Survival of the Smallest
Children in the Forest during the Holocaust
Simmy Allen, Yad Vashem
During the Holocaust, the forest was one of the few options Jews had to try and escape the murderous pursuit of the Nazi Germans and their collaborators. Even though it was fraught with danger – exposure to the elements, hunger and disease, and a local population who were often not any kinder than the fate they faced from Nazi soldiers – taking their chances in the forest was thought by some to be better than being incarcerated in ghettos, concentration or forced labor camps.
Jewish men, women and children sought ways to survive both as individuals and as family units among the leaves and trees. Survival in these inhospitable locations was difficult, even for the fittest of adults. For young children it was nearly impossible, and their presence often risked the safety of the entire group.
The phenomenon of hiding in the forest has been subject of several books and personal memoirs of survivors, most recently through the award-winning film Defiance, which told the story of the Beilski Family Camp.
During the Holocaust, some 1.5 million children were murdered at the hands of the Nazis. Some of the stories coming to light through Yad Vashem's national "Gathering the Fragments" campaign are those of the children who miraculously survived unimaginable conditions in the forests near their homes.
The Shawl that Saved Her Life
Miriam Noy (neé Manuskin) was a newborn infant when the Germans invaded her village of Zhetl , in Poland (currently Belarus). Her parents, Yocheved (Yocha) and Shmuel (Mulka), were forced to move into the area of the future ghetto with Miriam and her three-year-old brother Kalman. Miriam's uncle lived in that part of town and so her whole family moved in with him, including her uncles, aunts and cousins.
With valued trades – Mulka was a carpenter and Yocha a seamstress – they were assigned jobs, thus surviving the first Aktionen in the ghetto. Mulka quickly realized that work alone could not ensure his family's survival, so he decided to build a hiding place under the outhouse. The couple created an additional hiding spot in the house behind a cupboard.
During one of the Aktionen, the family went into their hiding place under the latrine. Altogether there were nine people, including baby Miriam. The adults began to panic when she started to cry, fearing they would be discovered. Yocha put her hand over Miriam's mouth to muffle the cries, almost choking her infant daughter, until the Nazis left the area.
After this terrifying incident, Mulka and Yocha decided that despite the danger, they would escape to the forests. They believed that the forest was the only way to save themselves and their children. They would live, or die together, as a family.
For two years, the family hid in the forest in hiding places that Mulka built himself. During the day they remained in their shelter, daring to come out only at night to look for food. Yocha wrapped Miriam in a shawl she obtained from a non-Jewish acquaintance to keep her from freezing to death. They suffered through the harsh, cold winters and starved from the lack of food.