Page 125 - Witness

On January 27, Auschwitz survivors and their families, world leaders, dignitaries, and others gathered in th
Auschwitz to observe the 75 anniversary of the liberation, by Soviet troops, of the world’s most notorious killing field, which took place on January 27, 1945. A few months later, the world marked the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII in Europe – VE Day – which took place on May 8, 1945.
At first glance, these moments of liberation might be viewed as overwhelming instances of elation and positive experiences – after all millions of people were no longer under the merciless grip of Nazi Germany.
But for many of the Holocaust survivors, these were not necessarily moments of unbridled joy.
For some, it came with the realization that not a single member of their immediate family – parents, grandparents, children, siblings, uncles and aunts – were alive. They were literally alone in the world – strangers to everyone on planet earth. “What now?” was the first question many survivors had on their minds almost immediately after liberation.
For others, there was no home to return to – either their homes had been destroyed, or had been occupied by others, who greeted them with surprise that they were still alive, even with open hostility, and, worse, threats of murder, which tragically, were sometimes acted upon.
Many of the survivors who managed to rebuild their lives in new countries, carried the trauma with them for the rest of their lives.
While this was true, to some extent, for almost all survivors, it was especially true for child survivors – hidden children – who survived in basements and attics, behind false walls, in holes in the ground, in forests, or under false identities, during the war years.
Hiding often involved complicated situations during and after the war as many were separated from their res- cuers and returned to broken communities and broken families. Some children lost their entire identity in hiding which later wasn’t always easy to restore. Many children had no normal baseline with which to compare and no memories of childhood and sometimes even of their parents. The lack of these foundations and the wartime reality made it difficult to readjust. Some never did, remaining broken people.
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