15
parents and the leaders of their synagogue had taught them.This cre-
ated conflict for young Jews who had been raised with strong spiritual
beliefs and pride in their faith and heritage. “A slow transformation
was taking place in me,” says Nechama Tec, a Jew who survived the
Holocaust by pretending to be Catholic while living with a Catholic
family in Poland. “It was as if in certain circumstances I lost track of
who I really was and began to see myself as a Pole. I became a double
person, one private and one public.”
6
Hidden children had to leave behind physical traces of their Jewish
upbringing, including favorite toys, familiar books, and even photo-
graphs of their loved ones. Such things might draw questions from sus-
picious passersby or visitors to the home.
Some were even expected to change the
way they spoke. Because many Jews
spoke Yiddish at home, their German,
Polish, or other language was often ac-
cented, meaning their speech could po-
tentially give away their true identity. “I
knew when to be quiet, what not to say,
and how to avoid attracting attention,”
Olga KirshenbaumWeiss recalled of her
days in hiding. “I had been given a false,
non-Jewish name, and I fully understood, even at that early age, that I
must never make the mistake of acknowledging my real name.”
7
In order to further protect hidden children, some families told ev-
eryone that the child was mute or was mentally handicapped so that
no one would prod him or her with questions. Such lies were meant to
protect Jewish children. Nonetheless, it was humiliating for them to
have to pretend they were unintelligent or mute and to silently endure
the teasing and ridicule that often followed.
The Struggle to Feel Loved
The penalty for protecting a Jewish child from the Nazis was harsh;
discovery often meant death. Many of the people who took this risk
therefore set strict rules for their Jewish wards, punishing them for
doing or saying anything that might signal to others that the family
was trying to hide a Jew. So much energy was focused on avoiding
“A slow transformation was
taking place in me. It was as
if in certain circumstances I
lost track of who I really was
and began to see myself as
a Pole. I became a double
person, one private and one
public.”
6
—Nechama Tec, a hidden child.
