An Annotated Bibliography: Jewish Aid During the Holocaust

Aaron Sutton
Miss Schmidt
Honors English 9
March 8, 2017
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Altman, Nolan. "Hidden Children in France." JewishGen.org. N.p., Aug. 2008. Web. 6 Mar.
2017. www.jewishgen.org.

Some families just left children with a trusted neighbor or friend in a hurry, as the Nazi
invasion had already begun. Judah Samet talked about this in his presentation, when he
told us about a family that had given a child to a neighbor who was Catholic, the
neighbor soon turned the child over to the SS officers. Unfortunately, some families that
accepted children soon realized just how dangerous it was, as paranoia was spreading in
Germany and Nazi-occupied countries, many feared that close friends, neighbors, and
even family members could turn them over to authorities if they discovered that they
were hiding Jewish children. There existed during the Holocaust, many organizations to
protect and shelter those running from the Nazi. A very well known one is the Oeuvre de
Secours aux Enfants, which in French means Childrens Relief Work, often
abbreviated as O.S.E. The OSE provided aid for over 15 towns in Southern France. Over
five thousand children were helped by the OSE during the Holocaust, unfortunately that
number seems small compared to the millions who died. The OSE operated hidden
orphanages for children, teens, and adults. The OSE had been able to ship some lucky
children off to neutral countries such as Switzerland, or to the United States. The OSE
also sheltered 20 children that were on the ship St. Louis after it was turned away from
the shores of the United States. Once the Nazis invaded France, the OSE moved children
away from front lines, and went underground, but continued in its relief effort. At this
time the OSE tried to transport as many children as possible to Switzerland. Today the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), owns a large collection of
documents from the former OSE. While not all of the children were documented, over
4,080 records still exist.

Wiesel, Elie. Night. 1958 Hill and Wang Publishing.

The book Night by Elie Wiesel is a firsthand account of a man who survived the most
brutal concentration camps during the Holocaust. The narrator and author of the book,
Elie describes his situation, when the Nazis invade and take over, forcing him and his
family into a ghetto. While they are living in the ghetto, some people believe that things
are going to be ok. While the conditions are not the greatest, the Jewish community is
separated, and some even establish their own government-like council. This all changes
when they are loaded onto cattle cars and shipped off to Nazi death camps. Millions
of Jews, including children, were put to death at the hands of the Nazis. There were
however, some who survived. Many Jewish parents made the difficult decision of giving
up their child to a non-Jewish family during the Nazi occupation, in hope that their
children could be spared from the genocide that was being committed across Europe.

Hidden Children: Hardships. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum, www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10006125.
Accessed 8 Mar. 2017.
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Many Jewish families left their children with non-Jews during the Holocaust in an
attempt to save their lives when the Nazis invaded. Once a family decided to give away
their children to those willing to take them, they faced many challenges. The biggest
challenge was avoiding persecution from the Nazis. While some children could pass off
as non-Jews, many could not. They were forced to live life in hiding, concealing their
faith. For many, even the smallest notion that a child was Jewish could tip off a prying
neighbor, who would then turn them into the SS, often for a reward. Perhaps the most
essential part for a Jewish child to blend in was obtaining false identity papers. Forged
baptismal, and birth papers were acquired through contacts in the anti-Nazi resistance.
Some guardians of Jewish children in hiding could obtain legitimate documents from the
authorities, using an assumed name for the child, however this was especially dangerous.
Protecting these children and keeping them safe from outsiders who would turn them in
was essential, many Foster families created extensive cover stories to explain this new
face in their household. Examples would be that the child is a distant relative, a friend, or
the only surviving member of a house that had been destroyed in an air raid. The second
part of concealing the identity of a Jewish child was to conceal their faith effectively,
many stayed in Catholic orphanages or with Catholic families, they adopted many
traditions from their religions, so that they could become more like the other members in
family, to avoid drawing suspicions. More sophisticated organizations that were
dedicated to hiding children often moved them around frequently, and kept records and
documents in code to avoid detection. These organizations will be discussed in the next
source.

Kindertransport, 19381940. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States

Holocaust Memorial Museum, www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005260.
Accessed 8 Mar. 2017.

Other groups such as the British Movement for the Care of Children organized the travel
of over 10,000 people in an operation informally known as Kinder transport. After the
Kristallnacht, which was a violent series of attacks on Jewish storeowners in Germany,
Britain relaxed its immigration policy, which allow Jewish refugees easier access to the
country. Authorities allowed numbers of children under 17 to enter Britain through
Germany and Nazi occupied countries. Once inside, citizens or organizations had to
agree to provide full care and education for the refugee children. The government
understood that once the war ended, the children could possibly return to their families,
although many had been killed by the Nazis. The first transport brought two hundred
children to Harwich on December 2, 1938. After this, various organizations organized
the extraction of over nine thousand more. Hitler had convinced an entire nation to turn
on people of the Jewish faith, systematically killing off thousands a day, there was still a
small sliver of hope given to people by those in the OSE and similar organizations who
gave up everything and risked their lives to fight the Nazi death camps by sheltering
Jews.