Fear and comfort: the plight of hidden Jewish children in wartime-Poland

Jewish children in hiding during the Holocaust undoubtedly share many experiences. These have affected their lives in various ways. In general, many, if not most, formerly hidden have learned to master their painful childhood memories and paradoxically harness these to further their adult development As a person dealing these past nine years in the study of the Gentile rescuers of both Jewish adults and children, from countries of different political, economic and cultural backgrounds, and of various and even conflicting attitudes towards the Jewish population in their midst, I found the experiences of Jewish children in hiding in Poland to be especially overwhelming and heart-strinng. In that country, the various affectations were sharper and more accentuated than those experienced by their counterparts in West European countries; that is, the sufferings and fears, as well as the love and comfort which these children underwent in Poland were far more pronounced than similar situations elsewhere on the German-controlled continent.

The Jewish refugee children from Europe in the eyes of the American press and public opinion 1934-1945

Between 1934-1945 approximately 1000 unaccompanied Jewish children, refugees from Nazism, reached the United States. These were but a fraction of the total number of Jewish refugees who reached the USA during this period. Yet the Issue of child refugees differed from that of adults in several ways and therefore received separate mention in the American press. This article charts and analyzes the press coverage of the refugee child issue during six chronological periods 1934-1938 and the arrival and acclimatization of the first child refugees from Germany, late 1938 - Kristallnacht and the aroused consciousness of the plight of persecuted children in Germany, 1939 - the Wagner-Rogers Bill to permit the extra quota entry of 20, 000 children from Germany into the United States; 1940 - the evacuation of British children to the United States and the furor over the use of American "Mercy Ships"; 1941 -1944 - the arrival of Central European refugee children who had found temporary refuge in France, Spain and Portugal; 1945 - the repatriation of evacuees and the reunion of refugee children with their surviving parents