Yad VaJerusalemhem QUARTERLY MAGAZINE, VOL. 53, APRIL 2009 New Exhibit: The Republic of Dreams Bruno Schulz: Wall Painting Under Coercion (p. 4) ChildrenThe Central Theme forin Holocaust the RemembranceHolocaust Day 2009 (pp. 2-3) Yad VaJerusalemhem QUARTERLY MAGAZINE, VOL. 53, Nisan 5769, April 2009 Published by: Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority Children in the Holocaust ■ Chairman of the Council: Rabbi Israel Meir Lau Vice Chairmen of the Council: Dr. Yitzhak Arad Contents Dr. Israel Singer Children in the Holocaust ■ 2-3 Professor Elie Wiesel ■ On Holocaust Remembrance Day this year, The Central Theme for Holocaust Martyrs’ Chairman of the Directorate: Avner Shalev during the annual “Unto Every Person There and Heroes’ Remembrance Day 2009 Director General: Nathan Eitan is a Name” ceremony, we will read aloud the Head of the International Institute for Holocaust New Exhibit: names of children murdered in the Holocaust. Research: Professor David Bankier The Republic of Dreams ■ 4 Some faded photographs of a scattered few Chief Historian: Professor Dan Michman Bruno Schulz: Wall Painting Under Coercion remain, and their questioning, accusing eyes Academic Advisors: cry out on behalf of the 1.5 million children Taking Charge ■ 5 Professor Yehuda Bauer prevented from growing up and fulfilling their Professor Israel Gutman Courageous Nursemaids in a Time of Horror basic rights: to live, dream, love, play and Members of the Yad Vashem Directorate: Education ■ 6-7 laugh. Shlomit Amichai, Edna Ben-Horin, New International Seminars Wing Chaim Chesler, Matityahu Drobles, From the day the Nazis came to power, ,Abraham Duvdevani, ֿֿMoshe Ha-Elion, Cornerstone Laid at Yad Vashem Jewish children became acquainted with cruelty Yehiel Leket, Tzipi Livni, Adv. Shelly (Shlomo) ■ 8 first in Germany and, as time passed, in every Malka, Linda Olmert, Adv. Dov Shilansky, Entendiendo el Holocausto Effi Shtensler, Baruch Shub, Amira Stern, Yad Vashem Activities in the Spanish- other country the Germans conquered or forged Adv. Shoshana Weinshall, Eli Zborowski, Speaking World an alliance. The parents and families of these Dudi Zilbershlag children were unable to grant them the security 27 January ■ 9 and protection they needed. Jewish children were THE MAGAZINE International Holocaust Remembrance Day separated from their non-Jewish playmates and Marked Worldwide Editor-in-Chief: Iris Rosenberg expelled from state-sponsored schools. They Managing Editor: Leah Goldstein Torchlighters 2009 ■ 10-11 saw their parents lose the right to support their Editorial Board: From the Yad Vashem Archives ■ 12 families, and often witnessed the descent of the Yifat Bachrach-Ron family unit into an abyss of despair. Deborah Berman “When I get some bread, I’ll send it to you” Susan Weisberg As war broke out and antisemitic policies New Publications ■ 13 Cynthia Wroclawski worsened, the suffering of Jewish children “And God Saw That It Was Bad” Estee Yaari increased: many were doomed to the horrific Otto Weiss’ Unusual Birthday Present Editorial Coordinator: Lilach Tamir-Itach suffering of life in the ghetto – the bitter cold, Language Editor: Leah Goldstein News ■ 14-16 the never-ending hunger and a multitude of Proofreader: Ezra Olman Friends Worldwide ■ 17-19 dangerous diseases. There, cut off from the Translated by: Hever Translators’ Pool (Intl) world, they lived in the shadow of endless Assisted by: Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ terror and violence. As smuggling was central ■ 20 Alexander Avraham, Prof. David Bankier, Remembrance Day 2009 to survival in the ghettos, they were often forced Rachel Barkai, Shaya Ben Yehuda, Program of Events at Yad Vashem Osnat Dadon, Annie Eisen, Limor Karo, to assume the new role of breadwinner for their Masha Pollak-Rozenberg, Dana Porath, disintegrating families. Henrika Lazobert, a Amanda Smulowitz Jewish poet, wrote a paean to a daring young Photography: Yossi Ben David, Yisrael Hadari, smuggler who, despite the risks, persevered in Isaac Harari, Paul Melling finding food for his family. The poem ends: Production: Keter Press Design: Stephanie & Ruti Design I shall no longer come back to you [mother] This magazine was published with the … and only on my lips assistance of The Azrieli Group. will one worry freeze fast: My beloved mother, tomorrow who’ll bring you your piece of bread as in the past? ISSN 0793-7199 Still, children in the Holocaust remained ©Articles appearing in this issue may be reprinted children, desiring only to partake in activities with proper acknowledgement. beloved by all their contemporaries. In August Yad Vashem’s activities are supported by 1940 David Rabinowitz, a young boy from a the Ministry of Education ■ On the cover: Bruno Schulz (1892-1942), village near Kielce, Poland, wrote in his diary: Carriage Driver (Self-Portrait), Drohobych, “During the war, I’ve been studying by myself, and the Claims Conference 1941-1942. Fresco secco. at home. When I remember that I used to go to Loan of the Drohobychyna Museum, Ukraine (© Marek W. Podstolski) school, I feel like crying.” 2 Children in the Holocaust The Central Theme for Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day 2009 ■ Young boy on a street in the Krakow ghetto, Poland. Yad Vashem Photo Archives When the deportations to the extermination names and Jewish identity. Many were forced their beloved dolls, the children could dream of camps began, a chasm opened up in the lives to train themselves not to move, laugh or cry, or a better world, of returning to their family and of Jewish children. Throughout Nazi Europe, even talk. Upon liberation, one little girl asked lost childhood; and only to these dolls could they fled and hid, separated from their parents her mother, “Mommy, may I cry now?” they open their aching hearts. and loved ones. Some of them found refuge in Of course, not all Jewish children were lucky At the end of the war, a new chapter began, the homes of decent people whose conscience enough to find a place of refuge, and many tens one of both hope and pain for the life that was would not allow them to remain passive; several of thousands of children were caught and sent gone, never to return. Many children were lost to were hidden in convents and monasteries and to the death camps. Their young age made most their families and their Jewish heritage forever. boarding schools; others were forced to roam the first prey of the Nazi killing machine. For others, the war’s end marked a beginning of through forests and villages, hunting for food Yet wherever they were – in the ghettos, in their return to their real selves, a process filled like wild animals and relying entirely on their hiding and even in the camps – they did not with difficulties and torment. Very slowly, they own ingenuity and resourcefulness. Many surrender moments of childish playfulness. A emerged from hiding, from the forests and the were forced to live under assumed identities, short break in a daily routine of hunger and camps, and began the long and painful process longingly anticipating the return of their father dread was enough to summon gales of joyous of rehabilitation. Despite the scars, they sought and mother. Some were so young when separated laughter, childish brawls, and games with toys to rebuild their lives anew. from their parents that they forgot their real made of rags and scraps of paper. Together with www.yadvashem.org for a special subsite for Holocaust Remembrance Day 2009 3 New Exhibit: The Republic of Dreams Bruno Schulz: Wall Painting Under Coercion by Yehudit Shendar and Eliad Moreh-Rosenberg ■ On the evening of 30 June 1941, the town holding the reins of two splendid horses, from Günther, who shot him in the back of the head of Drohobycz (in the Lwow district in Poland, the story of Cinderella. on “Bloody Thursday,” 19 November 1942. now Drobhobych in Ukraine) was conquered But instead of simply decorating the nursery With close to two hundred fellow Jews from his by the Germans, and a campaign of abuse and for the children of the SS Hauptscharführer, beloved town, Schulz was buried in the Jewish murder of Jews began. Schulz created, with sensitivity, ingenuity cemetery that same night; his last self-portraits Serving at the Gestapo headquarters in the and courage, a personal memorial room for were left on the villa walls. himself, his family and his community. Thus town was SS Hauptscharführer Felix Landau, ■■■ ■ Bruno Schulz (1892-1942), Snow White Accompanied by Dwarves, Drohobych, 1941-1942. Fresco secco. Loan of the Drohobychyna Museum, Ukraine (© Marek W. Podstolski) Some 60 years after Schulz decorated who was responsible for enlisting forced labor in the depiction of Snow White, the bearded the “Villa Landau,” his wall paintings were from the ghetto’s populace. Landau ordered the dwarf holding a shovel to Snow White’s right rediscovered. A display of the paintings at Jewish artist and writer Bruno Schulz to decorate is in fact an image of Bruno’s father, Jakub, Yad Vashem’s Museum of Holocaust Art was the walls of the local riding school. whose facial features are recognizable from inaugurated on 20 February 2009, in the presence With the arrival of his children at Drohobycz, many of his surviving depictions. Bruno was of Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Culture and Landau instructed Schulz to decorate the walls highly attached to his father, making him a Tourism Vladislav Kornienko and celebrated of the nursery at his home, where he lived with protagonist in many of his short stories. Israeli author David Grossman. his lover, with images from popular fairytales. The carriage driver is none other than the Addressing the audience, Grossman described Thus, in late 1941 or early 1942, Schulz arrived artist’s self-portrait. The motif of carriage and how Schulz’s creations had been an inspiration daily at the “Villa Landau” in order to complete driver is a recurrent theme in Schulz’s graphic to his own literature: “When I finished reading the work, in the hope that his assignment would and literary works, reflecting his belief that men his compilation of stories [Cinnamon Shops; save him from deportation and death.