Survivors

Survival or death came quickly for some, others suffered for up to5 years in hiding. Locked in Ghettos, living in death camps, and other unimaginable fates

In order to under stand Survival I think we have to look targeted. Other victims of the Nazi who were arrested and sent to concentration camps were political opponents, dissenting clergy, Jehovah's Witness, Roma (`commonly called Gypsies), people with mental retardation, mental illness and severe disabilities, and German male homosexuals.

In the fall of 1939 Nazi doctors murdered more than 70,000 mentally and physically disabled prisoners in six extermination centers saying their" lives were unworthy of living" The public got upset and forced Hitler to stop the program in August of 1941. Despite the end of the program many tens of thousands more were murdered faster after the date.

The Roma, or Gypsies, were expected racially inferior threat to the purity of the German race. They were considered for selective mass murder. Of the 40,000Roma in Germany thousands were sterilized and others were deported to extermination center in Poland. Across Europe Roma were gathered and shot. Auschwitz Burkina concentration camp had 20,000 in mates. In the course of persecution as many as 20,000 Roma were murdered.

In January of 1940 250 Roma children murdered in Buchenwald when they were used in as test subjects for efficiency of Zyklon Barstools, which was later used in gas chambers, July 13, 1941, German officer Heydrick gave the order to be sent to Auschwitz for extermination. August, 1st 1944 9,000 Roma where gassed and cremated in a single action.

It is estimated that Roma lives lost in the Holocaust where between 1/2 and 1 million. Nobody ever testified on belief of the Roma's in Nuremberg trials and no post war composition was ever paid to the Roman Survivors.

Further research into the concept of homosexuals as victims of the Holocaust exposes no more than 5,000 to 15,000 were ever hailed in concentration camps. They were generally sent to labor camp and they did not lose there civil rights or property. Some were subject to medical experiments to force them to be heterosexuals. Many were in important possessions in the Government and military power of the third Reich serving as camp guards and administrators.

The survivors and there stories:

The Hidden Children

Ann Shore, born Hania Goldman on April 13 1929 in Zabro Poland On March10,1942 30 Jews were taken from their homes, lined up on a brick wall, and shot. That evening the Nazi forced there way into Ann's family home and shot her father. that night Ann, and her mother and sister fled town seeking a place to hide. The mother remembered a poor Widow out side of town, what first turned them down, but was bribed into giving them shelter in her loft way here hay loft.

Ann and her family lived in the loft for over a years, with barley anything to eat and only one lice infested blanket to cover them with. They could never leave the loft except at night to scavenge for food , and mother and sister became so ill they didn't leave the loft at all. When the brother-in-law came home from the war he made them leave the loft, and they were forced to find a place to hide until the liberation.

Ann was not tens of thousands of what is referred to as the Hidden Children of the war. Children who were often times then not, all alone in the world to either remain completely hidden for years, or assumed the the identity of others so they would not be killed.

Twin Experimentation

Eva Mozeskor was the child of Romanian Jewish farmers sent to Auschwitz during World War2. At the age of ten she and her twin sister, Marium, were separated from their family and were used as human guinea pigs in lab experiments. Eva and her sister were part of the famous deadly twin experiments conducted by the notorious Dr. Joself Mengele. Eva describes the testing " We were taken three times a week and were placed naked in a huge room with 30 sets of twin's. Every part of my body was measured and compared to Marium. It was unbelievable deeming The only way I would cope was by blocking it out of my mind. They would tie my arms with a rubber to restrict the blood flow. They would take a minimum of two vials of blood from my left arm. And on occasion, enough blood was taken until we fainted. They wanted to know how much blood a person can lose and still live. They would also give us injections. I received a minimum of five each time in my right arm and at least 15 injections a week. Those were deadly ones. they were germs and chemicals- even today we have no idea what they were. The Nazi made me feel like I was nothing more than a mass cell of meat."

Both Eva and her twin survived the Holocaust and ended up living in the United States

Escape from the Ghettos of War

Ola Schary was born in Warsaw and 25 years old when the Nazi attacked Poland. She, her parents and here new husband were immediately sent to the Warsaw Ghetto. Her mother was later sent to Triblinka where she died in 1942. With the help of her husband, Ola escaped from the Ghetto in March of 1943. her husband was caught killed shortly afterwards her father left in the Ghetto, did not survive.

Ola assumed the identity of a dead Catholic women and was working as house keeper in a place out side the Ghetto walls. Just one man after her escaped Ola watched the Ghetto burning from the kitchen window as the Nazi began their final liquidation, killing , the last of the people who lived there. Ola escaped a certain death by one month, butt didn't escape watching the tragic fate of those who shared the Ghetto with her.

What happened After the War

The Third Reich fell and Europe was destroyed. hundreds of thousands of Survivors were home less known as the " displacement of prisoners " Finding place for these people was the job of the United Nation. Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Due the problems with UNRRA in 1947 the International Refugee Organization take over the job of finding homes for about 1,200,000 Jewish and no Jewish people. It took the next 4 years for the IRO to settle.

Where to place the Jews was a serious problem. They did not want to go back to the previous homes and some that did were murdered when they tried to return. Some countries would not let them in. Some people in the United States purposely put up a road block for those Jews trying to immigrate to the U.S. despite the policy of the government allowing them to. President Truman appointed a person to study the situation and make a report which later resulted in the forming of the UNRRA and the IRO. He approved policy for the US to give preferential treatment to the survivors, but he was not able to effectively put this policy into place.

About 137,00 Jews ( who admitted 400,000 refuges ) came to the United States. Other countries admitting Jews were France, Canada, and Great Britain, and Israel and the United States admitted the most. to quate leonard Dinnerstein who wrote a book about the refugees. " I sum, strong national prejudices, procrastination in Congress, and some less than dynamic leadership from the White House combined to prolong the the miseries of those Jews who survived the Holocut.

Countries	Prewar 1939	After war 1945	Survival Rate
Poland	3,250,000	50,000	1.5%
Russia	2,100,000	600,000	28%
Rumania	800,000	430,000	53%
Hungary	400,000	200,000	50%
Czechoslovakia	315,000	44,000	14%
France	350,000	275,000	78%
Germany	240,000	80,000	33%
Netherlands	140,000	20,000	15%
Italy	50,000	33,000	66%
Yugoslavia	75,000	120	14%