17
Jewish children who went into hiding with their parents and sib-
lings usually did so in a hurry.The Gestapo typically arrived with little
warning other than the sound of boots marching up the street, voic-
es shouting, and fists pounding on doors. Frightened children were
told to be silent and to hurry as their parents pushed or pulled them
through windows or back doors.They fled to abandoned buildings or
other places they hoped the Nazis would not search.
Some families had worked out specific hiding places, building hid-
den rooms or digging out caves with carefully disguised entrances.
WhenNazi forces came, families sneaked into the attics, basements, or
tunnels they had created. Often spaces that would have been cramped
with only one family became a living space for additional relatives,
friends, or even total strangers who were desperate for a refuge.
A hole cut into the brick wall of this house in the Netherlands shows a
cramped hiding place used by Jews during the Holocaust. The entrance
was through the bottom shelf of the linen closet.
