20
is unnatural for children, but young Jews hiding in such places learned
to endure life without talking, laughing, or singing, much less running
around or playing games.
Parents of babies often faced an especially terrible dilemma. A
crying baby could give away the location of the entire group. If an
infant could not be quieted, the mother or father usually had to leave
the hiding place with the baby and risk being captured or kill the baby
so that it would stop making noise. “This was a war, a terrible war, a
war of survival,” says Holocaust survivor Sonia Bielski. “Mothers and
fathers [were] killing the children. . . . The [children were] hungry
and they were crying so they killed them.”
11
Sacrificing Youth to Stay Alive
Often trapped in darkness and forbidden to speak, Jewish childrenwho
lived in hideouts missed out on activities necessary for growing up and
developing normally. Whereas other kids their own age were playing
games and sports, raising pets, and going to school, hidden young peo-
ple missed out on all the joys and experiences of a normal childhood.
Instead, hunger, lice, illness, boredom, loneliness, and depression filled
their seemingly endless days.Most Jews who went into hiding this way
hadfled suddenly, leaving behind treasured keepsakes and even changes
of clothing that would fit them as they grew. “As a four-year-old, I felt
naked, exposed, vulnerable, deprived, angry, and confused,” says Cle-
mens Loew, who survived the Holocaust
in Poland. “I’d just been literally stripped
of all my toys and possessions.”
12
Surviving these conditions was an
extraordinary feat of determination and
willpower. Spending even a few days
this way would be unimaginable to most
people today, but during the Holocaust Jews in hiding endured weeks,
months, or even years in very challenging conditions. Deprived of
nutrition, cleanliness, privacy, dignity, education, and freedom, chil-
dren who successfully hid from Nazis during the Holocaust emerged
with their lives but at the cost of their youth. “We are the children
without a childhood,” says Holocaust survivor Robert Krell. “We are
the children who aged instantly, overnight.”
13
“We are the children
without a childhood. We
are the children who aged
instantly, overnight.”
13
—Robert Krell, a hidden child.
