Who Will Write Our History? by Samuel D. Kassow
Author:Samuel D. Kassow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2018-03-21T16:00:00+00:00
THE CHILDREN
It was the plight of the children that brought out the best and the worst of ghetto society. True to its mission, the Oyneg Shabes committed itself to document one of the most painful aspects of ghetto life—the agony of the Jewish child and the stark moral challenge that agony presented to ghetto society. One could force oneself to ignore dying adults, but not a begging child. In August 1941 Ringelblum wrote about young beggars who disregarded the curfew and yelled from the courtyards for people to throw down a piece of bread:
In the silence the screams of a hungry beggar child produce a shattering effect, and no matter how callous you have become, in the end you will throw down a piece of bread. If you don’t you won’t be able to sit quietly. … It often happens that begging children die at night on the sidewalk. I just heard about a terrible scene on Muranow 24, where a six-year-old beggar lay dying all night, unable even to crawl to eat a piece of bread that someone had thrown to him from the balcony.67
The numbers of children were staggering. Of the ghetto’s one hundred thousand children under the age of fourteen, as many as 80 percent needed help. Many children were orphans, as their parents had died of hunger. Children who lived in the dangerous typhus-ridden refugee centers had to be taken out of that environment and given clean clothing and food. As the streets filled with dying children, many turned to petty thievery. Parents, unable to feed their children, became increasingly desperate and ultimately left them at the door of an orphanage or children’s center.
The plight of the children moved all the Jewish institutions to respond. The Judenrat, the Aleynhilf, and even the Jewish police joined forces to help. The house committees set up many day care centers and gave meals to the children of their buildings. The CENTOS, the main children’s relief agency, poured resources into the desperate battle to save Jewish children, setting up orphanages, a network of soup kitchens, and day care centers where children could spend a certain number of hours a day. It also sponsored major fund-raising campaigns, called “Month of the Child.” Adolf Berman recalled that the first “Month of the Child,” in the fall of 1941, was a great success. Not only did it raise a million zlotys but it turned into an important demonstration of communal solidarity. Top artists made attractive posters. The campaign included several presentations and recitals by children from various institutions.68
In a rare example of collaboration between the Aleynhilf community and the Jewish police, policemen collected street children and packed them off to special homes, where they were washed, fed, and cared for. Various political groups established a school network that not only taught children but also fed them. Both the schools and the CENTOS sponsored theater and puppet shows, drama groups and choirs, special Hanukkah parties and Passover Seders. In conjunction with the Judenrat and
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