Biographies:
Children in the Holocaust 1939 -1945
Natan Abbe
Was Born
1924 in Lodz, Poland Natan,
the son of Carola and Israel Abbe, grew up in Lodz, Poland. His father owned a
haberdashery store, where he sold hats, gloves, and other accessories. He had
two sisters and a younger brother. A large, fairly liberal city, Lodz was home
to over 233,000 Jews. It was a major center of the textile industry. Its
diverse population of Jews, Poles and Germans lived together in relative peace. When
the Germans occupied Lodz in September 1939, Natan was fifteen. Anti-Jewish restrictions were immediately enacted. Jews were
forbidden to congregate for religious services, they were subject to curfew,
their radios were confiscated, and they were forced to wear the yellow star. In
addition, Jews were barred from most professions, and all Jewish communal
institutions were ordered to disband. On
February 8, 1940, all the Jews were forced to live in a run-down part of the
city. On May 1, 1940, the overcrowded ghetto was closed off. Living
conditions were horrendous. There was no heat, little food or medicine, and
inadequate sanitation. People fell dead in the street from starvation, disease
and exposure. Still, the basic appearance of normal inner-city life was
maintained. Schools and hospitals still functioned. The
Germans constantly harassed the Jewish residents of the ghetto, randomly
seizing people on the streets, raiding their apartments, and subjecting them to
horrendous indignities. People were shot for the slightest reason. Young
children often became the sole support of thier families. They would smuggle
themselves out of the ghetto in order to find food and bring it back to their
starving parents, brothers and sisters.
Natan
was shot to death in late 1940 by a German soldier at the ghetto gate. He was
sixteen years old.
Natan
was one of 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Germans and their
collaborators during the Holocaust.
Assia Levinski
Born
1928 in Kazlu-Ruda, Lithuania Assia,
the daughter of Leon and Chaja Levinski, lived with her parents and younger
brother Monia in a small village in Lithuania. Assia's father was a lumber
dealer. Assia was a member of a large, loving, close-knit extended family. Her
grandparents lived on a large farm a few miles outside of town. Both of her
parents had attended high school in Marijampole, the closest city. Marijampole's
2,545 Jews earned their livelihood from trading in agricultural produce and
from small industry. The Jews of Marijampole established the first Hebrew high
school in Lithuania. A small farm which trained youth interested in pioneering
in Palestine was established outside the city. Assia
was a thirteen year-old schoolgirl in the summer of 1941, when the Germans
invaded Lithuania. Assia and her family were forced to leave their home. Along
with all the Jews of the surrounding area, they were confined to an overcrowded,
sealed-off ghetto in Marijampole. Over 7,000 people endured great hardship.
There was inadequate food, medicine, and sanitation. At
the beginning of September 1941,Jews were forced to leave the ghetto. In groups
of 500, they were marched by members the Einsatzgruppen, special mobile killing
squads, and their Lithuanian collaborators, a few miles outside the city.
Anyone trying to escape was immediately shot. Forced to stand along already
prepared ditches, they were massacred. Assia was thirteen years old.
Assia
was one of 1.5 Jewish children who were murdered by the Germans and their
collaborators during the Holocaust.
Eduard Hornemann
Born
1932 in Eindhoven, Holland Eduard,
the son of Philip and Elizabeth Hornemann, was born in Eindhoven, Holland, in
1932. His father, an executive with the Philips Corporation, provided a
comfortable living for his family. When
the Germans occupied Holland in May 1940, Eduard was an eight year-old
schoolboy. The Nazis immediately instituted harsh anti-Jewish measures.
Eduard's family was temporarily exempted from many of the restrictions because
of his father's position with the Philips Corporation. After the Germans began
deporting Jews to death camps, the Philips Corporation set up a special section
for its Jewish employees.
On
August 18, 1943, German troops surrounded the Philips plant in Eindhoven, and
arrested all the Jews. Eduard's father and the rest of the Jewish employees
were sent to Vught, a Dutch concentration camp, where they were put to work in
a Philips operation that employed over 3,000 of the prisoners. The Philips
workers received extra rations and were given the special privilege of living
with their wives and children. When a Philips Corporation representative told
Eduard's mother that the company could guarantee her family's safety only if
she joined her husband in the camp, she felt that she had no choice but to go. On
June 3, 1944, the Hornemanns were deported to the Birkenau death camp in
Poland. Eduard and his brother remained with their mother and were sent to the
women's barracks. Conditions in the camp were horrendous. There was little
food, and disease was rampant. Eduard's mother contracted typhoid fever three
months after their arrival, and died soon after. A few days after their mother's
death, Eduard and his brother, along with 20 other Jewish children, were chosen
to be used in medical experiments. In the fall of 1944, the children were
transferred to the Neuengamme concentration camp. The children were injected
with tuberculosis cultures and became extremely ill. On
April 20, 1945, when the British were less than three miles from the camp, the
sick children were put into a truck and brought to a school in Hamburg. They
were injected with morphine and hanged. Eduard was twelve years old.
Eduard
was one of 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Germans and their
collaborators during the Holocaust.
Lilly Klein
Born
September 29, 1927 in Mateszalka, Hungary Lilly,
the daughter of Sara and Sandor Klein, lived with her mother and seven siblings,
in the city of Debrecen, Hungary. When the Germans invaded Hungary in March
1944, Lilly was a seventeen year-old student. Hungary
was a staunch ally of Nazi Germany. As such, the Germans did not, at first,
invade the country, but urged the government to deport its Jews to
concentration camps. The Hungarian government was not willing to send its
Jewish citizens to their deaths, but did pass many discriminatory laws against
them. Young men were sent to forced labor camps. Lilly was able to continue her
studies at the local Jewish high school until her seventeenth year. By
1943, the Hungarian government realized that their German ally was losing the
war. Hungary, therefore, tried to break its alliance with Germany. In a fit of
rage, Hitler ordered his armies into Hungary. In 1944, German troops occupied
the entire country, and with the help of Hungarian collaborators, began
deporting local Jews to concentration camps. Lilly
and her family were rounded up and herded into a sealed-off ghetto where they
were kept for two months. The Germans began sending the Jewish residents of
Debrecen to the Auschwitz death camp. Towards the end of June, Lilly was put on
a train going to Auschwitz. The train could not get through, because the tracks
had been bombed in allied air raids. The train was instead diverted to the
Strasshoff concentration camp in Austria. There, Lilly was forced to work to
the point of total exhaustion. Food was scarce, and those who couldn't work
were murdered.
When
the camp was liberated in April 1945, eighteen year-old Lilly was barely alive.
One
and a half million Jewish children were murdered by the Germans and their
collaborators during the Holocaust. Lilly was one of the few to survive.
Gabriele Silten
Born
May 30, 1933 in Berlin, Germany Gabriele,
the daughter of Fritz and Ilse (Teppich) Silten, was born in Berlin, Germany. Berlin,
a sophisticated and cosmopolitan city, was home to a highly assimilated Jewish
community. Gabriele's father was a pharmacist and the Siltens had a comfortable
life. After
Hitler came into power in Germany in 1933, life for Germany's Jews became increasingly
difficult. Hitler's Nazi party passed various antisemitic measures stripping
German Jews of their citizenship, cutting them off from all social interaction
with non-Jews, and harshly restricting Jewish economic life. Jews were barred
from most professions and the majority became impoverished. In 1938, Gabriele
and her family fled to Holland. Settling in Amsterdam, Gabriele made friends
with a girl her own age living in the same building. They attended kindergarten
together, and Gabriele quickly learned Dutch. The
Nazis invaded Holland in May 1940, just before Gabriele's seventh birthday.
Gabriele was no longer allowed to play with her non-Jewish friends. She had to
attend a private school for Jewish children and wear the yellow star. Arrested
in a massive raid on June 20, 1943, Gabriele and her family were sent to the
Westerbork transit camp. In January 1944, Gabriele and her parents were
transported in cattle cars to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia.
Conditions were horrible. The ghetto was extremely overcrowded and infested
with typhus-spreading vermin. Gabriele was fortunate to be able to stay with
her mother and father. Nearly everyone worked 10 hours a day, seven days a
week. There was little food, and Gabriele often went hungry. Ten year-old
Gabriele was put to work as a message carrier in the old-age home. Prisoners
at Theresienstadt were generally transported to other camps in Poland, where
they were murdered. Gabriele and her parents were still in Theresienstadt when
it was liberated on May 8, 1945. They were weak and in poor health.
Only
100 of the many thousands of Jewish children who passed through Theresienstadt
survived the Holocaust. Gabriele was fortunate to be among them.
One
and a half million Jewish children were murdered by the Germans and their
collaborators during the Holocaust.