"Yom HaShoah"

May We Never Forget!

[Part One]

Shoah is the Hebrew word for "whirlwind." It is the term that is used for the devasting horror that was inflicted upon the Jewish People between the years 1938 and 1945. During this time an all out war was waged against the Jewish People. No mercy was shown to any of them. Unspeakable atrocities were committed against these people who had harmed no one. They were persecuted, robbed of all they possessed, imprisoned, beaten, tortured and butchered by the Nazi Regime. This project is dedicated to the memory of all of the six million Jewish victims who perished during the Holocaust.

While this site is educational in nature, it contains pictures that may be disturbing to younger children. Parents need to view this Holocaust Project with their children, in order to explain the events and pictures, in a way the children can understand. Thank you!

Take a good look at these happy, carefree, smiling faces. For soon they will emerge into a vast sea of darkness, where there is no escape. Where horror reigns at every turn. Where the good life, is about to become, but a mere memory. Was it so long ago they were free to be just who they really were? Just innocent little children....

Portrait of Berta Rosenheim Hertz, as a young child playing on the terrace of her home in Leipzig. She was later sent to England as part of a Kindertransport. Most likely, this action saved her life. September 1928 - Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

A German-Jewish child, Berta Rosenheim, poses with a large cone on her first day of school in Leipzig. April 1929 - Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Portrait of two Jewish girls at the entrance to their school on their first day of classes. - September 1936 - Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

A group of Hungarian and Hungarian-Jewish children pose with their teacher on a seesaw in the playground of a preschool in Budapest. Date - 1938 - Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Portrait of Berthe Sluizer with her Granddaughter, Yoka Verdoner - Dutch Jews - 1938-1939 Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

A young French woman hugs the three year old Jewish child, whom she hid in her home in Izieu. 1943 - Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

A Jewish child in hiding poses with members of the Lithuanian family that concealed her in their home. 1943 - Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

First Communion portrait of Janina Nebe, a Jewish child, who was hidden for three years by Leokadia Nawrocka. 1944 - Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

What must be known is anti-Semitism was not a new thing to Jewish People. One could say that as long as there have been Jewish People, there has been hatred, shown towards them. We must always remember that man's inhumanity to man, can appear in any period of history, where moral and ethical standards have deteriorated, to an all time low. While many nations and races of people have experienced times of tribulation, none have felt it as often and as severe as the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The conditions in Germany for anti-Semitism to explode were very obvious as these next photos will show.

A German civilian wearing a Nazi armband holds a sheaf of anti-Jewish boycott signs, while SA members paste them on a Jewish-owned business. The leader of the group gives instructions as to where the signs should be placed. Most of the signs read, "Germans defend yourselves against Jewish atrocity propaganda; buy only at German stores." Photo Credit: National Archives

A Jewish-owned store is covered with graffiti and plastered with signs of rhyming anti-Semitic verse. April 1, 1933 - Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

A woman reads a boycott sign posted in the window of a Jewish-owned department store. The sign reads: "Germans defend yourselves against Jewish atrocity propaganda, buy only at German shops!" April 1, 1933 - Photo Credit: National Archives

A metal plate with the wording in German, "Jews Not Wanted Here!" Such signs were common throughout Nazi Germany. Photo Credit: Yad Vashem

Three Jewish businessmen are paraded down Bruehl Strasse in central Leipzig, forced to carry signs that read: "Don't buy from Jews; Shop at German stores!" - 1935 - Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Portrait of the Raboy family in Berezno, USSR. Pictured are Abraham and Feiga Raboy and their four children: Buncia, Shaindel, Beila, and Aron. Only Aron survived the war. 1935 - Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

This little boy just caught my attention. Perhaps, it was his eyes... He was not just a number. He was a precious little child, a unique individual, created in G-d's Image. Just as all the other victim's were....

Portrait of three year old Tomas Kulka standing in front of his house in Olomouc - 1937 - Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Tomas was the son of Elsa and Robert Kulka, who were married in 1933 in Brno and moved to Olomouc, where Tomas was born. Following Elsa's father's death in 1937, the family moved to Brno where they took over the family shipping company. Just before Tomas' fifth birthday the Germans occupied Moravia. Because Tomas was Jewish, he was not allowed to attend school. On March 31, 1942, Tomas and his family were sent to Theresienstadt. In May, he and his maternal Grandmother were deported to Sobibor, where they were gassed upon arrival. Tomas was two weeks short of his eighth birthday. That same year his parents died in the Ossova labor camp.

The Margules children wearing Jewish badges. Three of the children were deported and killed in 1942. Only one Daughter (pictured at the bottom right) survived the war. Date 1941- Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The branding of Jews with a special sign in Nazi Germany and the occupied countries was designed to enable them to be distinguished from the general population, and consequently isolated from it and degraded in its eyes. To add insult to injury, the Jews were forced, to not only make their own badges, but to distribute them, as well. Photo Credit: Yad Vashem

An assortment of armbands produced by the Jewish Council in the Kovno ghetto. Each armband reflected whatever position one held in the larger ghettos. Photo Credit: Yad Vashem

"UNANSWERED.....?"
by DUNIO BERNHAU


Will I always remember?
Can I ever forget
Or is the sentence perpetual and conclusively set?

Will the memories dwindle?
Can the torment subside
Or is the cycle relentless as the flow of the tide?

Will sadness release me?
Can I ever know joy
Or is fate still unfolding some merciless ploy?

Will somebody know me?
Can I be seen through the haze
Or is the image evasive, an intricate maze?

Will my life serve a purpose?
Was it carefully planned
Or is destiny adding one more granule of sand?

Like shadowy visions concealing in fear
Most answers elusive, opaque and unclear
But these so translucent through a shroud of regret:
Yes, I will always remember; No, I can never forget....

An announcement ordering all Jews in the Krakow region to wear armbands with the Star of David on them. This was used as an identifying mark. All Jews above the age of twelve were ordered to wear the armband. In defining a Jew, the follow description was given: 1) anyone who is or was of the Mosaic faith. 2) anyone whose Mother or Father is or was of the Mosaic faith. Date: November 18, 1939, Photo Credit: Glowna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu

As the war progressed, just having a teaspoon full of Jewish blood in one's heritage, was more than enough reason, to be sent to the death camps. An elaborate system was put into place, by which a person's descendants, were made known. Many people who thought they were 100% German, were in for a surprise, when the Nazis came for them. They were taken to the labor camps. Many ended up in the death camps and their fate was just the same as the others. No amount of begging or denying their Jewish heritage did them any good.

As the orders were given for the Jewish People to be rounded up, it caught many Jews by surprise. It didn't take very long for realization to set in. As more Jews were rounded up and their belongings confiscated, they became anxious, and wondered what was ahead for them. Little did they know their entire world was about to crumble...

Jews gathered at an assembly point awaiting deportation. Picture taken 1942. Photo Credit: Archiwum Dokumentocji Mechanizney

Dutch Jews from Hooghalen on route to Westerbork. October 1942 - Almost 100,000 Jews were deported from Westerbork to Auschwitz, between the years 1942 and 1944. Anne Frank and her family were held here for a while. Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Members of the Ordedienst (Jewish police) give assistance to prisoners boarding a deportation in Westerbork. 1943 - 1944 Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

A newly arrived transport of Jews makes their way on foot from the Bohusovice train station to the Theresienstadt ghetto. 1941 - 1945 Photo Credit: Yad Vashem Photo Archives

Jews await deportation to Westerbork at the Muiderpoort railroad station in the Polderweg district. May 1943 - June 1943 Photo Credit: Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie

Children, imprisoned in the Rivesaltes transit camp, attend an OSE pre-school. - 1942 - Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

A Group portrait of young women wearing Jewish badges. They worked in a sewing workshop in Bedzin, Poland. Of the entire group only Ruzia Grinbaum survived. She is the one sitting in the front row, third from the right. Date: 1942 - Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

I CAN NOT FORGET
THE ACTION IN THE GHETTO OF ROHATYN,
MARCH 1942.
by Alexander Kimel- Holocaust Survivor

Do I want to remember?
The peaceful ghetto, before the raid:
Children shaking like leaves in the wind.
Mothers searching for a piece of bread.
Shadows, on swollen legs, moving with fear.
No, I don't want to remember, but how can I forget?

Do I want to remember, the creation of hell?
The shouts of the Raiders, enjoying the hunt.
Cries of the wounded, begging for life.
Faces of mothers carved with pain.
Hiding Children, dripping with fear.
No, I don't want to remember, but how can I forget?

Do I want to remember, my fearful return?
Families vanished in the midst of the day.
The mass grave steaming with vapor of blood.
Mothers searching for children in vain.
The pain of the ghetto, cuts like a knife.
No, I don't want to remember, but how can I forget?

Do I want to remember, the wailing of the night?
The doors kicked ajar, ripped feathers floating the air.
The night scented with snow-melting blood.
While the compassionate moon, is showing the way.
For the faceless shadows, searching for kin.
No, I don't want to remember, but I cannot forget.

Do I want to remember this world upside down?
Where the departed are blessed with an instant death.
While the living condemned to a short wretched life,
And a long tortuous journey into unnamed place,
Converting Living Souls, into ashes and gas.
No. I Have to Remember and Never Let You Forget

Mrs. Althausen, a prisoner in Gurs, cooks soup on a make shift stove. This photograph was shot secretly by Alice Resch-Synnestvedt during her stay in Gurs as a delegate of the American Friends Service Committee. Date: October 1940 - August 1941- Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Life was very hard in the ghettos. Thousands of Jewish People died while they were there. Many starved to death as food was scarce. Others froze to death as there was no heat. Because they were forced from their homes into the ghettos so quickly, they were allowed to take very little with them. The Nazis took everything of value. Much of the furniture they were able to bring with them had to be chopped up and used for fuel. What was not chopped up was later looted by the surrounding people. Their supply of medicine was as scarce as everything else. People, literally fell dead in the streets from starvation, disease, and exposure.

Forced to relocate to the Krakow ghetto, Jews move their belongings in horsedrawn wagons. 1940 - Poland - Photo Credit: Glowna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu

Jews being forced to relocate to the Krakow ghetto. Circa 1940 - Poland - Photo Credit: Glowna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu

There was an attempt, among the Jewish People, to carry on with life the best they could, even under these terrible inhumane conditions.

Portrait of a couple with their young daughter on the street in the Rymanow, Polish ghetto. Pictured are Abraham Keller Landau and his wife and daughter. They were killed by SS a few months later. Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (1942)

Portrait of a Jewish father and daughter in Warsaw, Poland. Both Abraham Spielman and his beloved daughter were killed in the Ciechanowiec ghetto. Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (1938)

Group portrait of children living in a Kielce ghetto orphanage, administered by the Judenrat (Jewish Council). January 1, 1942 - Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Jewish youth peer over the wall overlooking Mirowski Plac (Square) that divided the Warsaw ghetto into the small and large ghettos. Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. October 15, 1941

A close-up of two young boys wearing Stars of David in the Kovno ghetto. Avram was five years old and Emanuel Rosenthal was two years old. They, along with their father and grandmother were deported to Majdanek, in March 1944, where they all perished. Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Approximately 10,000 children age 19 and under entered the Kovno ghetto. Within a couple of months almost half of them (4,400) were killed during the Great Action of October 28, 1941. Once the Germans declared pregnancy illegal under penalty of death of the mother in July 1942 few new babies were born.

During the last year of the ghettos, all teenagers over the age of twelve were registered for work, and were forced to do so. Those too young to be subjected to forced labor, often sold their services, in order to bring in extra food for their families. These illegal workers were called "malokhim" or angels.

Group portrait of the children and staff of a daycare center in the Kielce ghetto. The center was administrated by the Kielce Judenrat (Jewish Council). January 1, 1942, Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

A child's identification card, which entitles him/her to receive rations from a soup kitchen administered by the Jewish social self-help committee of the Kielce ghetto Judenrat (Jewish Council). This particular card was issued for the month of May 1941, and was valid only for breakfast. January 1, 1942, Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

A Jewish woman eating her ration of soup that she received at the public kitchen in the Kielce ghetto. January 1, 1942, Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Close-up of a child forced to work at a machine in a Kovno ghetto workshop. 1941 - 1943 Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

A young boy in the Kovno ghetto. Older children frequently had to grow up too fast. The care of their younger siblings rested upon them. (1941) Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Jews captured by SS and SD troops during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising are forced to leave their shelter and march to the Umschlagplatz for deportation. The original German caption reads: "Pulled from the bunkers by force." April 19, 1943, - May 16, 1943, Photo Credit: Glowna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu

On March 27' and 28,' 1944, German troops with Ukrainian auxiliaries went from house to house and rounded up the ghetto's remaining children under the age of twelve. During this two-day "children's action" 1,300 children were forcibly taken to either the 9' Fort or Auschwitz, where they were killed.

Polish peasants jeer as a Jew is forced to cut the beard of a fellow Jew. This was done to humiliate both men. 1939 - 1940 Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial museum

Austrian Nazis and local residents look on as Jews are forced to get on their hands and knees and scrub the pavement. March 1938 - April 1938 Photo Credit: National Archives

A member of the German police kicks a Jew who is climbing onto the back of a truck during a round-up for forced labor. Two other Germans look on with derision. 1940 - 1941 Photo Credit: Glowna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu

Portrait of Kolbuszowa Rabbi, Yechiel Teitelbaum, wearing his tallit and tefillin (prayer shawl and phlacteries) in front of his home in the ghetto. The Germans forced him to pose for this photograph as an act of public humiliation. The Rabbi was later deported to the Rzeszow ghetto, where he and his two granddaughters were murdered. - 1942 - Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Babi Yar

Had I fastened the cradle on a rafter,
And rocked it, and rocked it
My little son, my Yankl

But the house has vanished
Into a fiery dome,
How then can I rock
My little son, my own?

Had I fastened
The cradle on a little tree
And rocked it and rocked it
My little son, my Shleyml

But nothing was left,
Not a thread from a sheet;
Nothing remained
Not a shoestring for my feet.

Had I shorn my long braids
My hair untended,
Upon them the cradle,
The cradle suspended

But where can I search for
The little bones to find them,
The little bones, the dear ones,

Of both my precious children

Help me mothers, help me
My mournful song to weep;
Help me mothers, help me,
So Babi Yar may sleep...

A mournful song of lament
Lyrics by Shike Driz (1908-1971)
Music by Riva Boyarsky (1894-1967)

Babi Yar, a ravine on the outskirts of Kiev where 33,771 Jews were machined gunned on September 29-30, 1941. It became a mass grave for over 100,000 victims, the majority of them being Jewish. This is one of the most haunting songs of the Holocaust.

Portrait of three year old Anna Glinberg, a Jewish child who was later killed during the mass execution at Babi Yar. June 1935 - Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Portrait of two year old Mania Halef, a Jewish child, who was later killed during the mass execution at Babi Yar. 1936 Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Complete statistics of the tragic fate of children who died during the Holocaust will never be known. Some estimates range as high as 1.5 million murdered children. This figure includes more than 1.2 million Jewish children, tens of thousands of Gypsy children and thousands of institutionalized handicapped children who were murdered under the Nazi Regime in Germany and occupied Europe.

The older the children were the better chance they had to survive. The Nazis viewed the younger children as totally useless, as they couldn't work. The older ones were assigned to forced labor in concentration camps and ghettos. That is as long as their health remained intact. However, once in the ghettos and concentration camps, their life span greatly diminished. They had very little to eat and soon became victims of malnutrition. The harsh weather also took many of their lives as they had no way to stay warm. Many of them died early deaths due to these harsh and rigid conditions.

Children who were mentally or physically handicapped were murdered under euthanasia programs. They were considered less than human. In fact, all Jewish People were considered less then human. This kind of thinking made it much easier for their murderers who had little if any conscience within them.

Many of the children were orphaned and witnessed the murders of their parents, siblings and loved ones. Those who endured this far met their deaths in the gas chambers. Many times, the Nazis ordered the children to be placed in the burning ovens, while they were still alive. It took 44/100 of a penny to buy enough Zyklon- B gas to kill one Jewish child. The Nazis didn't think a Jewish child was worth 44/100 of a penny.

After 1939, four procedures can describe the fate of both Jewish and non-Jewish children in occupied Europe. (1) Those killed immediately on arrival in the concentration camps and the killing centers. (2) Those killed shortly after birth. (3) Those few born in ghettos and camps hidden and protected by some of the prisoners and (4) children above the age of 10, utilized as prisoners, laborers, and subjects for Nazi medical experiments. Of the 15,000 children imprisoned in the Theresienstadt ghetto, only about 1,100 survived.

Anti-Semitism was taught to children early in life. Page from the anti-Semitic German children's book, "Trau Keinem Fuchs..." (Trust No Fox in the Green Meadow and No Jew on his Oath). - 1936 - Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

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