Hidden Lives: Stories from Child Survivors of the Holocaust

One and a half million Jewish children were murdered in the Holocaust. The Nazis’ goal to eradicate the entire Jewish population in Europe included children—from infants to teenagers—who were targeted as part of the coordinated genocide that led to the murder of six million Jews. Those children who survived were often hidden: in convents, orphanages, haylofts, forests—even sewers. 

Hidden Lives is a collection of true stories written by the youngest survivors of the Holocaust. Desperation compelled parents to make the agonizing decision to leave their children with strangers or to let them fend on their own. Many were too young to understand why they were being left behind, often under assumed identities. While the vast majority of these children were orphaned by the end of the war, some were reunited with family who, in many cases, now seemed like strangers. Their accounts are marked with fear, confusion, and abandonment, as well as a loss of their Jewish identity. These true stories are profiles of bravery: of the children who survived in often terrible circumstances, of the parents and families who were forced to leave them behind, and of the many people—including Christian families, many times complete strangers—who risked their lives to save them.