Through Our Eyes Final

Through Our Eyes

Children Witness the Holocaust

© Yad Vashem Photo

Start

© Yad Vashem Photo

© Yad Vashem Photo

Index

Children and the Holocaust

Deportations

Introduction

Forced Removal of the Jews

Life Before the Holocaust

The Camps

Pre-war Jewish Life

The Struggle for Life in the Camps

Changing Times in Europe

Rescue

Anti-Jewish Legislation

The Righteous Among the Nations

The Yellow Star

Liberation

The Jewish Badge

The Return to Life After the Holocaust

Daily Life in the Ghettos

The Struggle for Life in the Ghettos

Children and the Holocaust

Let's think

Let's Examine

Let's discuss

But For Me Spring Came Too Late, from the series: "Six paintings dedicated to the memory of the six million" 1997-1998 Mixed media on canvas, 60X90 cm Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum Gift of the artist in memory of his father, Isaac Joseph Kornowski who was murdered in Auschwitz

Paul Kor

Life Before the Holocaust

Millions of Jewish children lived in Europe before the Holocaust. Let’s get to know them.

What did their lives look like? What did they do?

© Yad Vashem Photo

© Yad Vashem Photo

Berlin, Germany, Children of the Ryke St. School in a Hanukkah play, 1935

Let's think

Let's SEE

Dlugosiodlo, Poland, 1920s-1930s. Boys playing chess, at the Yehudia summer camp for religious children

Mazeikiai, Lithuania, Prewar, The "Maccabi" soccer team

The Nazis came to power in 1933 and everything changed for the Jews.

The Nazis persecuted the Jews that lived in every country that they conquered.

Changing Times in Europe

© Yad Vashem Photo

© Yad Vashem Photo

Austria, A bench with the inscription "Only for Jews"

Let's SEE

Let's think

Bueckeberg, Germany, Hitler walking through a mass rally of the Nazi Party, 1934

The yellow star marked the Jews and also humiliated them.

The Yellow Star

The Nazis decreed that the Jews had to wear the yellow star.

© Yad V ashem Photo

© Yad Vashem Photo

© Yad V ashem Photo

Angouleme, France, Girls of the Reiss family, August 1942

The Netherlands, Jewish children with their teacher in a classroom

Amsterdam, Holland, Eli and Flori Asher on their wedding day, June 14, 1942

Let's think

Let's read

Let's Examine

Within months of conquering Poland, the Germans forced the Jews to live in ghettos.

Daily Life in the Ghettos

In the ghettos, the Jews were isolated and cut off from the rest of the world.

© Yad Vashem Photo

© Yad Vashem Photo

© Yad Vashem Photo

Lodz, Poland, Children copying weekly food ration details from the bulletin board, June 13-16, 1941

Lodz, Poland, A teacher and a pupil near a map of Eretz Israel in the ghetto, probably in a school in Marysin

Warsaw, Poland, Jews in the market place, next to the ghetto wall

Let's think

Let's SEE

Let's discuss

Let's read

Let's consider

Let's Examine

They began deporting (taking out) the Jews from the ghettos and sending them to different kinds of camps.

As the war continued, Hitler and the Nazis changed their plans for the Jews of Europe. Instead of separating the Jews, they decided to kill them.

Deportations

© Yad Vashem Photo

© Yad Vashem Photo

© Yad Vashem Photo

Lodz, Poland, Jews boarding a deportation train, 1944

Koszeg, Hungary, 1944, Deportation of Jews from town

Let's Examine

Let's discuss

Let's think

Let's read

Szydlowiec, Poland, Women and children during deportation, 1942

The Nazis sent many of the Jews to camps. The conditions in the camps were extremlely difficult and the Jews suffered terribly from the harsh treatment.

The Camps

In the extermination camps, most of the Jews were killed upon arrival.

The siddur that Zvi Kopolovich traded in Auschwitz for a full day's ration of bread.

The comb that Janka Breznitz traded in Auschwitz in exchange for a full day's ration of bread

Let's discuss

Let's think

Let's read

Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland, Women pronounced fit for labor after being processed, May 27, 1944

Rescue: The Righteous Among the Nations

In spite of the danger, some people helped Jews and saved their lives. They are called the Righteous Among the Nations.

In every country that the Germans conquered, it was forbidden for the local people to help the Jews.

© Yad Vashem Photo

© Yad Vashem Photo

Bruria Lev, daughter of Holocaust survivor Yochanan Warmflash, with Galina Grinchik, surrounded by the extended Warmflash family

The boat of Gilbert Lassen, a fisherman from the village of Gilleleje, Denmark, used to smuggle Jews to Sweden in October 1943

Let's read

Let's Examine

Let's think

Let's discuss

Let's Examine

For the children who survived the Holocaust, there were many challenges that they had to face.

Liberation

© Yad Vashem Photo

Wroclow, Poland, A Hebrew lesson in a Jewish school, September 20, 1946

Let's think

Let's think

Let's Examine

Let's discuss

Let's read

Let's read

Let's SEE

Samuel Bak Children Alone Landsberg DP camp, 1945 Sanguine on paper 40.6 x 27.5 Gift of the artist

Return

Let's discuss

Let's consider

Esther Lurie (1913-1998) Portrait of a Young Woman with Two Yellow Stars Tel Aviv 1957, after a drawing of 1941 Ink on paper, 26.4 X 17.5 cm

Clairette Vigder, Self Portrait, 1942

Directions:1. Click on each of the "Let's See" buttons to watch a testimony 2. Click on the "Let's Discuss" and "Let's Think" buttons 3. Answer the question: How does the drawing below add to our understading of the testimonies?

Return

Let's discuss

Let's SEE

Let's think

Let's SEE

Paul Fux, Boy in Ghetto Box Lithograph Itzhak B. Tatelbaum Collecetion

Return

We Are Leading

Wit

Satire

Laughter

Nelly Toll (1935-2021) Girls in the Field, Lvov, 1943 Gouache and pencil on paper 19.7 x 27.5 cm Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem Gift of the artist

Let's discuss

Petr Ginz (1928-1944) “Vedem”, Theresienstadt Ghetto, 1942 – 1944 Watercolor and pencil on paper 21x14 cm Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem Gift of Otto Ginz, Haifa

Let's Examine

Return

We Are Leading

Wit

Satire

Laughter

Nelly Toll (1935-2021) Girls in the Field, Lvov, 1943 Gouache and pencil on paper 19.7 x 27.5 cm Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem Gift of the artist

Let's discuss

Petr Ginz (1928-1944) “Vedem”, Theresienstadt Ghetto, 1942 – 1944 Watercolor and pencil on paper 21x14 cm Collection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum, Jerusalem Gift of Otto Ginz, Haifa

Let's Examine

Return

I Wanted to Fly Like a Butterfly, Naomi Morgenstern

Let's think

No one could know that Mother and I had been hiding in the Skovroneck's apartment. Whenever the Skovronecks had guests, Mother and I hid in the closet. Once when we had an unexpected visitor, Mother and I did not even have enough time to make it to the clothes closet, so we jumped in the coal- box and Mrs. Skovroneck sat on top of the box until our surprise guest left. Sometimes, we had to hide in the clothes closet for hours at a time, without moving, without uttering a sound. In the closet, I used to pretend that I was a little elf who lived in the forest, with a blue suit and a red hat with a pom-pom. I would drink the dew on the forest floor, walk around the flowers and guess each one's name by its smell.

In the city of Warsaw no one knew that Mother and I were Jews. We stayed at 64 Zelzenah Street where the Skovroneck family lived on the sixth floor...Their two daughters, Hanka, who was thirteen, and Basha, who was ten, were in school. For two years we lived with them. For two years I did not leave the building. For two years I did not walk around the apartment. For two years I did not go near a window - I would always crawl underneath. For two years Hanka and Basha did not bring home any friends. It was strictly forbidden to tell anyone that we were in the apartment. It was a secret that was a matter of life and death...

Let's discuss

Let's think

Let's Examine

Return

I Wanted to Fly Like a Butterfly, Naomi Morgenstern

I was four years old when the war broke out in September, 1939. German soldiers in gray uniforms arrived in our town. The first thing they did was impose a curfew. From eight o'clock in the evening it was forbidden for anyone to leave their home. Whoever was caught outside after eight o'clock was punished. One day, I watched my mother sewing yellow cloth stars on my father's coat and on her own. "Mother, what are you sewing?" I asked. "It's a yellow star that has to be attached to our clothes when we leave the house," she answered. "Everyone needs to do this?" I asked. "Only Jews," she answered. "Why?"

"That's what the German soldiers have forced us to do." "But why?" "So that they will know who the Jews are," Mother said impatiently. "But why is it important to know who's Jewish?" "I DON'T KNOW. That's what they ordered, and that's what we are doing." Angrily, she continued to sew the yellow star on Father's coat. I stared at mother. Hers lips were pressed tightly together as her fingers sewed rapidly, nervously.... "Mother, should I bring my coat also?" I asked. "NO! CHILDREN DON'T NEED TO!" And the needle ran around the yellow star at a furious pace.

Let's discuss

Let's think

Return

The Kamarad ("Comrade") periodical was published in the Theresienstadt Ghetto in Q609, the children's barrack shared by Czech and German speaking boys and girls. The 22 editions of Kamarad were written by children in their childish handwriting, and illustrated by the editor, Ivan Polak, without the assistance of adults. The objective of Kamarad, like other children's magazines, was to entertain, to provide reading material, and to impart knowledge.Below is a page from one of the issues. It is a contest.

Source B – The Fun Corner The country which manufactures the most cars: Russia-USA-UK Napoleon died in: Alba-St. Helen-Medira The St. Martenik Island belongs to: UK-Portugal-France Titian was: Author-Poet-Artist Ontario is: Lake-City-Swamp List the names of 20 large cities that begin with the letters A or B List 10 rivers in North America List 10 famous people whose names begin with the letter M List 5 well known operas and their composers List all the artists and sculptors you know Hand in your answers to the editorial board by March 2nd. Answer honestly without using an atlas. The correct answers will be published in the next issue and will win a prize.

Let's think

Return

I Have Lived a Thousand Years, Livia Bitton Jackson

Backpacks must be sewn, preparations made. What to cram into a sack small enough to be carried for a long distance? Food? Clothes? Valuables? Where are they taking us? A cold climate? Then warm clothes are important. Will they feed us on the journey? If not, food is most important. How about gold or silver, or even china? Converted into cash, these may prove the most important. Who knows? I wish Daddy were here.

Feverish packing of lifetimes into knapsacks to be carried into cattle cars. No more cribs, washbowls, baby carriages, everything had to be reduced into a small parcel per family. All life's needs were encapsulated into a compact bundle. Nothing else is permitted....

Let's Examine

Return

Somewhere There Is Still a Sun Michael Gruenbaum

With Todd Hasak-Lowy

I do not know where to begin in order to describe to you...everything we lived through...we have the feeling here that we will never be able to find a bridge to those who have lived on the outside and who fortunately will never be able to grasp what horror, fear, and deep sorrow we experienced through the years just passed. We hardly have hope of finding anyone [of our relatives alive]. We ourselves were saved by a miracle...Misha was a delivery boy - in place of a horse...we had to work ten hours a day. We do not yet know how the future will shape up for us. None of our old friends are alive anymore. We do not know where we are going to live. Nothing! But somewhere in the world there is still a sun, mountains, the ocean, books, small clean apartments, and perhaps again the rebuilding of a new life.

Return

I Have Lived a Thousand Years, Livia Bitton Jackson

As the day (Chanukah) approached, my mother and I made plans to obtain something to use as a candleholder. The candle would consist of little more than a few threads, and the oil was also a genuine luxury: but it was the holder that presented the real problem. Suddenly a solution appeared. A few of us girls were sent on a work detail out the gate of the camp, and to our amazement we passed a potato field. While our guard was momentarily distracted, we took some of the potatoes, hid them under our clothes, and saved them for the end of the day. Each day it was someone else's turn to benefit from our find. But on the eve of the first light of Chanukah, all the attention turned from physical to spiritual nourishment.

Although in some cases the added few calories of extra potatoes seemed to be the only thing keeping us alive, there was a greater need which had to be satisfied, that of lighting the candles and proclaiming our spiritual victory over our jailers. Thus we set aside four potatoes, cut them in half, and cleaned them out for use as candleholders. The wicks came from threads of our torn clothes, and the oil was stolen at great risk from the machine shop. And for eight days, with one of us posted at the door to act as a lookout, we young girl inmates of Auschwitz celebrated the victory of Matityahu and the Hashmonaim, and the miracle they experienced in having the lamp lit for eight days...You might say that during those cold Auschwitz nights, we too experienced a miracle.

Let's discuss

Let's think

Here are some things people took with them when they were deported. They were found in the piles of personal belongings that the Germans had confiscated. They are now in the Yad Vashem Archives in Jerusalem.

Return

.

• Purses with money
• Siddurs, tefillin, talitot, kippahs (prayer books, phylacteries, prayer shawls, yarmulkes)
• Jewelry, watches, rings, chains, Magen Davids (stars of David)
• Family pictures
• Olivewood box with "Jerusalem" carved on it
• Candlesticks and menorah
• Razors and shaving equipment
• Paper, ink
• Spoons, forks, plates
• Folding knife with "Shabbat Kodesh" (Holy Sabbath) inscribed on it

What does this list tell you about the people who were deported?

Return

© Yad Vashem Photo

© Yad Vashem Photo

Let's think

Don Gaetano Tantalo

Orvieto and Pacifici Families

Return

Four times we Albanians opened our doors. First to the Greeks during the famine of the World War I, then to the Italian soldiers stranded in our country after their surrender to the Allies, then the Jews during the German occupation and most recently to the Albanian refugees from Kosovo fleeing the Serbs. Only the Jews showed their gratitude.

Let's think

Hamid and Xhemal Veseli

Return

Let's think

Return

Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel. A fishing boat that took Jews from Falster in Denmark to Ystad in Sweden, October 1943.

Let's think

READ MORE

Return

Irit Kuper was ten years old when the Holocaust started. When she was born, she was given the Polish name, Irka, but her family often called her by her Hebrew name, Ita or Italeh. She lived with her parents and three sisters in the Polish city of Minsk. As the German occupation of their hometown continued, Irit's mother decided to hide her with a Polish family that had a farm in the countryside. Irit was the only one from her family to survive the Holocaust. When the war was over, Irit joined a group of other teenage survivors and went to live in Israel. She describes what happened when they arrived in Israel:

"Here," our instructors had said one day, "we are going to build a new life. The customs here are different from those you grew up with, and we don't want to go on living here like we did there. Diaspora names are not suitable here. Children in Eretz Israel have Hebrew names that represent nature, flora and fauna, and the heroes of our history." They brought us large sheets of paper written in large, clear letters. "We are going to read you the list of names. Listen carefully and choose new Hebrew names." I sat on a bench, leaned against a wall, studied the names and thought to myself: How can I discard my name, the name my mother gave me? The existence of one's name is connected to one's existence. When you change your name, you change your character. Your entire life, which God has given to you under the sun, is connected to your name – from the day you are born to the day you die. When my mother had taken me to a peasant, she said, "Italeh, don't tell anyone in the village that you're Jewish, but remember, Italeh will be your name again when you return home."

Irit finds herself facing a difficult decision upon her arrival in Israel. What does she ultimately decide to do? Click on the button below to learn more about Irit's life and then discuss her decision to choose a Hebrew name.

Let's discuss

Let's think

Read more

Rywka (Rivka) Lipszyc was a teenager in the Lodz Ghetto. She kept a diary that describes life in the ghetto and her feelings. She did not survive.

Return

"Ha. I laugh at all the world. I'm the pitiful Jew in the Ghetto, I'm the one who doesn't know what will be with me tomorrow…I laugh at the world, because I have a rod to lean on. The greatest, largest possible rod—my faith. I have faith! And that makes me stronger and richer and worth more than everyone. Hashem, I thank you so much!"

"Thank G-d for springtime! And thank you, G-d, for my mood today. I don't want to write much about it, I don't want to spoil anything, but I'll write the single word, the most important word, anyway: hope!"

"Nevertheless I'm grateful to Hashem that I'm a Jewish girl!...I've always wanted to study the Torah, our dear, beloved, always new, and yet so old Torah. Our life-giving Torah!"

How does Rywka's belief in Hashem (G-d) help her in the ghetto?

Learn more about liberation.

When were both of these drawings created? Why is that important for us to know? What does that teach us about the artists?

How do both of these girls feel about wearing the yellow star? How does each artist express this through her artwork?

The following quote was written in a children's magazine that was published by children in the Theresienstadt Ghetto. “We remember…A year has already gone by since many of our friends from the Hanover barrack were forced to leave. Perhaps you remember the boys who would still be among us if it weren't for fate that carried them off far away from us. A whole year has already passed since they left the home and disappeared from our sight, but they will never disappear from our hearts, never!” Discuss the connection between the paragraph above and the picture of this memorial from Yad Vashem.