Children During the Holocaust
Children were especially vulnerable during the Holocaust. Nazis and their collaborators killed 1.5 million Jewish children – plus tens of thousands more German children with physical and mental disabilities, Roma/Sinti, Polish, and Soviet Union-dwelling children.
In the ghettos, Jewish children died from starvation and exposure as well as lack of adequate clothing and shelter. Because children were generally too young to work, Nazi authorities often selected them, along with the elderly, ill, and disabled, to be killed. Upon arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau and other killing centers, the majority of children were sent directly to the gas chambers. SS physicians and medical researchers used many children, including twins, for medical experiments that often resulted in the childrens’ deaths.
Between 1938 and 1940, the Kindertransport (Children’s Transport) was the informal name of a rescue effort that brought thousands of refugee Jewish children – without their parents – to safety in Great Britain from Nazi Germany and German-occupied territories. Across Europe, some non-Jews hid Jewish children and sometimes, as in the case of Anne Frank, hid other family members as well. After the surrender of Nazi Germany in May 1945, ending World War II in Europe, refugees and displaced persons searched throughout the continent for missing children. Thousands of orphaned children were in displaced persons camps.
Before victims were killed at Auschwitz-Birkenau, they were asked to remove their clothing. Much of this clothing was saved or recycled and sent back to be used by people in the German Reich. When Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated in January 1945, piles of shoes, clothing, eye glasses, and other items were found. The Holocaust Center for Humanity is one of only three museums in the United States to have artifacts from the Auschwitz Museum in Poland. One of the artifacts is a child’s shoe.
The Holocaust Center for Humanity is one of only three institutions in the United States to have artifacts on loan from the Auschwitz Museum in Poland. One of these artifacts is a child’s shoe similar to the one depicted here.
