Life in Shadows: Hidden Children and the Holocaust
Special Exhibition Opens January 24, 2006 at the
Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
This moving special exhibition tells the remarkable stories of the Nazis’ most vulnerable victims-Jewish children. By war’s end, as many as 1.5 million of those children were dead.
Thousands of Jewish children survived the Holocaust by living with false identities; by being physically concealed in attics, cellars, barns, or sewers; or by being protected by clergy in convents and monasteries. For these children, going into hiding often meant leaving their families and identities behind. Life in hiding was never safe and was always fraught with danger, where a careless remark, a denunciation, or the murmurings of inquisitive neighbors could lead to discovery and death.
After the war, a new saga in the story of hidden children began. Surviving parents, relatives, and family friends sought out children they had placed in convents, orphanages, or with foster families. Local Jewish committees in Europe tried to register the living and account for the dead. In many cases the quest for family or true identity involved traumatic soul-searching by children to rediscover who they really were. In many cases, they were now orphans.
This exhibition is organized and circulated by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
A tour of the Life in Shadows exhibition will be offered as an option for school and youth groups visiting the Museum’s core exhibition. Tours designed to correspond to school curricula are adapted to meet the specific needs, interests, and backgrounds of groups; Museum staff or Gallery Educators lead them. In addition, a Teacher’s Guide will be available on the Museum’s website when the exhibition opens. The March 2, 2006 Fanya Gottesfeld Heller Conference for Educators will focus on the challenges confronting those who were hidden during the Holocaust.
On Sunday, January 29, at 2:30 p.m. the Museum will screen Europa Europa (1990, 112 MIN, 35MM) followed by a post-screening discussion with Professor Stuart Liebman of Queens College and CUNY Graduate Center. The screening is included with Museum admission ($10, $7, $5, free for members).