1. Children of the Holocaust “Even in the most barbaric times, a human spark glowed in the rudest heart, and children were spared. But the Hitlerian beast is quite different. It would devour the dearest of us, those who arouse the greatest compassion—our innocent children.” ~Emanuel Ringelblum

2. Common fates ●Killed upon arrival at killing centers ●Killed upon birth or at institutions ●Born in ghettos and camps but survived because they were hidden away ●Children, usually over the age of 12, who were used as laborers as well as test subjects in Nazi experiments

3. Killing Centers ●KCs (Also referred to as "extermination camps" or "death camps") were almost exclusively "death factories." German SS and police murdered nearly 2.7 million Jews in the killing centers either by asphyxiation with poison gas (carbon dioxide and Zyklon B) or by shooting. ●Poland o Auschwitz-Birkenau (originally a forced labor camp, largest, Zyklon B, ~865,000 Jews were killed immediately upon arrival) o Chelmno (first,152,000 Roma and Jews killed from Dec.1941- July 1944) o Sobibor (May 1942 to Nov. 1943) o Belzec (Mar. to Dec.1942) o Treblinka II (July 1942 to Nov. 1943) Operation Reinhard=Killed approx. 1,526,500 Polish Jews

5. Born in ghettos or camps ●Ghetto = originated from the name of the Jewish quarter in Venice, established in 1516, in which the Venetian authorities compelled the city's Jews to live. ●Conditions= wear badges, forced to work, diseases, Jewish Councils ran ●“Useless eaters” were the first to go ●Established at least 1,000 ghettos in German-occupied and annexed Poland and the Soviet Union alone ●Largest ghetto in Poland = Warsaw ghettoWarsaw ghetto -More than 400,000 Jews were crowded into an area of 1.3 square miles ●Final Solution decided at the Wannsee Conference= death to all European Jewry

7. Used for Forced Labor ●The ability to work could save one's life, but most often only temporarily. Most worked 10-12 hour days. ●Camps such as Auschwitz in Poland and Buchenwald in central Germany became administrative centers of huge networks of forced-labor camps. ●Germans institute forced labor for Jewish men between the ages of 14 and 60 in occupied Poland. Later, Jewish women along with Jewish children aged 12 to 14 are also required to perform forced labor.

8. What companies used Jewish labor? ●I.G. FARBEN PLANT OPENS NEAR AUSCHWITZ on May 21, 1942 -The I.G. Farben synthetic-rubber and petroleum plant opens at Monowice, near Auschwitz, using Jewish forced laborers from the camp. -The German conglomerate I.G. Farben established a factory there in order to take advantage of cheap concentration camp labor and the nearby Silesian coalfields. -It invested more than 700 million Reichsmarks (about 1.4 million US dollars in 1942). -By 1945, about 25,000 forced laborers died in the Monowitz plant. ●Messerschmidt (aircraft manufacturer, bought by Deutsche Aerospace in 1989)Deutsche Aerospace ●Junkers (aircraft manufacturer, founder removed by Nazis in 1934, 1969) ●Siemens (engineering co., supplied electrical parts to concentration & death camps, poor working conditions where death was common, SS)

9. Used as Guinea Pigs ●Dr. Josef Mengele (Angel of Death) and his twin experiments in Auschwitz ●Experiments included: Freezing / Hypothermia (conditions on Eastern front) Genetics Infectious Diseases (given to Eva Mozes Kor) Interrogation and Torture Killing / Genocide High Altitude (use tests to help pilots) Pharmacological Sterilization Surgery Traumatic Injuries

10. Forced to Hide... ●Problems= Appearance, language, papers and circumcision ●Children posing as Christians had to carefully conceal their Jewish identity from inquisitive neighbors, classmates, informers, blackmailers, and the police. ●Dozens of Catholic convents in German-occupied Poland independently took in Jewish youngsters. Poland ●Belgian Catholics hid hundreds of children in their homes, schools, and orphanages, and French Protestant townspeople in and around Le Chambon-sur-Lignon sheltered several thousand Jews. Le Chambon-sur-Lignon ●In Albania and Yugoslavia, some Muslim families concealed youngsters. Albania Yugoslavia Muslim

11. Conclusion ●Only 6 to 11% of Europe ’s prewar Jewish population of children survived as compared with 33% of the adults. ●Of the estimated 216,000 Jewish youngsters deported to Auschwitz, only 6,700 teenagers were selected for forced labor; nearly all the others were sent directly to the gas chambers. Auschwitz forced labor ●When Auschwitz was liberated on January 27, 1945, Soviet troops found just 451 Jewish children among the 9,000 surviving prisoners. liberated ●Of the almost 1 million Jewish children in 1939 Poland, only about 5,000 survived. ●1.5 million Jewish children were murdered by the Germans and their collaborators during the Holocaust