Difference between revisions of "Category:Buchenwald (subject)"

Buchenwald

When the Allies liberate Buchenwald, they found 903 children. They were mostly adolescents; only around 30 of them were under 12.

Over four hundred of them were sent to an orphanage in Écouis, France where they were educated and cared for; see OSE Orphanage.

Literature

1991

The Boys: Triumph over Adversity (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1991) is a book by Martin Gilbert.

"The story of 732 young concentration camp survivors ... In August 1945, Britain offered to take in 1,000 young survivors [of the Holocaust]. Only 732 could be found. Flown to England, they first settled in the Lake District. They formed a tightly knit group of friends whose terrible shared experience is almost beyond imagining. This is their story, which begins in the lost communities of pre-World War II central Europe, moves through ghetto, concentration camp and death march, to liberation, survival, and finally, fifty years later, a deeply moving reunion ... After sharing their annual reunions for twenty years with historian Martin Gilbert, the men and women of "The Boys" asked him to share their recollections and experiences ... The Boys bears witness to the human spirit, enduring the depths, and bearing hopefully the burden and challenge of survival."--Publisher description.

Martin Gilbert (1936-2015) was a British historian and honorary Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford. He was the author of eighty-eight books, including works on Winston Churchill, the 20th century, and Jewish history including the Holocaust.

1996

Saving Children: Diary of a Buchenwald Survivor and Rescuer (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1991) is a book by Holocaust survivor Jack Werber (1914-2006), with William B Helmreich.

"This is a remarkable story of survival, resistance, and courage. Jack Werber spent five and a half years in Buchenwald, one of Hitler's most notorious concentration camps. More than 56,000 inmates were put to death there and, out of 3,200 Polish prisoners who entered the camp together with Werber, only eleven were alive by war's end. Of those, he was the only Jew ... But Werber did more than survive; he helped others survive. In what is truly one of the most amazing stories to come out of the Holocaust, Jack Werber helped to save the lives of some 700 Jewish children who had arrived at Buchenwald in late 1944. Shortly before that Werber had learned that his entire family his wife, daughter, parents, and seven brothers and sisters had all been murdered by the Nazis. "There was no reason to go on," he had thought, but seeing the children transformed his outlook. He resolved to do everything in his power to prevent them from meeting his daughter's fate ... Werber is one of the very few Jews to belong to the camp underground. Together with several other Jews, he made saving children his special mission. At great personal risk, he arranged for them to be hidden in various barracks and to be given false working papers. Incredibly, he and his group actually started a school where the children studied Jewish history, music, and the Hebrew language. These activities gave the youngsters hope that they might survive and ultimately most of them did ... This story of resilience and courage has never been told before, despite the thousands of books that have appeared about the Holocaust. In Saving Children, we learn how it was achieved. Werber describes in fascinating detail what life in Buchenwald was like, providing much new information about the daily struggle for existence that characterized life in the camp. Above all, he shows how it was possible to remain human and to act with compassion, even in the face of enormous cruelty and barbarism."--Publisher description.

2012

Kinderblock 66: Return to Buchenwald (USA, 2012) is a documentary directed by Rob L. Cohen, featuring four Holocaust child survivors: Israel Laszlo Lazar (Romania, 1930), Pavel Kohn (Czechia, 1929), Alex Moskovic (Slovakia, 1931), and Naftali Furst (Slovakia, 1933).

"Kinderblock 66 is the story of four men who, as young boys, were imprisoned by the Nazis in the notorious Buchenwald concentration camp and who, sixty-five years later, return to commemorate the sixty-fifth anniversary of their liberation. The film tells the story of the effort undertaken by the camp's Communist-led underground to protect ad save Jewish children who were arriving in Buchenwald toward the end of the Holocaust. Kinderblock 66 also tells the story of Antonin Kalina, the head of the block who was personally responsible for saving 904 boys in Buchenwald."--Publisher description.

Rob L. Cohen, filmmaker.

Child survivors

• Israel Laszlo Lazar (Romania, 1930) -- arrived on Feb 6, 1945 (15 yo)
• Pavel Kohn (Czechia, 1929) -- Feb 10, 1945 (15)
• Alex Moskovic (Slovakia, 1931) - Jan 26, 1945 (13)
• Naftali Furst (Slovakia, 1933) -- Jan 23, 1945 (12)