- Going to Church:
To appear Gentile, many children had to go to church. Having never been to church, these children had to find ways to cover for their lack of knowledge. Many children tried to fit into this new role my mimicking others.
We had to live and behave as Christians. I was expected to go to confession because I was old enough to have already had my first communion. I didn't have the slightest idea what to do, but I found a way to handle it. I'd made friends with some Ukrainian children, and I said to one girl, 'Tell me how to go to confession in Ukrainian and I'll tell you how we do it in Polish.' So she told me what to do and what to say. Then she said, 'Well, how do you do it in Polish?' I said, 'It's exactly the same, but you speak Polish.' I got away with that -- and I went to confession. My problem was that I couldn't bring myself to lie to a priest. I told him it was my first confession. I didn't realize at the time that girls had to wear white dresses and be part of a special ceremony when making their first communion. The priest either didn't pay attention to what I said or else he was a wonderful man, but he didn't give me away.7
Besides going to confession, some children who were the right age actually had to take their First Communion.
---Rosa SirotaEach of these hidden children were forced to give up their identity. Their experiences varied, some good, some bad. But each of these children were torn from their home and their past. With new, fake families and identities, these children struggled to keep their secret safe.
After the War
During the war, every victim of Nazi persecution longed for the end. "When will liberation come?" echoed through many prayers. But for the children and for many survivors, liberation did not mean the end of their suffering. For some, it was only the beginning.
Very young children, that were hidden within families, knew nor remembered anything about their "real" or biological families. Many had been babies when they first entered their new homes, they had learned to walk and talk with these new families. Many of their real families did not come back after the war. But for some, when the war was over and they were "lucky" enough to have real family to go back to, their real families were strangers.
Sometimes, the host family was not willing to give up these children after the war. A few organizations were established to kidnap the Jewish children and give them back to their real families. Some host families, though sorry to see the young child go, kept in contact with the children.
After the war, many of these children had conflicts adapting to their true identity. Many had been acting Catholic for so long that they had trouble grasping their Jewish ancestry. These children were the survivors and the future - yet they did not identify with being Jewish.
How often they must have heard, "But you were only a child - how much could it have affected you?"Notes
How often they must have felt, "Though I suffered, how can I be considered a victim or a survivor compared to those who were in the camps?"
How often they must have cried, "When will it be over?"
1. Jane Marks. The Hidden Children: The Secret Survivors of the Holocaust (New York: Ballantine Books, 1993) 44.
2. Marks, Hidden 60.
3. Marks, Hidden 28-29.
4. Marks, Hidden 85.
5. Deborah Dwork, Children With a Star: Jewish Youth in Nazi Europe (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991) 74.
6. Marks. Hidden 46-47.
7. Marks, Hidden 17-18.
8. Jack Kuper. Child of the Holocaust (New York: Berkley Books, 1993) 162.
9. Kuper, Child 162.
Bibliography
Dwork, Deborah. Children With a Star: Jewish Youth in Nazi Europe. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991.
Frank, Anne. The Diary of a Young Girl. 1952. New York: Washington Square Press, 1972.
Kuper, Jack. Child of the Holocaust. New York: Berkley Books, 1993.
Marks, Jane. The Hidden Children: The Secret Survivors of the Holocaust. New York: Ballantine Books, 1993.
Stein, Andre. Hidden Children: Forgotten Survivors of the Holocaust. New York: Penguin Books, 1993.
