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A group of children who were sheltered in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a town in southern France. Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, France, August 1942.
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children

Children were especially vulnerable to Nazi persecution. As many as 1.5 million children, about 1 million of them Jewish, were killed by Nazi Germany and its collaborators.

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Bialik kindergarten students pose together in the Mariendorf displaced persons (DP) camp, circa 1946–1948. The children hold a banner that reads, "Ch, N. Bialik Kindergarten." A portrait of Theodor Herzl hangs on the back wall. Above the portrait is is a Hebrew banner that reads "Our children, the future of our nation." Benjamin Markowicz is in the fourth row, second from the left.
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Bialik kindergarten class in the Mariendorf DP camp
Photograph showing Blanka when she was about 1 year old, ca. 1923. She received this photograph many years later, after she came to America, from her grandmother's half brother.
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Blanka at about 1 year old
Blimcia Lische
ID Card
Blimcia Lische
A childsize violin that belonged to Boruch Golden (Gordon), who was killed along with his mother and brother at the Ponary killing site in September 1943.  Boruch was born in 1930, and was one of four children. His parents, Moshe and Basia Golden (Gordon), raised their family in Swieciany (Svencionys), Lithuania. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the family was forced into the Swieciany ghetto. When that ghetto was later liquidated in 1943, the family was sent to the Vilna ghetto. Later that year, the Vilna ghetto was also liquidated. Boruch, only 13 years old at the time, was murdered at Ponary along with his mother and brother. The violin was saved by his sister, Niusia (now Anna Nodel), who survived the war in hiding.
Artifact
Boruch Golden's violin
Media Essay
Brihah - Photograph
Jewish children, forcibly removed by British soldiers from the ship Exodus 1947, stand behind a barbed-wire fence. Photograph taken by Henry Ries. Poppendorf displaced persons camp, Germany, September 1947.
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British soldiers forcibly removed these Jewish children from the ship Exodus 1947
British soldiers transfer children refugees from the Aliyah Bet ("illegal" immigration) ship "Theodor Herzl" to a vessel for deportation to Cyprus detention camps. Haifa port, Palestine, April 24, 1947.
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British soldiers transfer Jewish refugee children from the ship Theodor Herzl
Postcard of a pension (a small hotel) in Le Chambon which served as a refugee home for children sheltered from the Nazis. Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, France, date uncertain.
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Building in Le Chambon which served as a refugee home for children
Celia Petranker
ID Card
Celia Petranker
On September 23, 1941, on the occasion of the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah), the Lodz ghetto schoolchildren presented Jewish Council chairman Rumkowski with an album of hand-drawn New Year's greetings from 43 of the schools. Included were signatures representing some 14,000 of the students. The greetings combine traditional holiday wishes with thanks for the schools and for the daily meals. This detail from a signature page shows the signature for Chaim Cale (# 6383).
Article
Chaim Benzion Cale
Chaim David Jegher
ID Card
Chaim David Jegher
Chaim Kozienicki
Article
Chaim Kozienicki
Yakob Vizgordiski works at a machine in a ghetto factory. Kovno, Lithuania, between 1941 and 1943.
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Child forced laborer in a ghetto factory
Alice Goldberger (1897-1986) was born in Berlin, Germany. Trained as a youth-work instructor, she ran a shelter for disadvantaged children and their families. When Hitler came to power, Alice, who was Jewish, had to give up her post. She immigrated to England in 1939. When war broke out, Alice was interned on the Isle of Man as an enemy alien. While there, she organized a children's facility.Hearing of Alice's work in the camp, psychoanalyst Anna Freud (daughter of Sigmund Freud) intervened to secure her release. Alice then became the superintendent of a nursery for the children of working wartime mothers. In 1945, after the end of the war and the liberation of Nazi camps, Alice became caretaker, advocate, and teacher to 24 refugee children who were brought to England and were ultimately housed in an estate called Weir Courtney. She worked diligently to create a childhood for these young survivors of horrific experiences during the Holocaust. As Alice herself wrote in 1957: "I wanted the children to feel that the world is still full of good and friendly people, who stretch their hand across oceans and wide countries to help their fellowmen."  This is one of the colorful pieces of art created by children at Weir Courtney, reflecting happier times under Alice's care.
Timeline Event
Child Survivors Arrive in England
This photograph is a still from Soviet film footage of the liberation of Auschwitz. The film was made by the film unit of the First Ukrainian Front. Relief workers and Soviet soldiers lead child survivors of Auschwitz through a narrow passage between two barbed-wire fences. Standing next to the nurse and behind them (wearing white hats) are two sets of twin sisters. During the camp's years of operation, many children in Auschwitz were subjected to medical experiments by Nazi physician Josef Mengele.
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Child survivors of Auschwitz
Soon after liberation, surviving children of the Auschwitz camp walk out of the children's barracks. Poland, after January 27, 1945.
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Child survivors of Auschwitz

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