Hidden Children

Whereas the majority of the Boys spent years in the ghettos, slave labour and concentration camps, some of the Boys were hidden children, and they survived the war either living alone in the towns, countryside and forests of occupied Europe or successfully concealed their Jewish identities for some or all of the duration of World War II.  

The Boys were teenage and child-Holocaust survivors, who were brought to the UK after the war for rest and rehabilitation.

Those members of the Boys who had been hidden, lived alone or concealed their identities made their way to the Jewish orphanages and displaced persons’ camps after the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Overview

Those members of the Boys who have identified as being hidden were taken in by Aryan families in Nazi occupied in Poland and Slovakia. Some were hidden children throughout the war. Sometimes those people who took the children in were paid but often not.

Arie Czeret was taken in by Ukrainian peasants after his family were killed in the liquidation of the Trembowla Ghetto in what was then eastern Poland. He remained with the family until the liberation. It is not known what happened to the family after the war.

Others like Mendel Silberstein spent one and half years as a hidden child with a Volksdeutsche family. His father had been at school with the family’s father and as he was in Polish territory annexed to the Reich, he even attended Hitler Youth meetings. He was not the only Jewish child hidden in the village. After the other children had been discovered by the Nazis and killed, the family thought it was safer for Silberstein to rejoin his family in the ghetto.

Avrom Dichter was also hidden by a Polish family, but they were too frightened to protect him for long. Odd as it may sound, he then felt that it was safer for him to join other Jews in the labour camp at Budzyń.

Jankiel Klajman, later Jack Klajman, was told by his older sister to escape from the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942 as rumours were circulating that the ghetto was about to be liquidated. Klajman’s parents had both already died of exhaustion in the ghetto. Klajman was 11 years old when he escaped with his brother Eli, who was nine. They lived feral on the streets of Warsaw.

Jankiel Klajman in Kloster Indersdorf, Germany in 1945.

“Eli and I were a great team – two brothers who both loved one another and got along like best friends.

Often, on days when we didn’t do well begging, we had no choice but to steal food to survive. In the summer and early fall, I stole from the twice-weekly farmers’ market. I took turnips, apples, carrots – whatever was easiest at that moment. I remember many autumn breakfasts of cold turnip.

Eli, on the other hand, was much better at the game than me. He never chose the easiest picking. He went for what he wanted most – and that wasn’t turnip. He wanted to steal fresh bread and baked goods …

Between the two of us, we were making enough to eat every day. The only problem was where to sleep at night.”

When Klajman sneaked back into the ghetto to take part in the Warsaw Uprising, his little brother was caught by the Polish police, and he never saw him again.

“The first few nights after learning Eli had died were emotionally devastating. It was early springtime, warm enough that I could sleep in the park or other outdoor sites. I would cry myself to sleep, thinking constantly about how much I missed my brother. I still don’t know how I managed to remain sane.”

Jack Klajman, The Smallest Hope (Azrieli, 2023). Klajman found himself alone in the world at the age of 12 years old.

Jack Klajman then survived by singing in the countryside, as did Sam Frieman. Frieman was always known by his nickname, Dundela, which was the title of one of his favourite songs.

Mala Szorer also lived feral for several years before she managed to sign up for a German labour exchange in Bilgoraj for young Poles and was shipped off to Germany, despite having no documents to prove she was a Catholic from a Polish family.

Many families who took in Jewish children were too frightened after the war to talk about what they had done for fear of reprisal. Others did not talk about it because they considered it was a natural thing to do so and not something to be boasted about. Many of those who protected Jews during the Holocaust have been recognised as Righteous Among Nations by the Israeli Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem but there are thousands of people who offered a helping hand, even if it was just a passing gesture, to children that they knew were Jewish who have never been recognised.

Being a hidden child was not without trauma. Many hidden children spent months even years alone in barns and hideouts, and some were mistreated by those who hid them.