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CHAPTER ONE
Children in Hiding
A
s Hitler’s plans to eradicate Europe’s Jews became evident in
the 1930s, some Jewish families were able to flee to safer places.
This required money, however, something the Nazis took away from
the Jews when they forbade them from working or doing business.
Emigration also required, in many cases, express permission from the
German government to leave the country. Such permission was often
denied.
Many families who could not leave arranged to send at least their
children to live with relatives, friends, or even acquaintances or total
strangers who were willing to take in Jewish children, often in return
for money. Historians estimate that between ten thousand and one
hundred thousand Jewish sons and daughters were separated from
their parents and hidden this way. Many children were assured that
their family would be reunited once the war was over. Some were too
young to understand such promises, but others spent years clinging
to a hope that would never be realized. A majority of hidden children
never saw their parents or siblings again.
Other families were determined not to split up and instead made
plans to hide together at the first sign that the Gestapo was coming
toward their town. The risk of evading Nazis this way was tremen-
dous. Jews caught hiding could be killed on the spot, as could anyone
who was believed to be helping them. Despite the dangers, hiding
often proved to be a smart choice. Of the small number of Jewish
children who survived the Holocaust, nearly all had been in hiding
during the war.
Living in Disguise
Some Jewish children were able to blend in with non-Jews well
enough to escape being noticed by the Nazis. Historians believe tens
of thousands of children were sent to live in non-Jewish homes, or-
phanages, or convents during the Holocaust. Some caretakers pre-
