewsin gas chambers. 1 June 1, 1942 Jews in France and the Netherlands arerequired to wear identifying stars. 1 April 19-May 16. 1943 Jews in the Warsaw ghetto resistwith arms the Germans' attempt to deport them tothe Nazi extermination camps.

August 2, 1943 1 Inmates revolt at Treblinka.

Fall 1943 1 Danes use boats to smuggle most ofthe nation's Jews to neutral Sweden.

October 14, 1943 Inmates at SJbibor begin armed revolt.

January 1944 President Roosevelt sets up the War RefugeeBoard at the urging of Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau. Jr. 1 March 19, 1944 Germany occupies Hungary. 1 May 15-July 9, 1944 Over 430.000 Hungarian Jews are deported toAuschwitz-Birkenau, where most of them 1 are gassed.

June 6, 1944 1 Allied powers invade western Europe on D-Day.

July 20, 1944 1 German officers fail in an attempt to assassinate Hitler. 1 July 23, 1944 Soviet troops arrive at Majdanek concentration camp.

August 2, 1944 Nazis destroy the Gypsy camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau;around 3,000 Gypsies are gassed.

1 Prepared for distribution by the United States Holocaust MemorialMuseum. 20

BEST COPYAVAILABLE 51 October 7, 194-1 Prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenaurevolt and blow up one crematorium.

.Tanuary 17, 1945 1 Nazis evacuate Auschwitz: prisonersbegin "death marches" toward Germany. January 27, 1945 Soviet troops enter Auschwitz.

April1945 U.S. troops liberate survivors at Buchenwaldand Dachau concentration camps.

April30, 1945 Hitler commits suicide in his bunker in Berlin.

May 5, 1945 1 U.S. troops liberate Mauthausen concentration camp.

May 7, 1945 Germany surrenders, and the war ends in Europe.

.Vovember 1945-October 1946 War crimes trials held at Nuremberg, Germany

Alay 1-1, 19-18 State of Israel is established.

a 1

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

Prepared for distribution by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 21

1 52 I

Appendix C:

Diary excerpt from the Lodz Ghetto

13

53 1 The UnknownBrother and Sister of LodzGhetto

POLAND UNKNOWN AGEAND 12 YEARS OLD

t is likely that many morechildren wrote about their suffering at the hands of the Nazisthan we will ever know. With little to do, and their playmatesand family members taken fromthem, how better to comfort themselvesthan to write about what they were going through. Sadly, althoughhundreds of children may have written them, few diaries survived thebombings, the fires, and the Nazi pillag- ing and made their way intothe hands of future generations. In honor of the children who wrotebut whose work has been lost forever, this anthologyconcludes with the diaries of a brother and a sister whose names, like so manychild diarists', will remain unknown. Orphaned by the Nazis, the childrenlived in the Lodz

395

54 BEST COPYAVALACLE Children in the Holocaust and World War It The Unknown Brother ana Sister (ULLPUL several,girlGhettoitself was inweekswas twelve Poland, never after years wherefound, her old older theywhenbut brother her were she brother beganforcedstarted copied herinto his. slave thediary first intwo July entriesThe of 1944, little of girl's diary labor. The little July 11, 1944 (AS COPIED INTO HER Unknown Girl BROTHER'S DIARY) but hescrawledit into did hisnot into Ownhave the diary,access margins which to anyof isan otherreproduced old Frenchpaper. novel, presumably Amazingly, the boy wrote in four different here. languages, all because bybeginthis unforeseen mind-easing Ito write! ofMany a time in the circumstances, I wasand soul comfortingthose days when cares past I began to preventedwrite from mypractice memoirs,putting into reality, to and sufferings were allthewho surrounding Lodz had Ghetto,miraculously !rouses where hadhesurvived and been his Auschwitz,systematically murdered returned to After the war was over, a man named Avraham Benkel, family had lived. His and phindered by vandals his home in unknownmy today to me. I must Childhood, dear days, is quite dissimilar look back to those to those which bygone days, wentfor away. margins.FrenchNeatlooking only fornovel one "Jewish inthing which treasure." had he been discovered Inleft the behind house the ---a boy'snext tattered doordiary to copy written in thehis, 1w found of an old Alas,ThatAllowedIt so is dimly fewonly they toonlyin imaginemy I dreams that I'mwere!remember them. days bygone. YadIsraelBenkel Vashem, in treasured 1949. the There, Jewish his writing he Remembrance turned and tookit over it Authority withto the him in There were no clues about who the boy was, but historical archives of when he movedJerusalem, to where Avraham ShortIn this indeed world is of human happinessours! childrenit remainslished ofin thetoday Holocaust. in a locked vault as a memorial to News The following entries from the children's diaries were pub- in 1970. the unknown May 5, 1944 week an act which Unknown Boy is best able to illustrate to days,Namely,whatSaturday thatdegree I isfinished for to asay new onIup committed one. my this of dehumanization we Sunday,terribly so hungry. 1 had to I!The ration was loaf of bread at a space have been reduced.about 33had ounces a prospectwait till the next of three ofof 396 breadliving a week.'only from I was the ressort soups 397 (the soup ladled out to 55 BESTCOPYAVAILABLE 56 forced laborers1 which consist of three little potato pieces and It ildren tot the lloolocan,:t arid World War II In truth, the world deservesThe Unknown only that Brother we and Sister of Lodz Ghett. spit in its face wasandIwastwo could thereovercome decagramslying not was on resist by theMonday aIthree-quarters half terriblethe loaftemptation morning remorseof bread quiteof and of anof conscience myounceldejectedlyate darlingit of flower andsister....in my by Isla beda I up totally.... amongqueues,andcan... do you, the etc.,as poorhavingArthur etc. remnant. wreak seenZygelboim havoc it? Send in did. your [HeSudden death, hunger, deportation, interrogations, Will you, 0 God, keep silent? How the ruined vineyard of Israel, wrath against these sav- committed suicide.' labor, pitilesstoldnextstill greaterpeoplefive thief days. thatand,care I for for keeping what my up little appearance, one would I have eat tofor utter the felt a miserablyit was stolen helpless by a supposedcriminal.... reckless I have and haveunderages,all, causedguiltlessagainst your heavens. Jewishthis Jewish scum mothers Let mothers.of their to mothers be Let the be verse come humanity, and wipe them out from bereaved for no cause at bereaved as they rock those that to pass: ISeveralcurseshang andhim days condemnationswith liltedmy Own hands on the had imaginary I come across thief: "Ihim." would have"Blessed tortured is he thatyou." seizes andWhyEli, smashes God, let them why on the saydo you allow it? thatwithoutinto myYiddish own artificiality, tongue,am I able toto Yiddish, tomyAfter give innermost my clearto fantasymaminchishen, expression, thoughts. of writing I becausehavedirectly in various for andonly so longlanguages, not valued I return Yiddish properly.... Yet am ashamed TheInYou Athe sameharvestwere heat neutral?that of of your makesus, anger describeingsuffer,ofeven their through? if what muses, our we sufferingIs sense, itwould humanly as whatI be to possible? drinkcapablewe experience, up theof describing what what I could rob Homer, Shakespeare, Goethe and Dante ... It is as possible toocean or to embrace we are liv- we CanAndAreAfterIs weitthatthey be? theall, thethe yousinners truth?righteous? have enough likeIrmithe of erfearth. which Maul mankind Despairhas never increases yet suffered. steadily With as complete does the terrible hunger, the I don't know if we will ever he believed ... ThatIntelligenceAnd weit theyis are not toarethe thus: understand thesinned guilty. against ofassurance that which we is may called say body that they have not left us even a jot or soul. 399 57 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 58 Children in the Holocaust and World War II The Unknown Brother and Sister of what you have to suffer by my unjust Lodz Ghetto bethebeatenIllndatedl taken ghetto, up to by hangedthe Biebow. hospital. for (HansWe his Five are crimes Biebow, hundredsuffering in GermanApril people so 1947.1 much. commander are He toThe behad old de- ofto man was savagely youGodsomemusttreatment, poor seems helprags, orphan, because yourselfinsteadto have and ofabandoned with my substitutes: us of boots some wooden contrivance.... destroyed nerves. You, poor being, totally and left us entirely instead of stockings inliquidatedHaveported. the wefirst Again all nowdays gone a kindin of theirthrough the of uncertainty infamouswar? all My this little way?overwhelmedsuffering sister Why in complainsdidn't order everyone. we to diebe of to Augustyouthe mercydo this? 3, of 1944 the heartlessWhen I look on my little sister my fiends. Almighty God, how can heart is melting. Hasn't Igreatold!losing LI udat Will heavens! the ed there will to beHumanity, live. an endHow towhere tragic. our suffering?are She you? is only When twelve and years how, bylastthe the childfive thoughtyoung years. suffered intelligent Whenthat its soon part?I look poor she Sheon beingour cosy and I willhas have fought to leave so heroically our the I am getting saddened little room tidied up suchquickof havetwelve a death manner? those and would innocent she Truly, betold ahumanity childrenWeme:relief are "I for am sohasdone us." tiredvery not 0that world!progressedoftired they"life." of World! are thisI was treatedvery life. What talking far A in with my little sister stroylastterriblybe particle togetherhumanity? and of withblackhome. I mydon't spirited. Ohsister. even God I cannot in heaven, why didst know' if I shall be allowedthou to create Germans towrite de- more. I am resigned onhaverealizefrom dreaming, thebeen and cave morerealizing dreaming of thethanThank wildthe any about whole beast. heavenshuman survival horror being that ofand ourI'mcould about situationno endure. realist getting would for Ifree go to be a realist is to becausebut(Last write IHebrew, shall use for Hebrew AlthoughHebrew as is aI write a broken and hesitant entry. Undated.) theJew language standing of theproudly future, up- Hebrew, I cannot lit/ytoin ordertell 31, and to1944 to he protest. able to My"tell" after the all world, human to yellheart and is cut"rebuke," to pieces when I perceive right in the Land of Israel! everythingnohow terrible stockings, my little sister no clothes is tormented. She lost literally 400 ... no tenderness. 0 401 59 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 60 Appendix D:

Diary excerpt written by Mary Berg

14

61 Mary Berg (pseudonym)

POLAND (-(7 15 YEARS OLD

ary Berg, a girl with American citizenship, was living in Poland with her parents at the beginning of the Nazi occupa- tion. Although she alludes to having written in a diary earlier, her published diary begins on her fifteenth birthday, October 10, 1939. A year later, she was imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto despite the fact that her mother was not a Jew and was, in fact, an American. In the ghetto, Mary witnessed and wrote of such horrors that itis almost inconceivable that she could have kept her sanity. But she never stopped recording what the Nazis did to her family, her friends, and her neighbors. Finally, she was informed that she and her mother were to be exchanged for German prisoners and that they would he released from Nazi custody. Mary Berg's diary is a detailed eyewitness record of the atrocities committed in the Warsaw Ghetto. As such, it is an invalu- able historical document. Because the Nazis had searched and looted every inch of the compound for three years, they didn't bother to

209

BEST C PYAVAILABLE 6 2 Children in the llohleaust and World War II Mary Berg Thirdhugesearch Reich.diary Mary out when of the Warsaw Ghetto she was released. She was right under the noses of the able to smuggle her stoppedblare"war"fused of to thewasthe believe giant crowdsrepeated that of thein every loud-speaker announcing the latest news dangerstrollers was real, in theand streets.the expression The word sentence. Yet most people re- andtotime America, made in France, arrangements u,hee Mary to After being internedshe with translated other the and her family eventually were lane it published when diary from PolishAmerican into English citizens for a she was twenty allowed to go of diedalarmto ouraway. faded on My father felt differently. He home in Lodz. In almost no time our their faces as the voice of the decided that we must return valisesloud-speaker stood yearswhichYork old. is by calledOnly L 13. a Fischer Warsaw Ghetto: A Diary. few libraries in the 7vorldPul7lishing Corporation in It wascontain published in New1945. Mary's diary, constantrealizepackedLodz. that and moving When this ready was aboutwe in arrivedonly theWe middle we caught the last train which from one place to another.the beginningfound of several the city weeks in a state of confu- of the tookroom. civilian Little passengersdid we to of Octoberalthough my family didToday all I am fifteen years 7(1, 79.39 old.they I feel could very to oldmake and this lonely,day a bombardments.sion.PolishWhen A few wordfront days camelines later andthat Wewerethe Germansspent most of our time in it was the target of severe German nearing Lodz, panic seized the the cellarhad of brokenour house. through the realturedhonor, Alpinebirthday. out which violets. into They is the aWhen great evenstreet I saw luxury these days.and My returnedbaked awith itmacaroon a cake in myI could not help crying. bouquetfather ven- of that I atowhole week necessitiesstream population. after out ourand of theset At outcity eleven Uponce to o'clock more. the very at gates of the city we were arrival from Ciechocinek we packed our in different directions. Less night crowds began uncertain which than Thiswonderaretime ishere. ataif goodhome. moment Everyone toI have not written my I shall ever catch up with is afraiddiary to for go such out. a The longresume time it. all that has happened.I spend most of my Germans directionthenally,followed road along we to Warsaw. should thewith Polish most taketoward Later ofarmies thewe learnedother retreating in the Warsaw or Brzeziny?Jews Fi- of Lodz, wethat took the refugees who direction of carefreeI wereouridea future atthen vacation the what fatelovely onwithwas health in storeI can hardly believe that the night of August 29 thousands of other visitors. only sixresort weeks of agoCiechocinek, myfor us. I got the first when the raucous familyenjoying and inklinga ofI had no planes.Brzezinyand I, we had had been three massacred bicycles,Among almost which the four towere aof man ourus, mymost mother, my father, my sister, by German precious 63 210 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 211 64 possessions. Other refugees who attempted to bring with no sign of life. In a daze, my father ran ahead to find some coatshadfoundbehindthem to the things carsthe were good highwayabandoned thatcompelled luck had to littered acquirebeen because to discard withvaluable another ofall them.the sorts in bicyclelack the Asof objects,lifewe from advanced a frompassing we of gasoline. We they had left fur somehadlyzed.water, chocolate to Butwhileeat itthe wasmy cookies entire youngeronly day.athat passing sisterIntasted Finding Sochaczew stoodspell like a soap.drinkof stock-still, weakness. we Thisof managed water was as allwasif para- towe getal- a few sour pickles and peasanttowardcompletelyspeed.hoped for theBut the capital.engulfedthe fantastic roads in were sum the slowofjammed, two but hundred steady and gradually zlotys,flow of humanity we were it would enable us to move together with greater and we Wecausewater,waymost hurriedwere they but as driedweredifficultthe on villagers sureup.in asspite Once it procuringhad warned of webeen our found poisonedparchedfood.us nota wellAll to bythe lipsdrinkfilled German wells and withfrom alongaching agents.murky it be- the dust.andguardterrible covering Again of heat. refugees and ourThe again faces gigantic swept we and flungoverMile cloudclothes afterourselvesus, of with blottingdustmile successive raiseditinto was out the theby ditches thesame.layershorizon van- on ofThe fields withered in the allthethroats. the chimney other housesof a house along at theSuddenlythe sideroad of deserted, wethe sawroad. abut Welittle here had blue wasfound plume a of smoke rising from burningredplanesthe flaredside roared cities of up the againstand in road, our villages ears.the our black WhenfacesroseDuring domeall weburied thearound arrived ofnight thein us. thehugesky. in Lowicz,earth, The patches fires while the of city was one huge con- water....whiletremblingkettle,sign of we but life. Hecould therevoice My had fathernot was hefound bringtold a rushedstrange theus ourselves whatkettle in expression and he on to hadreturned a touch stove found, on that his inwith whichface.and precious a hugefor In the a teredtelephonerefugeesflagration. with as furniture.polesBurning they barredforced piecesMany theirour people of path.way wood werethrough The fell sidewalks burnedon the the streets. inheads thewere terrible Fallenof clut- the sawnosofacefire myanswer. was thatturned father lit.he Then to Nearwas called the he dead. wall.by, outwalked on He Theto a seemedhim bed,over bed several towasa totheman befull times.sleeping sleepingwas of blood. Butlying peasant peacefully,there Thewith was win- andhis alonghomeafterflames. we thewas The had way. used odor left Weak up.the of scorchedTherecity. from By hunger,was Septemberhuman nothing my flesh mother whatever 9 pursued the fainted supply to usbe on long ofhad the food we had taken from saw.antdow became panes As we were ourneared faithful peppered the companion capitalThe with kettle bullet we on whichmet holes.the thelong we first "inherited"road German to War- from this murdered peas- road. I dropped beside her, sobbing wildly, but she showed 212 soldiers.prisoners This of war sight walking was encouraging along the highway, to us, yet led the by Germans Polish 213 65 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 66 if) Hie IIIIIIP1.1111 and World War II Mary Berg gantdid uniformstheynot seem cast downsmiled by their condition. They wore insolently. They knew they ele- Asther he had waited to stand for hours on a long line in front of a bakery. there, several German planes suddenly endlessof potatowouldWarsaw. travelingnotsoup A be few with prisoners soldierswe us. realized After forin tourWe avery fordeserted haddays thelong. our firstand building first timenights taste how shared of of seeminglytired cooked their we food in Okecie, a suburb headplacemanInstantlyswooped remained.by behind a thedown bullet. line him. -andDisregarding Thein A front strafed momententrance of thethe the laterto bakerypeople thefiring, the bakery withdispersed,manmy machine shopwas hitwas but inguns. nowonethe father took his barricadesfromlose,were. thefor But asstreets,with wewe empty hadleft in Okecie preparationto streetcars go on. we Theresaw forand menthe cobblestoneswas siege and not women of a the moment torncapital. building up to Americanfreesawhis and American a womanmy reporter father listeners.digging describedmade potatoes. his"I stood Afterpurchase. the Nazi inBesidethis a fieldmethodssupper and we fromof listenedwarfare a distance to a broadcast in which an her was a little child. findingthousandsstreamedthe houses, shelter into ofhanding provincialsthethere, capital outthousands tea inInentered unendingandWarsaw ofbread old-timeWarsaw we lines. to found the residents Andin refugees womenthe as hope tens of whostanding the ofof at the doorways of anotherbentarmedSuddenly over woman, orphan hisa German fallen whowas mother felladdedplane at once. swoopedandto the wept The many down,heart-rendingly.child war was firingorphans not at hit.the ofThus 1-le un- Po- temberusacapital warm to the fled12and cellar theto hearty the Germans during country. welcome, most beganRelatives of but our to constant destroystay in the with heart airthe them. attacks center of Warsaw's By of the Jewish quarter gave us drove Sep- begnoontheirland. of thehelp you, children;President peaceful came.... help helpthese Roosevelt!"fields; these mothers help children Polandhe who exclaimed whoseare in digging mothers in a potatoesdeep are voice, falling "I her hour of trial!" But for city.newtoprotection ourOnce home people. again againston Zielna Wewe the couldhad Street, bombs. toThe neither move, we days knew eat thisthat norreal timefollowed sleep.comfort. to seek broughtAt Thefirst, better own- inhunger, a death, and panic solidlyoutbuilding,telephone the builtsiege. which girlsstructure Although was remained a targetwas struckOur atonly fortheir byhouse the slightlymany posts. German at shells,31 Manydamaged Zielna guns thehouses Street through-and nearby thewas next to the telephone lofty and Thereerstomatoes,ontime had a wassincetable fled even the butter,coveredour city, aflight maid and leaving with from whiteto agive Lodzawhite bread.clean us we cloth.hot apartment Toate tea, get Ita includedrealand this for mealforbread ourthe herring, served use.myfirst fa- crowdedofthewere our cellar. destroyed, apartment, home Then ofone andour andof relatives.again the we bombs I we wereshall had exploded neverforced to forget toin thereturn September front to room 23, the date of the Day spend our nights in the of 67 214 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 215 68 Children in the Holocaust and World War II V Mary Berg JewishcredAtonement Jewishdistrict. in holiday 1939.In the Themidst for Germans an of intensive this deliberatelybombardment bombardment a strange chose that sa- of the uschantedof allthe in restaurant psalmsthick blankets in belowtearful to ourOnvoices.protect thehouse. lastusMy from nightAmother few the of elderlyhadtinythe siege wrappedsplinters Jews we sat huddled in a corner evenpretedForwithmeteorological the a hailwhile oldestthe began snow the among bombingphenomenon to as fall a themspecial in was the were tookinterrupted,middleact unable of place: heavenly of ato heavyandbright, the intervention: snow sunnyJews mixed inter- day. recall a similar a firetrap,tonel.moment,that be Herfilled only so face she thewea small was air.set outcoveredWhen hitscratch. foron shetheKozla with We foreheadherself Streetblood,realized stuck tobybut thatfind a herout splinter oursafer woundher shelter headquarters of proved shrap- for was a occurrence.Afterwhotime livedwith a few Butrenewedin minutesour later house fury.in onethe went dayofIn themspiteto the the enemy ofcameneighboring the made runningdanger, up synagogue. back,my father his and a few other men for lost roomplesoldierstonwith lying forof our anda onus. house relatives, civiliansthe Beside concrete rising me asstumbling abovewe lay floor. walked. a alittle Somehowhuge over boyWe cellar the foundconvulsed ormutilated packed other only they withthefull bodies skele- madeof pain peo- of beenfallenthattallithshawl)harmed. for killed. uponon some hiscrumpled White the Then,head, time synagogue asato heprayerunder chalk,our was great and hookhisunable and manyarm,joy, incarrying histomy heof speak.hand, fathertoldthe his worshipers usand Areturnedtallith thatbomb so shakenmany (prayer hadhadun- of Noonfleshcouldfrom laymedical aand see awound. woman thatthat aid gangrene aWhen was shellwhose available his fragment foothad mother alreadyhad for was changed beenthese setstill torn people. in. embeddedhis offA dressing, little byThe a furtherstenchbomb. in his one Thousandssidethosehours had who ofbeen murderousonlyof peoplekilled a moment during were shellingThat buried thebefore nightservice.could alive had hundreds not inbeen breakthe prayingruins. of the buildings resistanceBut at tenhis blazed all over the city. MyWhentionless,wailingwas ears,unbearable. daybreak piteously. withaccustomed stony cameThe Thefaces corners toI was thegrownups and crashstruck werevacant of bycrowdedsimply unceasingeyes. the sudden Hourssat with orexplosions, stillness.wentchildrenlay by. mo- Smiglyevenof wereandWarsaw. after old, unarmedhad helped theOurabandoned government peopledug in trenches;the foughthis defense troops, had withyoung fled ofmen increased thegirls and and capital. organizedMarshal women, stubbornness; Those young who first-aid Rydz- whatgreatlated.rushedbegan calamity,we No to intohad hum. one the already but stirred, cellarIt Iwas could beenwith thebut not terrifyingthe Ithrough. noticed imagine news thattears silence Suddenlyanything Warsaw in thatthe worse eyesprecedeshad capitu-thanof the someone a stoodsquads shoulder in the doorways to shoulder of theand houses; fought forJews their and native Christians land. 216 eyesgrownups. were dry. I, So all our sacrifices had been in vain. Twenty- too, felt them choking in my throat, but my 217 69 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 70 Childrr n in the Holocaust and World War II Mary Berg forcedheldseven out days to surrender.longer than any after the outbreak of the war, other city in Poland, had Warsaw, which had been turesmentLodz, outcompletely October of their 15,frames. looted; 1939We Mythe arefather thieves again is miserablehad in Lodz. cut the Weover larger found the losspic- our store and our apart- first-aidofingthe life clearvictims were stations. September from placed theThe sun.on deadAs were we came out of the wreckage. Those who still showedstretchers andSalvage carried crews to the were nearest at workcellar remov- we saw our ruined city in heaped upon carts and bur- signs wetheconsiderableof the knowwar. Poussin Wenow have sumthat and itbeenonly wasthe a Delacroixherea few mistake inweeks Lodz tohe before return forbought only here.the twoin outbreakParis The days, Nazis for but ofa iedgraves.parks,house in the orand nearest an smalladjacent empty wooden square. crosses were groundin the yard of a ruinedSoldiers were buried in public placed over their Theytoare nativethe beginning forbade great population, synagogue, the to intensifyJews especially to the removetheir pride the acts theJews. of of sacredthe terrorism Last Lodz weekbooks, community. against they and set the fire carcassespiecesthe hungry of of meat. fallen wretches Some of didWe not returned to our own street. horses from which people were the horses were still notice that; they were cutting On the pavement lay the twitching, but carving had thermotherlocked"shames" to bring upcannot or inside usbeadle forgiveback the who here. templeherself wanted andfor to having savedied thein persuaded the holy, flames. relics my was Myfa- stayed,theken beasts window our up apartment alive. panes. We Buton thethere was found the last place in which we dinner of duck andNalewki, rice. Later intact except for bro- nothing to eat. The janitor I soldiersLodz, November who, under 3, various 1939Almost pretexts, every rob day us our of apartmentour posses- is visited by German learnedinvited us that to thisjoin duckhim in was a the last swan our janitorPark. In spite of the fact that had bysions. looking I feel outas ifof I werethe window, in prison. for Yet when I cannot I peer console from behind myself 1 caughtillthis effectsus water toin theshare from was pond her thatpolluted in large strangeKrasinski byThat afternoon a cousin who apartment, in which she rottingmeal. human bodies, we lived on Sienna Street invited had stored a felt no etlysawthe curtainyesterday:on the sidewalk nearA man the curb.with markedly A uniformed Semitic German features was standing qui- witness hideous incidents like that which I. greatbeingmarish deal dug. journey.of food.Warsaw SoOn welooked all the likesquares an enormous common moved once again. It was a cemetery. graves were night- order,theiruniformedsomethingapproached for victim Germanswith with him an rubberand embarrassed came apparently truncheons. upon expression.the gave scene They him and called anThen unreasonablebegan a few to otherbeat I could see that the poor fellow tried to explain a cab and '71 218 219 72 Children in the Holocaust and World War 11 Mary Berg stonesdrivertheGermanstried end toof to start. the ofpush then thepavement, The himrope tied unfortunate into tohis thedyeing legsit, cabbut together man'sfromthemhe resisted behind, redface with with struck vigorously.a and rope,blood. orderedthe attached sharpThen The the downlonger.wonders the whetherfew blocks the that Nazis separatedTo attendwill even usthis from weddinglet himthe place live we slunk muchof the one by one like shadows NaziLodz,the cab captivity. November vanished Only down12, a 1939 miracle the street.Percy, saved my him mother's from death. younger On the brother, has returned from onsoceremony.moodrabbi thatthe staircasewetrembled was couldA oneguard madewhilefleeof stoodterror through recitingus atalland the rushanother apprehension.the door blessing.to onthe exit the door. if Thewatch necessary. Theslightest for general Nazis, The rustle Heperson;hehisbattlefield, waslayunit thus heinhad swallowed a seeing onsurrendered,medical the theopen thirty unitapproaching field he hetablets decided whenhad ofall Nazis,suddenly Verona! tosorts commit and of anda realizingdrugs pouring suicide. fell asleep.on rain thathis As tion:hassameApril tacked "American house28, 1940up where her citizen." visiting we had This cardWe been inscription haveon sharing the managed door, isrooms. awith wonderful to Mytheobtain inscrip-mother talis-a separate apartment in the spatthroughprisonandhappened,"began up soon almost camp.to the fall.the he allbarbed-wire NextGermans Thistold of the day,us, awakened poison." "but pickedwith fence I asuddenly comrade,He himhim. and was up after"I toobeganand don't he wanderingweak placedmanaged toknow vomit,to himmove, how to for and inget ita apartments.lousustheman to outer againstletsign. them doorAs Our the soonin of twosoGerman our asthat littlebuilding,German they bandits rooms too uniforms our can who are neighbors benefit freelyfilled come from visitto comeinto the our all view beggingbrimformiracu- Jewish at toweek Lodz,Lodz. in theNovember so-called 23, Kampinowska 1939Today Uncle Forest, Percy made celebrated his way his wedding in secret. The dercompelledtwowithhow manysmall couldfear, American andJewstowe wear refusewith try arm atoflags anyone?silent obtain bands Jewson prayer the or suchAll who towall. of doondocuments; possess the slavetheir neighbors lipslabor. passports gazebut No tremble not atwon- of theall neutral countries are not theareing.anceGestapo engagedantedated. Itof goes their has without couplesorderofficially Because the wantsaying number forbiddenof tothe thatbe dangersof together. allJewish Jews the which to marriagemarriages Moreover marry, surround butcertificates is everyone increas-in us, defi- all GestapoareTwotheyhave nationals of can themy headquarters circulatemeansfriends of a South tohave freely buyat Americanthe acquired themin Bruehl the orcity. republic.papers thePalace They courage proving to wentThanks have to boldly that theseuse to these theythem. topa- the 73 220 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 221 74 re. It rrr I h . 11oInreusl aril World War Mary Berg realizehers sealed that theywith awere forged. They can even go to the coun- swastika; and the German experts did not backeven moreand forth in the deep snow, they open fire every so savage than usual. Just to warm up as they lurch November90It)try per percent to cent buy 15,food.chance 1940 With atof most.1Warsatvl survivalthesuch documents other Jews have only a they have at least a by,choosearrangeOtheroften order andguards aentertainments victim himthere whoto arefrom throw are many among forhimself victims themselves. the in people amongthe snow Forwho the instance, withchance passers-by. his to theyface go bored with their duty at the gates arecertainous hurryingforbidden rumors, streets. about onetoThere move morenervously is considerableoutside fantasticToday in thethe thethan streets, commotion.Jewish the other. whispering ghetto Our was people officially established. Jews boundaries formed by vari- policemansuchtogetherdown, a andNazi with whoif ishethe in standsis skin a a bad Jew until guard mood, who theYesterday with wearssnow his him.victim isa redbeard,I myself withmay they blood.sawbe teara a Jewish NaziWhen it off gendarme "exercise" a Jew- enougharealreadyBiblical laying begun.are description bricks lashed Jewish upon by the masons,bricks. overseers.Work Those supervised on theIt whomakes wallswhich doby me notNazi think soldiers, will of the he three yards highhas of our slavery in Egypt. But where is the work fast ambulance,collapsedbreath,Ghettoish policeman buton in Chlodna theand a poolNazinear the Jewish ofStreet.thestill blood. passage forced policeman The Then him youngfrom someoneto was thefallman put Littleand finally oncalled rise toa stretcher theuntillost for Big hisanhe mustandbeenMoses Poles stoppednot who carry are will completely allowedany release parcels. to us thereenter from TheAt are the the ourspecter German isolated endnew ofbondage?of sentries. thosestarvationquarter, streets Germansbut looms they in which the traffic has not trucksbulanceand carried are cars mostly away for the used.on whole a hand WeSnow ghetto, calltruck. is them falling andThere slowly, are only and three the am- frost rickshas. for that draws marvelous reason hand uplimitary before us 4, all. 1941 The ghetto is covered with deep snow. The cold is terrible andhaveingflower starvationhave over become patterns the thatice,really on Iof amtheselfish. freedom. beginningwindowpanes. For Shallthe to time I beingdream I ofam a stillsled warm glid- food, but all around me there is so much misery I ever be free again?be very unhappy. I thewarmbeds,peopleand Nazinone thatthings wrapped beasts of the for apartments whotheir up instand own blankets soldiers.guard are heated. or near huddling The the Wherever bitter ghetto under cold entrances I go feathermakes I find is, if the Germans have not yet taken all these provincesaJune constant 12, 1941 whostream have of newbeen refugees.The robbed ghetto These is becoming are Jews more from andthe more crowded; there is of all their possessions. 75 7,1 BEST COPY AVAILABLE ??.3 76 ChIldren in the Holocaust aad World War 11 refugees to take their places. The Mary Berg community is helpless. All at hisfindsUponthe riflegate out their as that aarrival sign he is a Jew, checks the identity of the that he maythe sceneenter ouris always the same: gives him a push with refugee, and when he Paradise.... the buttthe guardof worst.thementour hotels rationSoap it conies are iscards unobtainable;packed, into is acontact and gluey mass that falls to pieces with hygienicwater.what isIt conditionsmakesdistributed one are as dirty soapof on the mo- the of themchildren.those up who inThey so-called are become starving.These people are ragged homes. There theycharges die sooner of the community,or and barefoot,Most with theof them are women tragicwhich eyes sets later. and Juneinstead 26,1941 of clean. I am writing this in the bomb shelter of our house. I am defense. The plumbingkening. downThe former has to form been walls large destroyed.I have visited such a of the separatewith rags. refugeerooms Herehalls; home. and there there Itare is ano conveniences; Near the walls are cots havedesolate been bro-build- lies a dirty made the onsituatedRussians nighttion. Itduty, inis are anow dangerousas bombing elevena o'clock. morespot, closeand l am more member of the home air sitting near thea small opening carbideto the of mainhostilities railway sta- frequently. We are of childrenredboardsherof feather four disheveled and lying or bed.coveredfive listlessly. satOnblond crying. In one the floorhair. I saw The half-naked, child looked at me I could not refrain corner an exquisite from stroking unwashed littlewith girl her sia!Thebetweenlamp. Whoshock This Russiacould was is the tremendous.have and first Germany hoped time sinceWarit that would come so soon!between Germany andI Rus-have been able to write. bigchild.that blue day, eyes,I did but not and I diddare said: not lookI was overcome by a have a piece"I'm ofhungry." feelingbread to of utterin shame.her eyes, I and went away. go out to look give to that had eatenfor work. Julyblood;I have prostrate1 0 ,togetherhad 1941 terriblecorpses. with nightmares. myI wanted sisterI am to full of dire forebodings. andflee, my but parents, could Inot, walked andI saw awokeover WarsawDuring drowning the last few nights, in Thecots. ofotrkowfromchildren, rape There and arethe mass all sick, the executions. provinces.During the day the grownups people from Lublin, and the aged remain It is impossible toAll of them tell terrible Radom, Lodz, and Pi- lying on their understand tales thein Julya bluecold 29, skysweat, 1941 only terrified irritate and my exhausted.shaken Thenerves. golden sun and whyJews.saw the ghetto Germans which allow all Mortality is increasing. Starvation already contains four hundred these people to settle in always hundredsalone of new kills from forty to thousandthe War- aredeathsmedicines, simply from throwing this and disease all theup exceededhospitalsThe typhus aretwo epidemic is raging. their hands in despair. There are no Yesterdayovercrowded. the number Newof beds hundred. The doctors fifty persons a day. But there are 77 224 225 78 Children in the Holocaust and World War II thisare constantlydoes not solve being the added problem, in the and wards the numberand corridors, of victims but body of the boy was added to Mary Berg several others that had been isvacancies."has ispacked growingput up with aThe daily. sign children Berson in the TheChildren'sof window various hospital ofHospital ages, atits the office all corneron of Siennareading: them of Leszno illStreet with"No and Rymarska Streets Septembergazedpicked at up the 20, in cartadjoining 1941 as it moved streets. away. Then he disappeared. For some time the father moreStreetstyphus. patient. hasThe closedhospital its at doors; theA cornerfew there days isof ago,noLeszno room on Leszno andfor even Zelazna Street, one I saw a father carrying stillno!ments.will Whyintact? be do Willin Germany notMoscow. the the Germans Allies must London bomb beThe win Nazisthis war? are victorious. Kiev has fallen.is suffering Soon Himmler severeGerman bombard- cities? Why is Berlin No, a thousand times ofand indressedaLeszno fairlyhefront was grown-up ofand in raving therags. Zelazna hospital deliriously. Theboy Streets, youngin gate.his arms. As patient's theHe he man remained Bothapproached facestopped father was standing andhesitatingly theburning soncorner therewere red, ingwholetheSuch and uniformedcivilian amurders people population, committedNazisshould not which bybe allowed criminals, but all the Germans, wiped off the face of thetheir earth. husbandsenjoys the and fruits fathers. of the loot- to exist. Not only theare haustedtounfortunate forthe a hospital while, boy man tossed apparently office laid in hisand convulsions sick withdrewwondering son down and several whatgroaned on the topaces. stepsdo. heavily. Finally, The leading Sud- ex- the OnlySeptember yesterday, 23, 1941Alas, our apprehensions before on the eve of Rosh Hashana, the the holidays were justified. Germans closedceasedingthedenly grief-strickenbitterly. a andtossing,nurse a After lookin as a father whitethoughofa whileserene whoapron he I stood hadcontentment came fallen with out asleep.lowered and was began His spreadhead, eyes to berateweep- wereover noticed that the sick boy had ghettorefusedonceCzerniakowsummoned five and to thousand obeyorganized atthe their thiscommunity men headorder. for the labor and demandedThe that Germans they deliver then brokerepresentatives with Engineer camps. The community into the at his face.son. He bent over his childA few and, moments sobbing later brokenheartedly, the weeping father cast a glance at bethroughout heard from yesterday all I happened to be in the sides. anda real this pogrom. morning, The and manhunt shooting went on could I astared freetrace serviceat of his life face toin theit. for But community, a longall was time, over. appeared, as though Soon andatrying little the toblack still discover warm cart, eight,Lesznopeople,managed considering Street and to Irush waited that into there to Sienna Street, I decided a doorwayit takes which half was an hourjammed to walk with for two hours. Atstreet when the hunt began. to go home in order a quarter past from 79 226 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 227 80 to arrive before nine, the c s i In t h e l i a l o , a u scurfew i and World hour, W after a r which it is forbid- ! ! was thirty minutes past curfew time. My parents had almost Mary Berg themassden to of he people in the stoodstreets. drawn Atup thein laborcorner office. of Leszno Most andof them Zelazna were Streets, young anmen enormous between military ranks in front of eigh- of shakenoncetions.givenyoung onButme Jews by my upImy was bed.standing for experience indead Even no like conditionand now, andsheep flooded as I see I to beforewrite answer beforeme these witha slaughterhouse.me them, alines, the hail andthousands ofI am ques-fell still at thousandsallyloweredtoteen it their and heads twenty-five.prospects of men as though who are The nothave about Jewish much been to betterpolicebe sent slaughtered. thantowere the slaughter. labor And camps thatactu- The no one ran away. These young men stood forced to see with Sowhomfrom many their theysons, loved will brothers, not ones, even andwhom beIn husbands alloweda they few monthsmay haveto saynever beenthe farewell. seemothers, torn again, away wives, to and sisters of these opened,asthus far haveand I vanished withoutSuddenly leavingif the adoor trace. of a stationery storepetrified, near which staring I stood, at the group of condemned men, felt a hand on my shoulder. It was a Jewish wasthatthebermen such-and-suchstrength thewill case Jewsreceive toin in liveAustria theofficial has through ghetto after died.postcards do the it.It isnotThe Anschluss. inconceivable informingcommit Germans massWe, them are thattoo, suicide, surprisedthat are num- sur- as we have closedtheing,policeman, crowda man door like fell,who of anthestruck quickly electric stationery by dragged a current, bullet.A store. moment me A and Thelamentation inside. reachedlater, fallen on man thethroughran groaned verythrough spotthe where I had been stand- ityThisprised reached is thatthe miraclewe five have hundred of managed the ghetto.aThe day. toepidemic The endure home isall taking ofthese every a torments. terrible person toll. Recently the mortal- janitorforthe a while,pavement. at once but proceeded was soon totaken Trembling,scrub away the stillin I a warmhand bloodtruck. fromThe looked at my watch. The curfew hour, the shortagedoingdisinfectants.roomswho falls everything of medicinesillthose with The whotyphus in health itsand die power ishospital of departmentdisinfected. it toare fight space practically the of Theremains theepidemic, apartments communityflooded the butchief with the or is wouldInstinctively,hourthat of Inot suredid letnot death me care go. on whether Whenthe ghetto II wastold streets, shothim nowhow was or far approaching. later, he prom- I moved toward the exit. But the policeman I lived and widespreadcauseincreasingly of the belief huge difficult that mortality, the to organizeNazis and deliberately the medical Nazis help.contaminatedare making There isit a mehome.ised to to ourtakeIt was doorway, me five home. minutes and whenI to nine. I entered The policemanleft our the apartment store brought with it a few other people who wanted to get ablebacteriologicaltheEngland ghetto proof and ofwith this Russia.warfare typhus theory It which bacilliisfrom said the they inthat orderworld-famous intendthe community to totest apply methods bacteriolo- has against irrefut- of 81 228 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 229 82 gists, Jewish Chthha in the professors from 11,00,011,1 and World France, Belgium, War IIand Holland, staporeally seriously,dangerous justbecause as they they used take to their commit services crimes for inthe Ge- Mary Berg dead sanitarytheirovercrowdinglongerwho havebacilli a conditionsquestion been in inthe deported the are ghetto. of cleanestinadequate section sanitary of the ghetto, exemplary. here by the Nazis.Tomorrow the Nazis may measures, or Thus it where the is plantno the skitssipearnest. and that jokes are sungamong and us, played andEven serve in these cafes as materialsad and conditions theaters. for songs give and rise to various bits of gos- work.hungrynot manyReal rather money people can engageFew people today are earning than become tools in be made only in in them; most Jews compelled to accept their living by doing the hands of the dishonest deals, but choose to go this role. If normalNazis. rickshas,songsthroughphus and epidemic and tears,satires even but itselfon the it isGestapo, is laughter. theEvery subject inday Thisa veiledat of theis jokes. our Artfashion. only Café weapon Theon Leszno ty- in Street one can hear the police, the ambulance service, the It is laughter sucha personsonfrom as is that wearing oftenis caughtprescribed, the armBut sometimes people are anxious to commit suicide, committing a minor he is arrested and hand in a manner slightly violationbuttortured. of has the no laws,Such easy a per-way thesedifferent tor- crees.Novemberthe ghettoourHumor is22, the people 1941 only thinglaughOutside, the at deathNazis a blizzard cannotand at isunderstand.the raging Nazi andde- the frost paints designs of themtureddoingmaticallypower peoplewith it. The the become whose Germans choice spirit of resistance; they agree tools of the Gestapo. of life or death. Such peoplefindand their body victims are broken, among to anything, and Their chief function and confront thus auto- lose all overonthatwoodname the the itwindowpanes. is isthedistribution onbarely Germans everyone's sufficient of haveDuring lips:fuel. toassigned Kramsztyk, Alas, heatthese the the terribly to official amountthe the ghetto mancold buildings, of who days, iscoal so presides andsmallone such foreignis favorclutches;informing.Nazis exchange. of keepbeing he The must threatening allowed "accomplish" AnNazis informer want to can know never get himto withlive andthe renewalreceive something to pay who owns jewelry or out of the Nazis'food. And the of the same for the ticpopulationtals,as theprices and community theand at schools, large.often administration, Oncannot so the that In blackbe the almostobtained market,streets, the nothingpost at frozencoal all. office, fetches is human left the forfantas- hospi- corpses the are an increasingly tortures.knownbuttive theyHowever, victims and, are whenevernot of there reallythe Gestapoare Therethey dangerous, a can, are against a number of few underworld characterssuch Gestapo agents in they even warn projectedfor they are house more or the prospec-the ghetto, searches.who are less themotherfroming,frequent inanimate many which cuddles sight. mothers protrude little On a child Lesznobody. often red frozen frostbittenSometimessit Street with to in childrendeath, frontlittle a child andoffeet. wrapped thehuddles tries Sometimes court to againstin warmbuild- rags a 83 230 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2.31 84 her,his while, mother, in fact, thinking she is that dead. she The is asleep number and of Children in the Ilolocau:l and World War 11 trying to awaken these homeless come rarely or not at all. For the time being all Mary Berg this filth is constantlythehavemothers street given busy. for and up long Whenchildrentheir hours, lasta beggar isThe breath forgrowing little they coachesfrom often day of Pinkiert's no one bothers about them. sees a usable piece of cloth-funeral establishment to day. Afterremain they lying are on fortunethatspringdisinfected a cholera breeze to the by beginsepidemic brim.the cold. to blow?willBut whatbreak There will out to fill our cup of mis-is serious apprehensionhappen when the first garswind.onwith ing arethe an onOnseen paper old a Komitetowa deadthisnewspaper, to year preventbody, than andhe it last; fromGrzybowska they being have blown simply removes it, covers the nude corpseputs a couple of bricks or stones Streets fewer beg- away by the died off. areof ofDecemberhope. considerably thousands The Nazi 9, of 1941 lessdejected guards insolent, JewsAmerica's but entry into the at the gates have long faces.war Some has ininspired the ghetto the withhundreds a on others the effect has new breath youfortynowprices nd costszlotys of foodstuffs four a pound; zlotys, are of going whiteHunger bread, is assumingsix more and sugar, from seven to eight zlotys up. A pound of black bread more terrible forms. The zlotys. Butter is a Februaryandever.been that Mostexactly the 27, Allies' people 1942 opposite victory believe and that they the is certain. are morewar unbearable will not last than long now satisfymoment,thathand. looks his When snatches likehunger. food,a hungry it Ifaway, he the follows parcelIt is not easy to walk in the person sees someone with aopens parcel it quickly, and proceeds to street with a himparceldoes and, innot one'sat contain an opportune food, he haveItoexits. go amuse to toUsually school, go himself. past they I twoam Everyare notof perpetrated the day,Shootings morning have now become sure whether I most dangerous German sentry very frequent atby the some ghetto guard who wants and afternoon, whenwill return alive. I whocrazedthrows would by it hunger. away. have theNo, hearttheseThe to hygienicJewish police conditions cannot are not thieves;are constantly they are just deteriorating. peoplecope Most withprosecute them. And, such indeed, unfortunates? cnielty.beenStreets.bridge,posts: nicknamed ApparentlyAt and atthe the atlatter corner"Frankenstein,"the this place ofsoldier thereZelazna and corner of Krochmalna and Grzybowska cannot go tois sleepusually unless a guard hebecause who has ofChlodna his notorious Streets near the regularlyintoletsof the cannotthe sewage street to be remove togetherpipesused. Humanthe with garbage the are frozen, and in many houses the toi- excrement is often thrown outgarbage. The carts thatfrom used the courtyards now ofsmall ing,seehasKrochmalna and himaon few mystocky, from victims way and a with todistance toschool, his credit; I shudder. Grzybowska Streets, I a swarthy grimacing face. This as I was approaching the he is a real sadist. When I He looks like an saw his familiar cornermorn- ape: 85 232 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 233 Chi hirer, in the Holocaust and World War II Mary Berg passedfigure, an torturing inch closer some to the ricksha exit than driver the regulationswhose permit- vehicle had agedpaper. to His escape brothers, and too, are werenowIn insentenced our hiding. garden to everything is green. The young onions are die but they man- of pavement.blood.ted.theit completely German The A unfortunateyellowish Soon sadist. shattered I realized The liquid man me.blood thatdripped lay was he on wasso the from horribly dead,curb his in anotherredmouth a thepuddle sighttovictim the of shootingthatTheplants wegreens spread up. are We forbiddenand proudly have the eaten sunin to the remindenjoy. oursun. first The Aus little radishes. ofweather the garden beauty is The like tomatoof ours nature magnificent. is theApril police 17,1942 captain, Hertz, rushedI am excitedly almost hysterical.into our apartment A little before six o'clock today, Maythereforenary. 4,1942 A verylittle dearlilac bushto us. under TheOn spring theour "Aryan" this year side is the extraordi- population celebrated May 1 window is in full bloom. and thatpanic.furtherthereand asaid: specialisPeople explanations. going "Please Vernichtungskommando hastily to behe closedaprepared Thepogrom." wholetheir for stores.Then anything;ghetto (destructive he There wastore at eightwas seizedout squad), a withouto'clock rumor with the Someonenewspapers,daysMayknown 3 the by peopleSoldier.a put complete for a wreathtried theThe moneyboycott topeople ofavoid flowers goesof deliberately takingthe straight Nazis.on trolley the Throughout stayedtombto cars of orat the home, so the Germans. buying those Un- inginsame RussianUkrainiansWarsaw of whichthe ghettofront.to had organizeand perpetrated becauseLithuanians a massacre the the would Germans Lublin here. now pogrom, It take werewas overalso to had go thesaid arrived to guard- thethat faithsonedthethat mood aare deadby theiranti-Semitism,was silence somehowco-citizens, prevailed denydifferent. the that in Jews, the theirAlthough city. despitebrothers In many the the ofghetto, Poles,the inhuman too,poi- patriotism Jewish Aprilmembers 28, 1942 of the underground,Last mostnight ofsixty them more well-to-do persons peo- were executed. They were thegion;intreatment every otherspartisan there possible to for are whichgroups a manycommon way. they fighting JewsRecently are goal. subjected,among in And therethe yetwoodsthem, has show the been whoPolishof their the muchfight Lublinanti-Sem- like re- talk of all bakercorpsesperswereple who were suspected Blajman, infinanced also the streets.killed. theof the helping chief Once secret One backer toagain of bulletins.publish the ofin victims anthe the undergroundManymorning undergroundwas printers the there wealthy news- werewho pa- Atites oftentherland,last say, Poland their "It's although aPolish willgood be co-citizens thing, theyJew love less."letSome the it, have becauseJews Jews said sit are behindtothey themashamed remember "Go backto admithow to that Poland is their fa- their walls. 87 234 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 235 Children in the llolocan...:1 and World War Mary Berg JewishattackeddentsPalestine, faith. were by It Gentile Jew,"assigned or students how, to the at "ghetto thefor noUniversity, benches,"other crime the and thanJewish were their often stu- is a fact that many Gentiles in Warsaw have JulywideGerman 5,world, 1942 barracks. of distant The lands, air is of pure freedom. here, and I think of the inghavingto peoplebeensay been anythinga infected bribedJewish who see by because grandfatherby thethe Hitler's Jews. error they propaganda. Onlyofor would suchgrandmother a few, ways,at onceand Naturally, but these orbe theyeven accused are are thereof mem- hav-afraid of are anotherareAis afraid fewraging daysday to through walkfive ago ... inI, everyonethetoo,the streets. ghetto,ceasedFewer expects Theonecompletely andNazi day to fewer guardhebe attending killshis students Frankenstein next ten persons,victim.school. come to our school; now they couldghettoAryanforbers the of procure Polestheymostthe working-class could partgot "Aryan" together aredo afighting certificates great parties, and dealin tried thespeak forfor partisanto manyus. helpup For openly, Jews, the units.instance, Jews giveand If all inthesethem they the eryone"That'sI am now knowsthe an girl American everyone who is goingcitizen. else.TheToday to Every inhabitants America." I boldly few minutes removed ofIn thethis streetpeoplestreet my armlooked ev-ap- band. at meAfter with all, curiosity: officially stonesandshelter so inintoon their and the homes, soghetto.... forth. facilitate ButIt of coursetheir escape it over theis beginning walls, to be hot, and often, instead of going to is easier to throw forAmericanproached their unfortunate relatives,me and asked and kin. to me tell tothem note to thedo everythingaddresses possible of their beaches.sunbathe.school,houses I withThis practice At 20 Chlodna Street the charge for entering the terracelike take a blanket and a pillow and go to our root toflat roofs have been transformed into city is widespread in the ghetto; the ThenatestheJuly streets transports22, were 1942 and locked areemptied beingup in the freightsentToday refugee in cars the Jewishdirectioncamps.without police Thesefood of Brzesc, orgathered unfortu- water. but up all the beggars from churchdrinks,Iroof amcan isalways andseeare one verythea zloty bird's-eyealone. quarter near fifty It me. is groszy.beyond viewpleasant They of Therethe Warsaw.are to wall. lie surrounded are there The foldingOn inwhite our the bychairs, ownsun,spires linden roofwhere coolof a perishingwilltheseinto theypeople eachin details evertheir willcar. reachsealed to arrive Theus there?had cars.Polish at tears their AIt prisonishundred in destinationdoubtful his eyes.guard persons that He who alive; alllives arethesewhispered near theycrowded starv- Stawkiwill all asbranches my roof. and Further the perfume on there of arethese private lovely houses trees reaches now used as asfar Street,driven and into he cars witnessed with whips, horrible just as scenes though of they people were being cattle. 237 89 236 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 90 ( hi I II II e 1101 0 1. 'III 1111 IN 0r I(1 tVar II Mary Berg beenthat/1 is unable abroad to in sleep. the ghetto. The Behindnoise For theof the the last rawiak shooting, few gate we are experiencing I 94 2 nights we have all the terrorthe cries of orthen,thatend arm, ofthe with the and children fatherlyprocession straightened did solicitude, not marched out the he Dr.strokedranks. Korczak, He a child wore who on high sawthe boots, head to it walk on the sidewalk. Now and strengthWeanddespair, areI do to here arewritenot drivingasknow these on awhat usnotes.little crazy. day island I have it amidst lost count an ocean is.I But what does it havematter? to summon all my of the days, of blood. fresh thebluewithfirm children's cap,his step, trousers the and so-called home, stuckwas whoaccompanied inMaciejowka them, wore anhis alpaca whitecap.by one He coat,smock. ofwalked theand This doctorsa withnavy- sad a of anythinghumanthe blood, %vhole about we ghetto it? can Why smell is drowning does it. Does no inone the blood. outsidecome We to literally our see Flow long areworld know aid? I cemetery.Streets.wereprocession also They At told vanishedthewent by cemetery our in theinformants at thedirection all corner the that children of of Dr. Gesia Dzielna Korczak were Street, and shot.was Smoczato forced Wethe I'awiak.cannotwefor goingApparently goexchange. on to living; be keptthe my Germans here strength toA is werefew exhausted. days unable ago, to a use group of neutrals was taken out I saw from my window several trucks filled witness all this? of the them afterward.to lived.witness Ile the executions, Thusand that died he one himself of the waspurest shot and noblest was the pride of the ghetto. His children's home men who ever countrieswithported.us,them. people, and Some hadSotold andourjust us time turnthatIbeen tried later, themay taken to Jewish distinguishthecome to prison the soon, Untschlagplatz guardfamiliar too. came to panting to citizens of neutral European I hope it will be faces among be de- gaveatangreatscanty theeducator idealist. last means moment and Heto writer, supportdevoted he refused to theallthe his modelpoor to be children homeseparated organized of Warsaw. from them. by usEven this courage, and all of us gladly gave life, all his creative work as part of our own eachGermansfewvery days soon. other agosurround This by we their waiting all thelittlestood ishouses. hands,worse atDr. the Janusz Rowsbeganwindow ofKorczak's to andchildren, walk watched out children's holding home is empty now. than death. of the the A ists"still cleaning (Lithuanians) up the fully rooms armed,YesterdayThe of the housewith murdered helmets Iis saw empty a children. ondetachment now, their exceptheads, of forUkrainians the guards and w.ho "Shaul- are carriedthem,doorway.Theyaprons. while ahad TherelittleThey the not bundleoldestwalked werethe slightest ones tinyin rankshis totswere hand. foreboding ofof perhaps twotwo, All or of thirteen.three themof their years wore Each fate. among white At the calm, and even smiling. child asofbayonets,arunning sudden, theare detachmentused along Ias heard to though Dzielnabreak the held toclatterdown Street. asmall front-line ofthe Ithatchetsboots. had attack. beenThe in men theirThosequiet ran hands,when, at with the allsuchfixed end of doors of barricaded apart- 91 2.38 BESTCOPYAVAILABLE 239 92 Mica is the llolocan:1 glad World War II Ma ry Berg beentoo.ments. deported The LithuaniansThese from beasts the are oftenghetto. theDuring use worst The hatchets the ofnumber all.last against two of weeksthose human more than 100,000 people have beings mur- chinessent to withTreblinki, which where the Germans theyNow are arekilled it is experimenting generally with the knownhelp for of thatma-war most of the deportees are Septemberman!).a jobdered in Fantastic theis 20,also German 1942 sums factories are paid of for Toebens, a labor Schultz,card. and Hall- very large. Everyone who can is trying to get EveryoneOctoberpurposes. 10,Butcame no to one congratulate knowsToday any me, details.is butmy Ibirthday. did not answer. I spent At all day on my mattress. 1942 victoriousfullsomegreater of of good resistance. them in Egypt, reach The and us illegal theevenThe Russians here massacres in the Pawiak.have aroused the reports from the battle fronts. The Allies are papers are multiplying and undergroundare pushing leaders the to enemy They are Octoberanight real myfeast sister to celebrate managed the toIs occasion.snatch this really three ourturnips, last nightand we in had the Pawiak? Is it possible 22, 1942 thatandlationbackportations wewarned at is Moscow.are summoned completely andagainst tell The ofdefeatistto sheets the resist fate with moods,of the deported and Jews. The helpless before the Nazis. "Let us die explain the meaning of the de- weapons in their hands, against the idea popu- littletwenty-onenips,athat "farewell tomorrow Americanand our dinner"American representative, weflags shall in that thecitizens. leave? I menhad Mr.kept Before internees'On S., inthe mymadenightfall table suitcase,room. awe speech we Weplaced asarranged ate a to relic, two tur-the Butgust,paperlike this and called men was some andTo only beganArms! not the like tolull take beforeThe an situation optimistic the improved view of thesomewhat future. in the sheep," ends one proclamation in a storm. On September 3 last days of Au- eveningfeelingeralNoemisince English the gown. thatW. beginning worethey songs. She envied arecited silk ofThe the wrapper us.attendants andwar. sang The that songs.watchedmood looked wasI, ustoo,like one and sangan of I elegantelation.had sev- the workers.dozenuaniansnizedand 4 by thepeople and theThese Germans Ukrainians,community. out workers, of began each, enteredElite to blockade Guards, the numbering morealleging than a thatthousand, they needed skilled shops, and took severalaccompaniedthe workshops by Lith- orga- quentsheDecember visitshad heard to Gestapo about theheadquarters campDita at W.,Treblinki. at Alejaone of Szucha yesterday'sDuring she her be- arrivals,fre- told us last night what 17, 1942 Treblinkiwere led away to Stawki Street and camp. 240 deported to the cameherdeath withacquainted camp. great He satisfaction with did nota German realize how thethatwho deported she was was an JewsofficialJewish, were inand thisbeing told 93 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 241 94 Children in the Holocaust and World War II Mary Berg murderedhundred"finish there, and fiftyassuring people her each,At the thusehlasphitz the ow' all the Jews. cattle carsthat are the loaded Germans with would one finallyafter their floors have been sortbyingsport the outwork theNazisare the forJews relieved shoes morefor employed this and thanby purpose. a week. others.clothes They of the victims.to Afterbury the dead or sort Most of Other Jews are compelled to are unable to them lose their minds their belong-each trans-stand this outorcovered Thecarsother sufficient locked-upare openings.with often aair thick toleft people breathe, layerfor two must of orlime. perform The people lie on top of each other threeand without days at food the Stawki or wafer. station. The The cars have no windows their natural functions with- complainoftenandremain are relieved, shot. the of their same.Even because tasks. the the OnlyEscape from Treblinki is Ukrainian and German olderimpossible, German yetsoldiers two young theJews chief German authorities personnel are begin to in Shoemakers,atthethe Treblinki carsclosed with cars station poisonoustailors, and, and etc.,as a fumes. are grouped The divided according to theirresult, trades. the lime dissolves, filling survivors are. unloadedgoingseparately to be inemployed order to ascordingwoodsmanaged electricity they to to them arriveddo in the the impossible. inGermans Warsaw certain execution chambers. murdered the Germans have con- employandAfter various related long gases wanderings other as details. in Because of the wellAc-the men.deathsinmake workshops. the more victims obediently. The believe real purpose ThethatThe womenthey actual is areto aredeath house of Treblinki is make them go to their separatedsituated from the in a thick structedenormoustheirthe stench nostrils. a specialnumber there machine is so toPeople who have traveled in of the poisonous that they must stop up dig graves. trains past Treblinki say that laboroftheywood. soap are camp. The orderedand people The told tonaked that undressare he takenpeople, must completely. in bathemen, trucks women, to beforeEach goingis given to a the cake buildings where, and children December 26, 7942AfterIt looks Dita's as accounts though ournone departure is really imminent. of us could sleep. TheThe separately,Theyliecompartment on tumble topare ofled down one intois so another.thea filledbathhouse moment with After people withthey the a enter bathhousethat again theyis entirely must slippery tile floor. it. Each small dayNazismasscrubbed, before are Day making we Christmaseven had thegreat an rooms exceptionally good meal which efforts toall impress us favorably.occupied by the Jews. Onthe internees' quarters were consisted Christ- and Jewsthehorriblewindows.filled, strongly pain. youngest After concentrated a few and minutes most hotAftervigorous the steam thepeople executionare is beginespecially tothe dead bodies are let in through the carried out by choke in chosen of twoa niedthick pounds by pea his ofsoup, aides bread. aJopkeAt nine in the evening portionand of sauerkraut,Fleck, and three potatoes,Commissioner SS men Nikolaus, accompa- in uni- 95 242 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 243 96 Children tn the Holocaust and World War Mary Berg wouldform, entered surely leaveour room, in the saluted very near us, andfuture. assured us that we February 27, At last a date has been set! The exchange will take place in 1944 proacheddosethekel. holiday,ofIle liquor woreold Rabbidid hisand not gala R.,was carry uniformtook inThis his anhim ridingmorning exuberantand, by thecrop. probably we hand Hereceived mood. hadand, on hadaccount shakingaHe visit a ap- good from of the hangman, BOrc- VariousonewhatinterneesLisbon American, the rumors onratioare March scheduled or ofare vice the 5.circulating Woundedversa,exchange for exchange.five on AmericanAmericans willthe subject.be: But fivesoldiers forit is The Germansone not andcamp German.clear civilian ad-yetfor canroom.with be laughter, kind, too!" wished he snickered him a merry as he Christmas. "We Germans staggered out of our them.wasallpeopleministration at ona My terribleare the mother put firstorganizes pitchon two theis ofrushinglists, lists, tension a newbut old around nowandregistrationones nervousness.we are from have crossed oneevery been office off.Ourhour; taken We familyto new an- areoff yearsdreams;andJanuary woke of I war. 1,relived up severalAgain all the and times, scenes again Newfor I Ithehad wasYear's little witnessed tormented Eve for duringme by was horrible these full of nightmares. I fell asleep 1 94 ,3 children of Janusz other.pletelyforfirst exchange Onlybatch, shattered about while in thirtyVittel. ourthere nerves.persons All are these one are hundredshifts supposed and and rumors tofifty go candidateshave with thecom- Thentheing.wereKorczak's IdirectionEach wasdead awakened time homeand of ItheI wonderedpassed prison by shouts beforeyard. why andThe theymy laughter Nazieyes. kept officials smilingI knew coming were that from theygaily fell asleep these children came before me. and smil- goinglars.March This to 3, Americahas 1944 finally now. reassured AllA thefew us; menminutes we were really ago made believe we exchanged to wesign are a all our money for dol- soundwelcomingbroken of shots,glass. the ThenfollowedNew cameYear. again roaring TheFrom by first laughtertimedrunken day to of time andvoices.1943 theI isheard cloudynoise the of and snowy. As I write these army.pledgeactuallyhavetrain When withcomethat pitied German theythey from these wouldleft America internees theGermans. not cars tofight to bearrive sign againstexchanged thison another pledgeGermany for weus.track. insawAll any Theyof a us seelineslives?choking beforefriends I cannot I curse in mehave thestop the the perishedhot thinkingtiled coming steam. bathhouses there? ofof HowDitathe HowNewW.'s many filled Year.manystories withof my young, nakedof relatives Treblinki. stillpeople unlived and strikespeopleMarch one 4,greet 1944 at once.us with Ragged the Our"V" children trainsign. is Thestretch now poverty on out Spanish their of hands,Spain territory. At the stations some 97 244 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 245 98 smartlybegging dressed for a officers. The civilian population hlrea irr Ilie llolocau:t arid WO rid War 11 coin. There are many soldiers, especially driven like cattle to the Unischlagplatz Mary Berg on Stawki Street to shedusthein nowtheir French rags, areinsolence. and sidedressed the of peoplethe in border, mufti. haveMany Withand hollow those theirof thecheeks. uniforms Germans who escorted us havewho remained still accompany on is theydressed have oftenthetured,their nauseating, entered deaths. and the our sweetishsalty windows smell odor in Iof eventhe theof Pawiak.human fancied blood, sometimes which that I heard the cries of the sea suddenly changed into hadtor- cretformed police. Spanish We are police still in have theWe been haverch just i, crossed the I 944 Portuguese border. The uni-replaced by Portuguese se- oceanwhomare I hadconstantlyof the been ghetto. shot saw But,down theOn strangelybloody on deckI hadmissions streets I thoughtmadeenough, of friends Warsaw. thatin the onwith infinity the American ship of I would soldiers forget and the fliers night- over Germany, and variousgreet ships.us with Someone "V" signs. in Our train is approaching Lisbon. our car has just shouted the word: same train. Flere, too, people I can see the sails of younghadwho empty had officers been hanging exchangedhad horriblysleeves. together Othersdisfigured walkedwith faces; others had had us. Some ofon them crutches. Two "Gripsholm"to"Gripsholm!" us. was This on unfamiliarthe I was Swedish awakened by the sound of open sea. I went out on deckthe and ship's engine.word The means freedom whatsmiletheir thenever faces Nazis left burned. hadhis lips.done One in of theAboardI feltthem ghetto close hadship theyto lost Ithese saw understood both Americans,the legs, first butAmerican and when film I told in fourthem about years. me. a tookofbreathed Europe my breathin was the far endlessaway. behind blueness.In the last four years I have me. The feeling of freedom almost not known this feeling. FourThe blood-drenched earth deckbegantearsIt was and to in Yankeeemerge linedtheir eyesthe fromDoodle railings. when the Dudy. mist.they ByI was sawThenightfallThe reminded it.soldiers of March andof the officers14 the outline had of the American passengers went out on Biblical coast byexecutions,years night. of After the and, blackfour above swastika, all, of barbed terrorterror by day and terrorI wire, ghetto walls, drystory land. of the flood, and of Noah's ark, when it finally reached wasto enjoy only my a dream, freedom that at at first. years of that nightmare I found it hard any moment I would awaken in constantly imagined that it thebear entertainment the burden of that many, night. manyAll that years. day I did not take felt completely broken, as though I had to I part in beards,the Pawiak the blooming and once again see the aged men with young girls and proud young 246 men,gray ierlistening and stormier. to the sound of the waves that lay in a 'corner of the deck, were growing storm- 99 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 247 100 Children in theHolocaust and WorldWar

On March 15 ourship approachedNew York. People who misfortune began to say had gone' through yearsof common farewell to eachother. A moodof fraternal affection pre- vailed among us.On everyone's facethere was an expression of restless expectation. I saw theskyscrapers of New York,but my thoughts were in Warsaw ... I shall do everythingI can to save thosewho can still be saved, and to avengethose who were sobitterly humiliated ground into ash, in their last moments.And those who were I shall always seethem alive. I will tell,I will tell everything, about our sufferingsand our strugglesand the slaughter of punishment for theGerman our dearest,and I will demand murderers and theirGretchens in Berlin,Munich, and Nurem- berg Who enjoyedthe fruits of murder,and are still wearing the clothes and shoesof our martyrizedpeople.

248

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 101 I

Appendix E:

Profile on Jan Karski

15

102 JANKARSKI

To be in the presence of Jan Karski, Polish spy for the underground, a major figure in Claude Lanzmann's Shoah, and professor of Eastern European political science at Georgetown University, is a daunting experience. We approach the interview somewhat in awe of this handsome man, with his regal bearing and remarkable eloquence. Ourinsecurity probably stems from the fact that he bad asked for a list of questions before be would make the appointment. He ushers us solemnly into his house with an accent akin to Bela Lugosi's and sits expectantly for our questions. Our fears are unfounded. Karski is brilliant and severe, but we quickly discover that he is also playful, boyish, and charming. His students are fortunate to have a professor who is not only knowledgeable but profoundly concerned about people. Since our meeting, we have corresponded, and he remains a helpful, caring friend.

Iwas born in 1914, in Lodz, Poland, the youngest of eight children. The oldest was eighteen years older, and all of the other children were out of the house by the time I was an adolescent. My parents were middle-class. My father died when I was a child so he did not register much in my heart or in my mind. My motherlike all mothers, I loved her, I obeyed her. She was very sensitive, extremely religious. At the age of twelve, I joined a semireligious, semisecret organization. My mentor was a Jesuit Father, so I fell under the influence of the Jesuits sixty years ago and until today nobody liberated me from the Jesuits. I was always a good student. In gymnasium, I became friends with a group of Jewish students. Jews were always strong in science and I was strong in history, poetry, literature. So for four years we established the closest relationship. I helped them and they helped me. I remember vividly their names and faces, what each one of them taught me, and what was the particular ambition of each of them. What happened to them all I do not know. Only God knows. I finished gymnasium in 1931. My mother didn't want me to go to military service, so I went to university. I was the best student in the university. Most of my thinking life I wanted to be a diplomat, an ambassador of Poland. My hero was the foreign minister of Napoleon, Talleyrand. I called him "The Divine Prince of Benevento." For my thesis, I tried to reconstruct every day of his life, which, of course, was impossible. In 1935, I earned my master's degree in law and diplomatic sciences. Then I went into the military for one year. In 1936, I began an unofficial attachment to the diplomatic service, and went for eight months to Geneva under the League of Nations. Then I went for eleven months to England to learn English, and then in February 1938 I went back to Warsaw to enter training for the Foreign Office, which I completed eleven months later, with the highest grades. In January 1939, I was made the secretary of the Department of Immigration and became the private secretary of the director of personnel in the Foreign Ministry. This was an important position. On August 23, 1939, the Nazis and Soviets agreed to a nonaggression pact. At the same time Poland semisecretly mobilized. On September 1, the bombs fell. For

170 103 BEST COPY AVAILABLE LL I " wist.:0).4..1441va RESCUERS

when the Nazisinvaded. I never lasted twenty minutes.I was in the army taken as a me the war only chaos andconfusion. I was German, I neverfired shots. I saw brain and my saw a and I escapedby using my prisoner of war tothe Soviet Union, physical agility. friends, I foundthat theunderground had and looked for my familiar When I returned good memory,and that I was already been formed.They knew about my first job as a in December1939 I did my with many other partsof Europe, so located. where the Polishgovernment-in-exile was courier fromWarsaw to France, skis. Once inBudapest, I was of Slovakia andreached Hungary on there for I crossed all take the train toFrance. I was provided with falsedocuments and could On my next trip, route, thistime on foot. returned by the same I had so four months, and tortured and myribs were broken. however, I was arrestedin Slovakia. I was wrists. But I stand the torture, soI tried to cut my much informationand I couldn't hard thing to do. the found out it's a very where I establishedcontact with The Gestapo sent meback to Poland, of my who organized myescape was one underground, whorescued me. The person Cyrankiewicz, the manwho of socialism, Jozef close friends, aprominent rising star eighteen years. I owe mylife prime ministerof Poland for was to bethe Communist Fulbright Scholarship to six months inPoland under a to him. In1974, when I spent him. work on my book,I visited with and I had neverhit anyone. And had never beenhit by anyone, Until that time I violence. I cannotwatch TV when a then when I sawthe ghetto .. I cannot stand of war. War stand loud voices.I have enough argue. I cannot do terrible man and woman hatred. You have tohate. People will War generates killed; throw a degrades people. that innocentpeople will be things: derail atrain, never mind realized: that war will be killed.This I never grenade, nevermind that children hatred. responsibility to society generates such has human dignity, taught an individual infinite As a child I was human conscience.We have an Everyone has a soul, a did not and to our Lord. good, and God gave usfree will. What I capacity to choosebetween evil and have no governments,nations, societies, realize is that onlyindividuals have souls; such thing as acollective soul. to souls. There is no Jewish men fromthe underground came What happened to meis this. Two to takethe informationabout the to help theJews. They asked me "Tell me to ask me leaders of theAllied governments. systematic killing ofthe Jews to the but by then it will that we know theAllies will win the war, Churchill and Roosevelt things: tell them we canbuy Jewish the Jews. Tellthem we need two of the be too late for bribed, so we need moneyto get Jews out Germans can be what lives, that the in Germanydoes not know think that thegeneral population country. And we drop millions ofleaflets all over the Jews. We wantthe Allies to is happening to warning themthat if they do not pressure Germany, informingthe population and they bomb their cities."These were the requests their government to stop,you will go intothe Warsaw their behalf. Butfirst, they asked me to asked me to make on myself. I thoughtperhaps they were Belzec death camp, tosee for Ghetto and the macabre. It was not aworld. It was not a exaggerating, so Iagreed. The ghetto was night. I saw horrible, belong there. Ivomited blood that humanity. I did not of me. part of I agreed to dowhat they asked horrible things Iwill never forget. So that Great Anthony Eden inLondon, who said In February1943, I reported to

105 172 BEST COPY AVMBLE POLAN D

Britain had already done enough by accepting 100,000 refugees. In July I arrived in the United States. Almost every individual was sympathetic to my reports concerning the Jews. But when I reported to the leaders of governments they discarded their conscience, their personal feeling. They provided a rationale which seemed valid. What was the situation? The Jews were totally helpless. The war strategy was the military defeat of Germany and the defeat of Germany's war potential for all eternity. Nothing could interfere with the military crushing of the Third Reich. The Jews had no country, no government. They were fighting but they had no identity. One of my partners in the underground was Jewish. I found our only after the war. It was too dangerous to reveal their identity, even tofellow resistance workers. They had no identity. Helping Jews was no advantage to the Allied war strategy. The highest officials, including Lord Selborne in London, argued that if hard currency were exchanged for Jews, the Allies would be criticized after the war for subsidizing Hitler with gold and silver. They said, "Mr. Karski, this is impossible, we will not do it." Roosevelt gave the underground $12 million, but this was for the army, for fighting, "not charity to save your children," he said. When I hear people say "the Jews were passive," and that "they didn't fight"this is nonsense. In many concentration camps there were uprisings, escapes,and in the forests they fought with Partisan groups. But they had no identity. The Jews were helpless. If a Jew escaped from the ghetto, where could he go? Abandoned absolutely by all societies, governments, church hierarchies, societal organizations. Only individuals might help and were helping. The help had to come from the powerful Allied leaders, and this help did not come. Meeting Roosevelt was a great occasion. I was overwhelmed with his majesty. He was a great personality. He was not specific on anything, but you realize, I couldn't ask anything. I didn't come to negotiate, only to report and answer questions. So I said, "I will return to Poland, Mr. President. What shall I tell my people?" He said, "You will tell them we shall win the war and the enemy will be punished for their crimes. Justice will prevail. Tell your nation that they have a friend in this house. This is what you will tell them." Thirty-five or forty years after the war, I read an interview with John Pehle, who said that my mission had shaken the President and that he had ordered the creation of the American Refugee Board, which was formed only four months after I saw him. Pehle himself was appointed the director of the board but said,"It was too little, too late." Is this true? Pehle says so, but I am skeptical. I read it and it gave me satisfaction, but for myself, I am skeptical. I know Roosevelt's and Eden's arguments had some logic. Goebbels had propagandized that the Jews had provoked the war, and they made others believe that. And would the French like it, would they say, "Why for the Jews?" And would Poland itself even like it? At the end of August 1943 I tried to return to Poland, but it was decided it was too dangerous. The Germans believed I was working for "AmericanBolshevik Jews." So I stayed in the United States, but no longer in secret. Now I was attached to the Polish Embassy; I earned $500 per month, and I wrote articles to every magazine of any importanceLife, The New York Times, The Jewish Forward, La France Libre about what was happening to the Jews. I traveled all over the United States, delivering over two hundred lectures, and by the end of 1944 my book appeared, Story of a Secret State. It was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection, and two

.106 173 LIPEST COPYAVAILABLE RESClil RS

and the Belzec death camp.Nothing key chapters wereabout the Warsaw Ghetto and I was a politicalexile. During seemed to matter. Thenthe end of the war came was representingPoland and those years I was lecturing,I had absolute faiththat the Jews had beenabandoned during would one day returnthere. Absolute faith. As European countries hadbeen abandoned the war, so Poland andthe other Eastern by the Allies. and five years later Ibecame .a I staved in the UnitedStates on an entry visa, here. I had known her byreputation as agreat.itbdern..danter citizen. I met my wife academia. The didn't know her personally.Soon I decided to enter in England, but I University. I earned myPh.D. in Jesuits gave me ascholarship to Georgetown I've been at Georgetown eversince. government in twoand a half years, and for away from all mymemories. I felt contempt After the war I wanted to run who went to leaders, great leaders,military men, ministers the hypocrisy of the shocked. All of themselves. They saw, andall of them were Germany to see for They were They didn't know suchthings were possible. them, without exception. know, it was because Hypocrisy. They knew.And if some didn't taken by surprise. For over Human beings have thiscapacity to disregard. they didn't want to know. I wanted to bury mentioned to anyone thatI was in the war. thirty years I never from Claude and I did. And then in1977, I received a letter myself at the university, me. I didn't the film Shoal,. Heasked if he could interview Lanzmann, who made Lanzmann called me letter. I thought nothingwould come of it. Then Jan Karski, 1944. answer his old man. You don'tknow and said, "Mr. Karski,look in the mirror. You arc an in my film." I toldhim, "I saw when you are going todie. It is your duty to appear I don't want toremember." He terrible things in Polandconcerning the Jews which replied, "That is why weshould not let humanityforget." silence. I am not happyabout it; So circumstancestook me back and broke my conscience is telling methat I should speak. now I havebad dreams again. But my film. He cared Lanzmann; I only admirehim. He made a great But I do not like happen, what he cared only about howthe Holocaust could only about his work. He kinds of of the Holocaust." He wasinterested only in three called "the mechanism who actually the Jews who were inthe camps, and those people: the perpetrators, He the war. Only abouthow it could happen. saw it. Hedidn't even care about their eyes. those towns near the campsbecause they saw it with asked Poles only in little dumb because they were peasants,little people from So all the Poles looked Auschwitz. Intelligent, educated people didn'tlive near Treblinka and towns. The that the word Warsaw, Cracow, orLondon. And he insists educated Poles lived in also some senseof "shoah" is the only correct one."Holocaust," he said, "involves of some kind. It is aword for Hollywoodwhich Elie self - sacrifice, volunteerism by humans, executed tothe end Wiesel made famous.`Shoah'implies it was planned and God." against the laws of nature Europe. Oneof in the government andpolitics of Eastern I teach courses today time. My Versailles Peace Treatyand goes to the present them begins with the lecture of the students, evenJewish students, listen to my impression is that many what I tell them shocked. They are impressed,but they consider about the war and are myth, ratherunreal. frightening story, terrible,but still a sort of ancient as a sort of actually happened to theJews during The point is that it isdifficult to visualize what have had this feelingoften. the war. -Their minds cannotabsorb that it was real. I lolocaust, but I refused. Ihave nostomach I was asked to teach a courseon the I

107 BEST COPY AVAILABLE POLAND

for it. And besides, it's not my specialty. But what teachers of the Holocaustmust remember, what must be emphasized, and many Jews donot do it enough, particularly those who teach the Holocaust, particularly to the childrenwemust be very careful. If the teacher is not qualified, he or she will runa risk of corrupting the young minds. First, that such things were possible, such horrors happened. Corrupting the mindsof the young people will cause them to lose faith in humanity, particularly the Jewish children. "Everybody hated us...everybody was against us, so I must be only"for myself. So I must distrust everybody. Because I am a Jewish girlor a Jewish boy." This is unhealthy. We don't want them to lose faith in humanity. We should also emphasize that after the war over one-half million Jews survived in Europe. Now, some of them don't owe anything to anybody. They survived in the camps; the Nazis had no time to finish them off. There were others, they don'towe anything to anybody. They survived in the mountains, in the forests, fighting,as Partisans. But most of them were helped, by individuals, by priests,nuns, peasants, some workers, some intelligentsia, whatever they were. In France, in Belgium, in Holland, in Poland, in Romania, in Bulgaria, in Serbia, in Greece. Now,to help a Jew during the war was very dangerous. In France or Belgiumyou might go to jail if they caught you, in some cases you would be punishedor receive a penalty, pay some money. But in Eastern Europe, particularly Poland, instantaneous death! Execution! Sometimes if the family was involved, the entire family shot! Therewere a few cases, not many, but a few cases where the Gestapo found out that the peasants in the village knew that there was some Jewish family in hiding, they burned the village,the entire village! And still there were people who were helping the Jews! So children must understand this: do not lose faith in humanity. This is the message to Jewish children. For non Jews they should understand, "Yesterday Jews, tomorrow maybe Catholics, yellows, or blacks." And secondly, they should know what obedience to our second commandment, "Loveyour neighbor as yourself," can do. It can save people in such circumstances as this. Lanzmann himselfwas hidden by a French peasant family for several years. I worked on my last book for fifteen years. Now Iwant to retire, and every year I go to the provost and every year he says, "God madeyou a teacher and a teacher you will stay." So I remain a teacher. At the age of seventy-four. Everyonewants some social recognition, so if competent people tell me; "You are a good teacher,we want you here," then it's easier. Six times in secret ballot the seniors have votedme the single teacher who made the most impacton their lives. And so I teach. And I have another pressure, my wife. She told my dean, "Listen, if I havemy husband at home every day, be prepared after a few months I willgo mad. Keep him at school!" So I have become known because of my work during thewar. Here is my pride and joy, my medal from Yad Vashem. I was invited to Israel andspent three weeks there. I gave lectures, and I learned that the Israeli people quarrelmore than even the Poles. Everybody criticizes everybody. Only when there isan emergency do they come together. And then, afterSboah,a British company came to interview me and made a forty-six-minute videotape calledMessenger from Polandabout my wartime work. All of this was not planned. Always people pushedme around. This is what my life consists of. My life during the war was running everywhere, from this leaderto that. My life since the war is hard work. I work all the time. I have enough of it.I am tired. I am tired.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

108 175 Appendix F:

Profile on Gustav Mikulai

16

109 GUSTAV MIKULAI

Gustav Mikulai surprises 4 us the first time we arrive at hisapartment in Bonn. He takes look at our translator and one announces he will not speak to her. "You're German,"be tells ber. "I'm a Judeophile, and you cannot understand anything, and, becauseyou're not Jewish,you must be an anti-Semite." We apologize to the translator, who assuresus that because she is not an anti-Semite, his accusations were not wounding. Mikulai tells untoreturn that evening, when he will provide hisown translator. We arrive to meet Miriam, a beautiful sixteen-year-old girl,one of his violin students. Of course, she is Jewish. He is a differentman, relaxed, charming, and fully cooperative. After the interview he pours us sherry, all the while beamingat his protigie.

My whole life I have had three passions:music, women, and Jews. The Jews were capable andeveryone was envious; I understood that from the beginning. I couldn't be anti-Semitic, first because I thought itwould be immoral, and second because I thought well enough of myselfthat I didn't need to be envious of them. I was born in 1905 in Budapest. My father was astage technician at the theater. He wasn't intellectual but he was clever and politically left,a Social Democrat. My parents were Catholics, but not devout. We had many Jewish neighborswho were friends of ours andwe really didn't see any differences. By the time I was ten years old, I knew I would bea violinist. It was my father's idea because he saw that the musicians were better paidthan others in the theater. My mother taught me piano for about eightyears. Just after World War I, I started thinking about politics. Therewas a sort of offensive against the right wing time, and I could at that see poverty and injustice all aroundme. I was going through a period of general insecurity and curiosity. Friends influencedme to become a Social Democrat. So I learned aboutMarxism. At sixteen I entered a private music school where one-thirdof my class was Jewish. There were quite a few Jewish professors at this school becausethey weren't allowed to teach at the university. The Jews appearedmore intelligent and talented than the rest of the students,and everyone was envious. By the time Iwas twenty-five, I had been in love with girls. In 1930 I about twenty-five Jewish got my music diploma and marrieda Jewish woman, Clara Hirschman. She was a pianist, and very poor. I foundedan orchestra of fourteen women musicians, and all but three were Jewish. An all-female orchestrawas a great novelty at that time. Hungary wasn't occupied untilMarch 1944, but the minute the hid my in-laws and Nazis invaded, I my wife. I had money and I knew thecity very well, so it wasn't difficult. I had false identity cards made for them and formyself because I had changed my name to avoid being arrested. Iwas in danger not because Iwas particularly important but because there were somany posters all over town withmy name and picture on them, advertising the orchestra, and Iwas known to be a Social Democrat. I think I lived intwenty-four hideouts altogether.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 220 110 A

Jr

et

t 'AI 7 r .-

.04 41

do-

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 111 RESCUERS

Poster advertisement forGustav Mikulai's all-women orchestra, 1938-40.

All my friends knewthat if they needed help for a Jew, Iwas the one to do it. The Jews calledme the "Scarlet Pimpernel of Budapest." For thenext eight months, my friend Donny and Iwere busy hiding all the Jews the Jews into we could. The Germansput one area in Budapest, andDonny and I walked of the ghetto, knocking up and down the streets on doors and handingout false papers to thejews and:giving them another placeto live. I found during this time of the Holocaust thatI could kill anyone who was suspiciousto me. It was a terrible time for Even though I humanity. was in many life-threateningsituations, [ was frankly sort of drunk never afraid. I was with my rebellionagainst the horrible Donny and I would injustice to the Jews. go into a camp where the Jewswere being held just before deportation, andwe would take some out and put them in hiding places.I'd like to tell you one of thesestories. There was one family related to my wifewho were ina camp of about 9,000 Jews just outside Budapest.It was a very hot day in July 1944, andI went thereto find these people. Therewere guards on horseback all water in the camp, over the place. There wasno so they released about fiftypeople at a time saw a young man from this to go to the well. I family, so I threw downa note Warning him that they would be sentto Auschwitz the'next day and that I would be thereto try to get them out. I had false documentsready for them. The next day I went there, dressed in thesame clothes as the prisoners. There were 9,000 prisoners, 200 guardson horses, and one commander. couple easily, because I found the old he was pushinga wheelbarrow, but they with me. But I found were too weak togo their (laughter andson-in-law and their and theywere willing to try to one-year-old child, escape. Ijust began walking withthem. A forest bordered the train station,and as soon as we weren't being watchedI took themout.

222 112 BESTCOPYAVAILABLE HUNGARY

We met my brother at a pub as we had planned, and he took them to his house. The next day I went to my mother's house and she told me that during the night the Gestapo had come and taken the family as well as my brother. The taxi driver who had taken my brother and the others just happened to be from the same village as4 the family, and he denounced them. The Hungarian Fascist party, the Arrow Cross, was very strong in Hungary and had many supporters. It happened that my father knew about Raoul Wallenberg, and he sent a note to him to ask for help for this family and my brother. I never met Wallenberg, but he was able to get them all released. Today they live in Zurich, and the little girl is now married to a professor of medicine, and they have two daughters and live in Canada. The parents also had another child after the war, and they also have two children. So, even though 600,000 Jews were killed in Hungary, I helped preserve a small part of them. I think in all I was able to save at least fifty people, and maybe eighty or a hundred. I'm happy about the times I was able to rescue children who, now married and with children of their own, would not have had such a life without my help. It isn't just a matter of 6 million who were murdered. It's the children and grandchildren they would have had. All of these lives have been prevented. After the war I was able to get out of Hungary because I was a good Communist. I formed another all-women's orchestra, and since the best place for an orchestra leader was Germany, I came here. 'At first I thought it was a mistake because of their history, but I've met some great people here. I am abnormal in three respects: I'm never afraid, I don't really know what age means, and I don't care if a woman is sixteen or sixtyI like them all.

113 223 Appendix G:

Profile on Alex and Me la Rosan

17

114 ALEX AND MELA ROSLAN

Living in Warsaw, Alex and Me la Roslan were the parents of two young children when the ghetto was created. We interviewed them on the patio outside their comfortable garden apartment in Clearwater, Florida. The sunshine and emerald lawn do notsoften Alex's emotional, dramatic story of how he and Mela took the three wealthy Gutgelt brothers, ranging in age fi -om three to eight, into their small Warsaw dpartMent and kept them hidden for four years. The story is not entirely a happy one; the RoSlans' son dies in the Warsaw uprising and the middle Gutgelt boy dies of scarlet fever. Although Mehl was fill partner with Alex in the rescue, she says little, listening to his every detail,speaking only when he cannot remember something. After two hours he makes us sandwiches, shows us photographs, and continues to share with us what seems to be the most important time of his life.

Today sometimes I don't sleep. I think about how it was and why it happened like that. My story was not possible. My friends said it wasn't possible. "There's not enough food for your own children and certainly not enough for three boys, too." But I thought the war would be finished in two or three months. I wasn't a religious fanatic but I believed all the time that somebody watched over me. Mela and I were both born in a small village twelve kilometers from Bialystok, in Poland. Mela was born in 1907, and I was born two years later, in a house just two blocks from hers. There were maybe 100 people in the village, but Bialystok had about 200,000 people. Mela's father was a shoemaker in Bialystok, and he made a study ofJewish people. He spoke Yiddish like he was a Jew. My grandmother was very religious, but not my grandfather. My father went to the army when I was six years old and never came back, but he had taught me to fight for what I thought was right, and that those who follow like sheep are led to the slaughter. My mother was thirty-six years old then, and she married a man twenty-four years old. He married her because she had a good farm, but he was not a farmer. I was twelve years old and they thought I was a troublemaker because I was always angry that he was letting our farm run down. So they sent me away to Bialystok to become a shoemaker, but I left there and didn't come home. I went to another village and got a job, and three years later I went back home. But I still argued with my mother that her husband isn't a good farmer, so I sold my part of the farm and left for good. I cried when I had to leave home. [Alex cries here, remembering the pain of leaving his mother.] Mela and I were married in 1928, and we moved to Bialystok. Our son, Yurek, was born in 1931, and our daughter, Mary, in 1934. I was working as a textile merchant and I made a lot of money. Most of my customers were Jews, but overnight, when they put the Jews in the ghetto, I lost everything. I wanted to know what had happened to my friends and customers because I heard terrible stories. I got a Jewish friend to bring me into the ghetto through a tunnel. It Was dangerous for a non-Jew to be inside the ghetto so I wore a Jewish star. I saw so many children,

186 BEST COPY AVAILABLE 115 /.41A. P' 4

L -4''''s1.4a,"V.4k;-;"

CC

34.

sr- «i #a) 41.

4

1 issus ea or um sr sr oat or ma as or mu no am Ns sr Um us we L7,

RESCUERS

been taken to "farms," hungry and starving. They were soskinny. The parents had around and begged for a penny to but we knew what that meant.The children came friend stopped me. Hesaid it wouldn't make any buy some bread. My Jewish Me la we had to do difference, that they would die anyway.I came home and told something. We decided to go toWarsaw. leave my mother's house;I You know, I think I cry a lot.I cried when I had to children clamored after meand cried when I went into theghetto and the little the poorVly grandmother kissed my coat and cried forhelp. I'm very sensitive to was like that. day I met my friend We got a nice one-room apartmentin Warsaw, and one he had been working for Stanley, from the next villagefrom mine. Stanley told me El for the grandfather. He said the Gutgelt family before the war;he was the chauffeur they are in the ghetto. He told they were wonderful people,and very rich, but now and the son-in-law, andalmost all me that thegrandfather had taken the three sons Lii Palestine. They believed the the money, and they had leftWarsaw, hoping to get to <4. they would leave the Germans were only interested inkilling men, and thought the grandmother, two auntsnamed women and childrenalone. So in the ghetto were INvid. The boys' mother H Janke and Devora, and threechildren, Jacob, Sholom, and born. I told Stanley heshould help them, that heshould had died when David was my house. I take the children, but he says it's toohard. I say maybe they can come to made a connection with have two children, no one willnotice one more. Stanley but before anything Janke and told her that he wasconsidering taking the children, buy some tobacco to. could happen, Stanley had to go oneday to the next town to The next day I sell. He asked me to go withhim, but something told me not to go. people he was with werekilled. found out that Stanley and all the knocked on my A couple of days later a mandressed like a German civilian happened. He cried out, door. He was looking for Stanley,and I told him what had and he said, "Do you "Oh, now everything is finished."I asked him what he meant, of,janke's husband. know Janke?" This man was Dr.Kowalski, the brother-in-law the name on his fake I.D. Itold Aunt Janke with Jacob, David,His real name was AvrahamGaler, but Kowalski was and Sholom Gutgelt, in the ghetto, plans, and he asks me if Iwill take one boy. I tell 1942. him I knew Stanley was making him I will try. house. She explained thatshe doesn't have any money,. I met with Janke at my holdings. I tell and that she would like to give rue someof the family's real-estate maybe, okay." She asks me, her, "This is still war. If afterthe war you can pay me, "Trust me." She criesand "How do I know I can trust you?I don't know you." I say, they want to stay inthe kisses me. I want to take her andthe rest of the family, but Jacob. ghetto until after Passover. So twodays later I meet her and take from now on you're Jacob told Janke goodbye andright away I told him, "Jacob, Your name is nowGenek. I not Jacob anymore. Youlook just like my brother's son. things get, we willlive will make you two promises right now.No matter how bad could promisehim through it. And you will remainJewish." I don't know how I that, but I did. clever. I told himhe had Jacob was about nine or ten yearsold, and so smart and careful thatthe to stay in his roomand not look out thewindow. We had to be We alwaysdivided neighbors shouldn't see him. Ourchildren liked him so much. that thechildren everything fairly between all fourchildren. I tried to make sure "Try to makesure didn't understand they were strangebecause Janke had told me,

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 188 117 POLAND

Jacob doesn't know he'sdifferent. Try danger is. If there to make sure thathe doesn't know is danger, don'ttalk about it." what We builta false floor in the in. But about kitchen cupboard;Jacob was skinny two weeks later theGestapo so he could- fit seen Jacob. They looked came because a neighborthought she had everywhere, butthey didn't find same SS mancame again, but that him.:Thenone day:.that time my brother-in -law was visiting this man. Jacobwas hiding under the and he knew They drank and sink, andwe started giving the they ateso Much, and my 'Nazi Whiskey. would never hide brother-in-law convincedhiin his sister a Jew, so we escapedthat time But anotherapartment. I knew I hadto go looking for 11111011100.."--.. I found a nice bigapartment in a quiet couch, and that'show we moved neighborhood. Iput Jacob inside the across town, right under A couple of dayslater Dr. Kowalski the noses of theGermans. came to see me andhe says, "Mr. to bring you anotherboy. He's in Roslan, Iwant down all the a place now where hehas to stay in time. He'sso skinny and sickly." the attic laying So I asked my wife what she thinks.We talked. But for one, it's thesame if we have two." I said, "Mela, ifthey catchus Orish. He So Sholomcame, and we changed was so hungry, butso sweet. I think he his name to my Mary and Yurek, was here onlytwo months when and Jacobgot scarlet fever. The was in the hospital and doctor said it isvery bad. Yurek he gave Melahalf his medicine Sholom got sick,and he every night for Jacob.Then was too weak. Mary,Yurek, and Jacob was too sick. Dr.Kowalski got well, but Sholorn came every day, butthen he didn't One night in themiddle of the come for a few days. night Iwent to Sholom and Jacob in 1940. He says, "I wouldfeel better if he says he feelsso bad. you would hold me."I picked him my arms. We buriedhim in the up, and he died in basement, sittingup, because was the way to burya Jew. someone told me that Then Jacobgot sick again and he knew a doctor had to havean operation. My who hada clinic and would do brother-in-law zlotys. This wasn't the surgery;but I hadto find 10,000 so much money butif you had decided togo out and sell none it was too muchmoney. I our nice bigapartmentand get Somebody watched a smaller one, and Idid it. over me. I got 60,000zlotys, but when apartment she cried and I told Mela Isold the cried. She said,"Orish died, Genek don't even havean apartment." will die, andnow we I said "Mela,don'tworry, I bought aone-room apartment and I'll make more money sowe can get a biggerone soon. Don't worry." The next dayI bandaged Jacob's head andtook himto the hospitalon a horse. His operation wasa success, and everyone cried. ThenDavid came to us. Hewas about four or five, and so cute, so cute. He - had been at my brother-in-law's Jacob in 1940. but it didn'twork out,so we took him.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 118 189 RESCUERS

A

David and Jacob with Alex Roslan, 1945.

I had to keep doing everything I could think of to make money. I did a lot of tricks, but Mela, she had her tricks, too. When we moved she knew the Gestapo was looking for me so she .took all my clothes to a friend's house so she could say I was gone for good. I was arrested near the end of the war,and Mela came every day to a different gate with money for me to use to buy my way out. We never would haVe survived without Mela. I was in jail for six weeks and Mela took care of everything, of the children and of getting me out. Until that time I was worried because she was always weak. But from that time when she had to do it on her own, she was strong. I know I couldn't have clone it by myself. Then came the Warsaw Uprising, when everyone thought the Soviet troops were juSt outside the city and about to liberate us. Our son,Yurek, was killed on the street by a Nazi sniper. He told Jacob that he washelping the Partisans, but he never told us that. It was a terrible time. As I said, I thought the war would be finished in two or three months. We got the underground paper and it seemed good. But '43, '44, beginning of '45 were very tough years. You know it was terrible that the boys' aunts and grandmother wouldn't come with us, too. Three weeks after we took Jacob, the ghetto was liquidated and they went to Auschwitz. So after the war we went to Berlin looking for Jacob and David's father. We found out they made it to Palestine, so we all wanted to go. But the British wouldn't let us go, only the boys. It was so hard to say goodbye to them. They had been with us for four and a half years, and two and a half of thesehad been so hard. So, in 1947, I had fine suits made for them, and they left. Mela and I and our daughter, Mary, came to the United States. We wrote Jacob and Diivid-in :the suits Alexletters, so many letters, to David and Jacob, but we didn't get answers. I couldn't and Mela had made for them,believe it!I said, "They were like our own sons, and they forget us!" But I think with their father, just after thetheir father threw all our letters away. Then one day in about 1963, we wereliving boys' arrival in Israel, 1947. in Queens and got a phone call from someone in Forest Hills, New York. Heasked me, "Do you have a relative in Israel?" I was so excitedI said, "Yes, Gutgelt, but

190 I.1 9 BESTCOPYAVAILABLE POLAND they changed their names to Gilat." He said, "Maybe we'll see you tomorrow." And the next day, Jacob came. He was in California, studying for his Ph.D. at Berkeley. We talked and talked; he remembers everything. He told us some old secrets: "You know, Uncle, when I went to you, Grandma' said, 'Don't become a goy. Die with us together, because you will eat pork with the goys and die. Do not speak like the goy; they're different. Don't try to speak perfect." You know, the Jews spoke Polish with a Yiddish accent. "But then my Aunt Janke said, air 'Jacob, don't listen to Grandma. She's old-fashioned.' And that was that." A few years later David came to study for his doctorate, and we saw him. At first I didn't recognize him. I hadn't seen him in so long, and he had a beard. But then he threw his arms around me. That was in 1980. David is a mathematician and Jacob is a nuclear scientist. We didn't all get together again until 1981. Jacob and David asked us to come to Israel for Passover, and to get our medal from Yad Vashem, and plant a tree there. I was so happy that I had been able to keep my promise to Jacob.

It was a wonderful reunion. We all had Passover together, even the boys' father. .4111111Mr.-_ We were there for twenty-one days. David took us to the north and Jacob took us to the south. I know Israel better than Poland. Israel is like a magnet. I like Israel ten nines better than the United States. You know, Rabbi Schulweis has been wonderful to me. People like him in the world maybe you can count on one hand. He invited us to California, he sent us a ticket to go to Israel, he got us $2,000 from Buffalo, and now we get $250 every month from the foundation in New York. The man who owns this building where we live gives us our apartment for less ent. So I told my wifethis is no joke"Schulweis is like mother and this man is like father. I have two support people." I play the lottery, and if I win I will split it with Schulweis. Sometimes he calls me and I cry when I hear his voice on the phone. When I look back on those times I think that maybe there were so many anti- Semites in Poland because there were so many Jews who did well in business and theAlex during the interview, 1988. Poles were jealous. In this country, if something happens, nobody helps you. In my building everybody has a car, but many people are very old and can't drive anymore, but no one gives them a ride to go shopping. I never go shopping without taking someone with me. The best years of my life were when I first came to Warsaw and became successful in business. And then I was so happy when I brought Jacob home. No one was paying me, but I felt I was doing something great. I thought, If I survive this, I've done something great.

)13E5 COPYAVAILABLE

120

191 U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) National Library of Education (NLE) ERIC Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC)

NOTICE

Reproduction Basis

This document is covered by a signed "Reproduction Release (Blanket)" form (on file within the ERIC system), encompassing all or classes of documents from its source organization and, therefore, does not require a "Specific Document" Release form.

This document is Federally-funded, or carries its own permission to 4 reproduce, or is otherwise in the public domain and, therefore, may be reproduced by ERIC without a signed Reproduction Release form (either "Specific Document" or "Blanket").

EFF-089 (3/2000)