The Auschwitz Children

The number of children killed by Hitler and his Nazis is not fathomable and full statistics for the tragic fate of the children will never be known. Estimates range as high as 1.5 million murdered children.

You find a few of them here - but there are no happy endings. The children were all murdered in Auschwitz.

Like little Georges Halpern, who was being sheltered with other children in The Children's Home in Izieu in the hope that the Nazis would not find them. The little boy wrote to his mother:

"Chere Maman, I send you 10000000000 kisses. Your son who loves you very much. There are big mountains and the village is very pretty. There are a lot of farms and we look for blackberries and raspberries and white mulberries. I hug you with all my heart. Georgy."

Holocaust - Graphic Photos

Or little Liliane Gerenstein who wrote a letter to God before she was sent to her death:

"God? How good You are, how kind and if one had to count the number of goodnesses and kindnesses You have done, one would never finish.

God? It is You who command. It is You who are justice, it is You who reward the good and punish the evil.

God? It is thanks to You that I had a beautiful life before, that I was spoiled, that I had lovely things that others do not have.

God? After that, I ask You one thing only: Make my parents come back, my poor parents protect them (even more than You protect me) so that I can see them again as soon as possible.

Make them come back again. Ah! I had such a good mother and such a good father! I have such faith in You and I thank You in advance."

On the morning of April 6, 1944, as the children all settled down in the refectory to drink hot chocolate, the Nazis raided the Home, throwing the crying and terrified children on to the trucks like sacks of potatoes.

The children were all deported to Auschwitz and killed ..

Source: The Archives of
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum