Figure 1.--When the Americans reached Buchewald they found sbout 1,000 Jewish child survivors. Here a group of Jewish children wave goodbye as they depart by train from the Buchenwald concentration camp (June 5, 1945). The Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OES) aranged faciities for their care in Britain, France, and Switzerland. This group is headed for France from where some will go to Palestine and others to the United States. One author describes what the OSE staff confronted, "They immediately received three dominant impressions: a homogeneous mass, with no hair, faces swollen from hunger, and uniform clothes; a group with an apathetic, unconcerned and indifferent attitude, with no laughter or even a smile, and a marked aggressiveness towards the personnel; mistrust and suspicion. Five had tuberculosis and one died in a Paris hospital." Here we see some of the children about two months after liberation.

The Germans held a few children in Buchenwald. We are not yet sure who the children were, but believe that they were mostly Jews. The Red Army launched Operation Bagration timed to prevent the Germans from reinfofcing the units attempting to conttol the Normandy Beachead in France (June 1944). The result was the destruction of Army Group Center and rapid advances into Poland. This was where the NAZI Death Camps and other camps like Auschwitz were located. The children found in Buchenwald seem to be the youth who accumulated in NAZI camps in Poland after the Death Camps and Auschwitz were shut down as the Red Army advanced west (Fall-1944). There were very few actual children meaning pre-teens. Unlike the boy on the previous page, most of the minors found at Bucensald were teenagers. Teenagers that could be employed for light work. And they were old enough to survive the death marches organized by the SS from Poland to camps in the Reich. Most but not all were Polish, One was 15-year old Elie Wiesel. The clandestine underground resistance organization, in which Communists played an important role, attempted to save the small number of youths. They were concentrated in Block 66, a part of the Camp somewhat isolated and not as subject to attention from the guards as other area. Rabbi Lau had the children replace the patches identifying them as Jews. The American found about 1,000 Jewish children when they enteed Buchenwald. survivors found by American troops when they liberated Buchenwald. In addition to Polish children, they were survivors from Hungary, Slovenia, and Ruthenia (eastern Czechoslovakia). Many of the children were teenagers meaning that they probably have been given work assignments. The Americns were unsure what to do with the children, American Army chaplains, Rabbi Herschel Schacter and Rabbi Robert Marcus, contacted the Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OES). This was the Jewish children's relief organization in Geneva, Switzerland. The OSE found placement for the children in France (427), Switzerland (280), and Britain (250). [Hemmendinger and Krell] OSE representatives arrived in Buchenwald and with Rabbi Marcus escorted a transport to France (June 2). Rabbi Schacter went with a second transport to Switzerland. There was a problem finding decent clothing for the children, mny of whom were in rags or camp uniforms. The OSE staff reportedly found some Hitler Youth uniforms. We can not yet coform this. But we do notice some of the children outfitted in cut-down Heer uniforms. There was, as a result, a problem when the trasport reached France. Some people when they saw them thought that they were German boys. To avoid this 'KZ Buchenwald orphans' was painted on the rail cars. The children themselves chalked their own messages, like 'Hiltler Kaput'.

Buchenwald Children

The Germans held a few children in Buchenwald. We are not yet sure who the children were, but believe that they were mostly Jews. The Red Army launched Operation Bagration timed to prevent the Germans from reinfofcing the units attempting to conttol the Normandy Beachead in France (June 1944). The result was the destruction of Army Group Center and rapid advances into Poland. This was where the NAZI Death Camps and other camps like Auschwitz were located. The children found in Buchenwald seem to be the youth who accumulated in NAZI camps in Poland after the Death Camps and Auschwitz were shut down as the Red Army advanced west (Fall-1944). Most seem to have come from Aushwitz where they were separated from their families upon arrival. There were very few actual children meaning pre-teens. Unlike the boy on the previous page, most of the minors found at Bucenwald were teenagers. Teenagers that could be employed for light work. And they were old enough to survive the death marches organized by the SS from Poland to camps in the Reich. Most but not all were Polish, One was 15-year old Elie Wiesel.

Ptotective Locations

The clandestine underground resistance organization, in which Communists played an important role, attempted to save the small number of youths.

Block 66

The safest place in Buchewald was Block 66, a part of the Camp somewhat isolated and not as subject to attention from the guards as other area. One historian refers to 'Children’s Barrack 66'. Wee re not sure the Hermans called it the 'Children's Barrack. Rabbi Lau had the children replace the patches identifying them as Jews. Block 66 iscdescribed as 'the deepest part of the disease-infested little camp, a separate space below the main camp at Buchenwald, that was beyond the normal Nazi SS gaze". [Waltzer] A SS officer cooperated in this effort. Communists were largely responsible for this effort. Block elder Antonin Kalina, a Czech Communist from Prague, oversaw this effort. He was assisted by Gustav Schiller, a Polish Jewish Communist from Lvov. Both men as Communists were not religious active. They were ethnically Jews, but not Jews in religious terms. Schiller is described as 'a rough father figure and mentor'. He seems to have been most interested in the Polish and Czech-Jewish boys who were often not religious. He was less interested in the more religious Hungarian- and Rumanian-Jewish boys, especially those with areligious orientation. And there were tensions between the Polish boys who had spent several years in ghettos and Auschwitz and non-Poles who had spent less time in camps. [Hemmendinger, p. 41.] The underground organization began concentrating all children and youth that they could be accomodated in a windowless barracks. This eventually amounted some 600 children and teenagers. They were mostly, but not all Jews. And here they sheltered and protected thechildren as best they could. Here the youths were were protected and sheltered from work. They did participate in work gangs sent into Weimar to help clean up after Allied bombing raids. Here they were able to scavenge for food. Red Cross packages were distributed to them from Danish and other political prisoners in the main camp. Reports from the survivors remember efforts by their protectors to raise their spirits. They recall songs, stories, even history and math lessons. This was to make them realize that there was another life after Buchenwald and the NAZIS. And by April they knew that the Americans were near. Kalina and Schiller attemoted ton protect them as the SS guards as the Americans approached to clear out Jews from the camp.

Block 8

The Resistnce organization also attemoted to protect some other children in Block 8 of the main camp. Younger children there included 7-year old Israel Meir Lau (Lulek) from Piotrkow were secreted away in the Block. Israel would grow up to be the Chief Ashkenazi rabbi of Israel. Other prisoners did what they could to protect them. Wilhelm Hammann, another, Communist oversaw Block 8.

Other Locations

Other children, some as yoing as 4 uears old were hidden in various other locations. One of these children was 4 years old Josef Shleifstein of Sandomierz, and Stefan Jerzy Zweig (Juschu) of Cracow. Young children like Josef were a rare exception. His father, Izrael, successfully passed the selection process by concealing Josef in a large sack in which he carried his leather-working tools (January 20, 1945). One source explains how Josef survived, "The child could not remain concealed for long in the camp, but his life was spared, in part because the Germans valued Israel's craftsmanship and in part because they took a liking to the child. The SS guards came to treat Joseph as a camp mascot, and even had him appear at roll calls wearing a child-sized striped uniform. Despite this special treatment, Joseph remembers being lined-up for execution at one point and his father intervening at the last moment to save him. He also remembers being very sick during his imprisonment and living in a hospital for a time. Soon after their liberation in Buchenwald, Israel and Josef were taken to Switzerland for medical treatment. Some months later they were reunited with Esther [Josef's mother] in Dachau, where they lived until emigrating to the U.S. in 1947." [USHM]

Girls

The children in the main camp were boys. Images of the children after liberation show many girls. I think thegirl may hve come from a sub-camp for women, but am not enirely sur about this.

Planned SS-TV Death March (April 10)

The SS-TV guards had the guns. And they lined up most of the Jews, including the boys, at the front gate, preparing for a death march east toward occupied Czechoslovakia which was still in German hands (April 10). One of the boys recalls, "So we were massed in the huge assembly square in rows of five, waiting to see the gate open.” Many would not have survived the march. Just before they were marched out, American airplanes flew overhead, camp sirens sounded, and the guards ran for the shelters."

Liberation (April 11)

The boys were left standing in formagion after the American overflight (April 10). Kalina who formed up with them, instructed the boys to back to the barracks. They were thus still in their baracks when advanced armored units of the American Third Army reached Buchenwald. The American tanks smashed throug the camp gates. The SS guards fled. The American found about 1,000 Jewish children and teenagers among the 21,000 emaciated prisoners when they enteed Buchenwald. In addition to Polish children, they were survivors from Hungary, Slovenia, and Ruthenia. [Some sources mention Romania (eastern Czechoslovakia) rather than Ruthenia. Ruthenian sems the most likely.] Many of the children were teenagers meaning that they probably have been given work assignments. The Americans were unsure what to do with the children.

Clothing

We are entirely sure how the children were dressed. There are not many images, espcially of the children, just before liberation. Some of the children wore the striped prison uniform. This deoended on just hen they arrived. Some of the latest arrivals in the chaos of the final months were apparently not issued uniforms. There was a problem finding decent clothing for the children, many of whom were in rags or camp uniforms. We notice American soldiers escorting a group of boys a few days after liberation. (April 17). Very few are wearing camp uniforms. Most seem to be wearing ill-fitting adult clothing. The OSE staff reportedly found some Hitler Youth (HJ) uniforms. We can not yet confirm this. But we do notice some of the younger children outfitted in cut-down Heer uniforms. This may have looked like HJ uniforms to sime authors. There was, as a result, a problem when the trasport reached France. Some people when they saw them thought that they were German boys. To avoid this 'KZ Buchenwald orphans' was painted on the rail cars. The children themselves chalked their own messages, like 'Hiltler Kaput'.

Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OES)

American Army chaplains, Rabbi Herschel Schacter and Rabbi Robert Marcus, contacted the Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OES). This was the Jewish children's relief organization in Geneva, Switzerland. [Hazan] The OSE found placement for the children in France (427), Switzerland (280), and Britain (250). [Hemmendinger and Krell]

French group (June 2)

OSE representatives arrived in Buchenwald and with Rabbi Marcus escorted a transport to France (June 2). The French group reached Andelys station (June 6). The Buchenwald orphans were taken to a children's home/sanitorium in Ecouis (Eure). The home was et up to accommodate young children Only 30 of the boys were below age 13 years. This presented a problem for the OSE personnel working with the group. Rather thn docile small children, they were confronted with a large group of increasingly demanding teenagers. And as the shock of liberation began to wear off, the boys especially turnd rebellious, increasingly exhibiting anger and trusting none of the staff. Despite food now being available, some would steal items from the home and sell them to buy food. [Hemmendinger, p. 41.] The boys at Ecouis received medical care and counseling. A basic school was set up. Most remained at Ecouis only a few weeks. The home closed (August). The first group to leave were 173 children who had surviving family in British controlled Palestine. They were given immigration certificates and departed from Marseilles aboard the British vessel RMS Mataroa (July). The remaining boys were transferred to other residential care facilities and homes. Some older boys went to the Foyer d'Etudiants located on the rue Rollin in Paris. They boarded there while attending vocational training courses or working at jobs in the city. Other children were sent to the Chateau de Boucicaut home in Fontenay-aux-Roses (Hauts-de-Seine). Many of this group came from religiously observant homes. Prohibiting the preparation of kosher foods ws commonly some of the first anti-Semetic regulations issued by the NAZIs. Thus kosher food was vey rare. The OSE thus divided the children into religious and non-religious groups. This helped reserve the hard to obtain kosher food for the religiously obsrvent children. Dr. Charly Merzbach offered OSE the use of his estate, the Chateau d'Ambloy (Loir-et-Cher) for the summer, and some 95 boys elected to go there. They thus received kosher food and lived in a religious environment. The children and staff of Ambloy were relocated to the Chateau de Vaucelles in Taverny (Val d'Oise) (October). About 50 non-religious boys were taken to the Villa Concordiale in Le Vesinet (Yvelines) near Paris that housed an equal number of French Jewish orphans. They went to the Foyer de Champigny in Champigny-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne) (Summer). All of these children received both regular academic instruction and vocational training. Meanwhile, OSE social workers made every effort to locate surviving relatives, mostly in Palestine or America. Relatives were located for about half the children. The Buchenwald children who had been taken in by France had left OSE careand were building new (late-1948).

Swiss group

Rabbi Schacter went with a second transport to Switzerland. The AP wire photo on the previous page shows one an unidentified boy that was part of the Swiss group. He was one of the handfull of younger boys that survived in Buchenwald.

British group

Sources

Hazan, Katy, "Chronologie de l'histoire de l'OSE L'action de l'OSE apres la guerre." (December 31, 2002).

Hemmendinger, Judith. "The Children of Buchenwald: After Liberation And Now".

Hemmendinger, Judith and Robert Krell. The Children of Buchenwald (Gefen Publishers, 2000).

Waltzer, Kenneth. "Block 66 at Buchenwald: The Clandestine Barracks to Save Children." Jewish Virtual Library.

Wiesel, Elie. Night

USHM.

Created: 11:44 PM 2/18/2013
Last updated: 8:18 AM 2/19/2013