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Children

Children arrived in Theresienstadt right with the first transports from Brno and Prague in 1941. Thanks to Gonda Redlich and Fredy Hirsch, who, faithful to the tradition of the youth movement that they were part of when they were young, immediately brought these children under their wing and procured better conditions for them in this worst of places, the first special rooms for children were soon created and, later, in February 1942, the first Home for Children. Several people from the ghetto administration understood the responsibility we had towards the children and we tried to find all kinds of ways to make their life in the ghetto easier. It was once again our Jakub Edelstein who, in the difficult and important discussion at the Council of Elders over whose slice of bread would be shortened or whose portion increased, swayed the decision in favor of the children with his courageous and lucid analysis. This perhaps unusually and cruelly disadvantaged the old, but at the time it was the right thing to do; it guaranteed a better future for the Jewish nation. This decision by the Council of Elders trickled down to all of the barracks, kitchens, and streets. Everywhere, children came under special care, they were given advantages, and if there was a happy sight in Theresienstadt, it was surely the happily playing children, who seemed so carefree. But those who worked in Theresienstadt with the children knew how sometimes a child’s eyes would glisten, knew the look that asked why? to which no caretaker knew an appropriate because, knew that when the children woke up at night they opened their eyes and saw an empty darkness, sometimes heard their silent crying that no medicine could cure, knew the complications and tragedy of a Jewish child and its soul. No textbook of psychology exists yet that can teach us how to soothe them.

For the children, life in the homes was led separately from the rest. In accordance with the principles of collective education, the individual rooms constituted closed homes, which set and managed their daily schedule. Besides their lessons, the children had to do domestic work and organized frequent evening programs. The caretakers lived with the children and thus they could significantly influence their whole lives. Unfortunately, there were very few qualified people, and the caretaker's incompetence sometimes led to a difficult crisis in the home. When the number of children in Theresienstadt reached its peak, i.e. in the summer of 1943, there were 2,300 children aged 4-18 receiving child care in the homes. Health services took care of children younger than age 4, placing them either in the home for infants or in the home for toddlers together with their mothers and the staff. Children were not forced to move into the homes. The open youth care looked after children who were outside of the homes. The institution of open care consisted of the home for mothers and children (without a staff), and Czech, German, and Hebrew kindergartens, attended by more than 500 children. Social nurses were also part of the open youth care. Children regularly visited them, and the nurses performed health check-ups and arranged all that was necessary for them, within the realm of possibilities. Children up to age 14 who lived with their parents went to the shelters every day, where they attended lessons in the most difficult circumstances thanks to the courage and devotion of the caretakers in the face of the Gestapo’s strict orders against them. Young people over age 14 who lived either with their parents or in homes were forced to work. To facilitate this, a special section for the integration of young people into the labor process was created in close cooperation with the youth section and labor office. In the summer of 1943, a total of 1,673 children were registered in this section. Young people were assigned the type of work that would allow them to learn something, for example in agriculture and gardening, crafts and production, healthcare and education. These young people

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were also taken care of by a special apprenticeship commission that also administered exams once their training was completed. To help with all of these educational activities, a children’s library for children up to age 13 and a young people's library for older children were established. Besides the caretakers’ ethical and practical goals, the youth section tried to expand the children’s minds and thus stop the deepening moral decline in the ghetto. By pointing to the Jewish nation’s illustrious past and the life and work of the future, the caretakers tried to neutralize the dismalness and hopelessness of their situation.

Unfortunately, these efforts were in vain. Transports continued to arrive and depart; orders and bullying gave the children no peace. Around 15,000 children passed through Theresienstadt. A transport to the east meant a death sentence. In the beginning, it was possible to protect children younger than 12. But this age limit was gradually lowered, and in October 1944 even babies were transported.

In the winter of 1944-1945, 1,068 children remained in Theresienstadt, and after the war no more than 100 children older than 14 returned from the concentration camps. Unless they were among the fortunate who remained in Theresienstadt, no children younger than 14 returned.

All of the efforts and work, all of the mental and physical care, all of the individual and collective education led nowhere. They could only make the children’s stay in the ghetto a little easier.

They couldn’t avert their terrible fate.

Zeev Scheck.

Accepted on behalf of the Documentary campaign by: Weinberger

Accepted on behalf of the archive: Tressler

Prague, January 29, 1946.

Transcript: R. Brammerová