16
detection that foster parents sometimes overlooked the importance of
being kind and loving.This often led to strained relationships between
Jewish children and the adults who hid them. Strong-willed children
who experienced strict discipline some-
times rebelled and misbehaved. In the
absence of affection, quieter children
could be sullen or withdrawn.The care-
takers, in turn, often felt that their Jew-
ish charges were ungrateful for the sac-
rifices being made on their behalf and
became harsher and less understanding.
As a very young child, Holocaust
survivor Bernadette Gore was sent to
live in a French village with a woman
she remembers as being cruel, although as an adult she came to under-
stand things from a different point of view. “At the time there was such
heavy fighting around there. . . . If they had come to her and I had giv-
en the game away, they would have shot her,” she says. “So I suppose
she had to be very severe with me, and she had to efface frommy mind
anything to do withmy past.”
8
Even understanding the danger of their
situation did not always soften children’s feelings that the people who
looked after them did not love or even like them. Life in hiding was
at best a challenging experience for most children. At worst, it was
intolerable. Some hidden children were forced to work as household
servants or farmhands. Others endured physical, emotional, or sexual
abuse from the adults who took them in. Some young people ran away
from their hiding homes, preferring the risk of being captured by the
Nazis to living in a home where they felt mistreated or unwanted.
Taking Refuge
Not all Jewish parents tried, or were able, to send their children to
live with others during the Holocaust. Some parents did not know
anyone who was not Jewish or who was willing to take in their child.
Many Jewish families were too poor to be able to pay anyone to look
after their children or had too many children to place them all in safe
homes. Some families just preferred to stay together. These families
were forced to find different ways to hide in an effort to survive.
“I knew when to be quiet,
what not to say, and how to
avoid attracting attention.
. . . I fully understood, even
at that early age, that I must
never make the mistake
of acknowledging my real
name.”
7
—Olga Kirshenbaum Weiss,
a hidden child.
