Category:Displaced Children (subject)

Displaced Children (see Holocaust Children Studies)

• Displaced Children, Germany -- Displaced Children, Austria -- Displaced Children, Italy

Overview

After the Shoah, the Western Allies established DP camps in the areas of Germany, Austria and Italy where they were in control. Some 250,000 survivors of the concentration camps lived in these camps, as well as survivors who had fled eastward into the USSR and returned after the war.

Among the displaced persons, thousands of children were "in search of" their parents and relatives, and thousands of parents were in search of their children. The situation was particularly dramatic for the little one who often did not have any memory of their name and true identity.

After World War II, relief agencies photographed some of the children who survived to help find their families:

• Remember me? (US Holocaust Museum)

It many cases with the Liberation came the realization of being orphans. Children were gathered in displaced persons camps or orphanage, in Germany, Poland, Switzerland, France and England. For most children from Eastern Europe there was no family to be reunited and no place to go. Many of them emigrated to Palestine were they were welcome in special kibbutzim. Many joined relatives in the United States or other countries. A minority could be reunited to their parents or father or mother. Family reunions were a joyful celebration but sometimes were not easy after years of separation. In many cases, little children got attached to their foster parents. Older children were used to live on their own and did not accept parental supervision. Many parents who had lost their husband or wife has remarried and did not easily welcome the presence of children from the previous marriage. Many children would rather live alone or with distant relatives than with their own parents.

Readjustment to a "normal" life was difficult. Many children had no memory or knowledge of what a "normal" life was. Many asked themselves why had they survived. People who had not come through the experience of ghettos and concentration camps could not understand what the children had experienced. On the other hand, children were eager to learn, study, built a new life for themselves. Many had never been to school, but had learned a lot about life and death, and were able to make decisions about their future.

Only a very few children were "interviewed" after the Holocaust, by Inquiry Committees (in 1945) or by American psychologist David P. Boder (in 1946).

Two children played a very import role as witnesses in the first trials for war crimes:

• Luigi Ferri (Auschwitz) and Szymon Srebrnik (Chelmno).