The Deportation Of Children During The Holocaust

World War two, the deadliest war to ever take place, began on September first, 1939, and ended six long years later on September second, 1945, with over sixty million casualties. Eleven million of these casualties were caused by the concentration camps of the Holocaust, or the systematic killing of six and a half million Jews and five million others by the Nazi’s. The children of the Holocaust were the worst off. They weren't given much chance at survival. All children under the age of twelve were sent straight into the gas chambers and those that were older and healthy were sent to the camps to be used for labor. The small children that did manage to survive were most likely born in the ghettos or camps and were hidden by the prisoners. Despite …show more content…
As life in Germany became increasingly dangerous and the deportation of thousands began, parents were faced with the choice of risking their children’s lives, or hiding them. One opportunity to hide them presented itself in 1938, a couple of years before millions of jews would be murdered by the mobile killing squads accompanying the German army as it invaded the Soviet Union (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, N.D). In the article “Children during the Holocaust (abridged article)” an opportunity parents had to hide their kids is highlighted , “Between 1938 and 1940, the Kindertransport(Children's Transport) was the informal name of a rescue effort which brought thousands of refugee Jewish children (without their parents) to safety in Great Britain from Nazi Germany and German-occupied territories.” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, N.D). These transports sent the children to territories were they would be safer. The goal was for organizations to help pay for the children’s education and care, while away (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, N.D). …show more content…
Hitler’s “Solution” to the problem that was the Jewish people was to murder six and a half million of them throughout Europe. The ghettos, where Jews were isolated from the outside world, were emptied as thousands were sent to the concentration camps. At the camps families were separated. The elderly, the weak, pregnant women, and little children, were immediately killed either by an SS soldier or by the gas chambers. During this time children had less of a chance of surviving. At one of the camps, Auschwitz, children went straight from the ramp where they were unloaded, to the gas chambers (Auschwitz.org, “Jewish Children”). They weren’t able to work so they were gassed. The few children that were chosen to live were put to work (Auschwitz.org, “Jewish Children”). Some would even be used in experiments by SS doctors (Auschwitz.org, “Jewish