Jewish children after tbeliberation of Auscbwitz,one of tbe most notoriousconcentration camps

Children oftheThrough bravery, kindness, and luck, many young Jews survivedHitler's genocide during World War II. A project called "RememberMe?" is now trying to track them down.

WORDS TO KNOW• concentration camp [n]\ a prison

or place of forced labor; often ageneral term that includes deathcamps Nice Auschwitz, whichwere specifically designed by theNazis as mass killing centers

• Hoiocaust [n]\ the massextermination of Jews by NaziGermany from 1933 to 1945

• Nazi [n]\ a political partydedicated to German dominanceof Europe and the destruction ofthe Jews; a member of that party

2 0 JUNIOR SCHOLASTIC/MAY 14, 2012

At the age of 19, TiborMunkácsi was lined upagainst a wall in Budapestto be shot. His crime: being Jewishin Nazi-controlled Hungary.

The year was 1944. Five yearsearlier, the armies of German dicta-tor Adolf Hitler had plunged Europeinto World War II (1939-1945).Hitler was partly motivated by afanatical hatred of Jews, whom heblamed for Germany's loss of WorldWar I. As German forces rolledacross Europe—including Poland,France, and other countries—they

carried out an almost unimaginableplan. Called the "Final Solution," itwas Hitler's design to wipe out theJews of Europe.

By March 1944, Hitler con-trolled Hungary through a puppetgovernment. There the authoritiessent hundreds of thousands ofHungarian Jews to work and die inconcentration camps (see map,p. 22). Many were simply killedin the streets.

So it was that one night localNazis found Tibor and a fewfriends and lined them up to be

11

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German soldiersexecute Polish

Holocaustshot. Suddenly, a Hungarian armyofficer arrived and said that he wasarresting these Jews. But the officeractually knew Tibor. Three blocksaway, he let him and his friends go.

Many others weren't so lucky.Between 1933 and 1945, some6 million of Europe's 9 millionJews were murdered in what cameto be known as the Holocaust.About 1 million of the victims werechildren. Many were shot andthrown into mass graves, or herdedinto gas chambers at death camps.Others died in the camps from hun-ger, disease, or cold.

The Holocaust also consumedother groups of people that Hitlersaw as inferior or dangerous,including Poles, Gypsies, Commu-nists, the disabled, homosexuals.

and Catholic priests. About 5 mil-lion of them were killed.

Yet, amazingly, many peopletargeted by the Germans madeit through the war. Each of thesurvivors had a unique story—ofkindness and cruelty, bravery andcowardice, and often sheer luck.

Tibor was one of them. "I sur-vived through a miracle," he saystoday. "There were people bigger,smarter, and stronger who didn't.And that bothers me."

Back to CivilizationTibor's "miracle" almost didn't

happen. Shortly after his escapefrom the firing squad, he wascaught again and sent to Buch-enwald, a concentration camp inGermany. There a German prisoner

helped him get work as a tailor—which saved him from having towork outside in the bitter cold.

Then one day in April 1945,Tibor and the other prisonerswere abruptly evacuated fromthe camp. In the war's last days,German guards were fleeing fromadvancing U.S. and Soviet troops.Some 28,000 prisoners were drivenon a brutal forced march on whichas many as 8,000 of them died.

Still, Tibor's luck held out. Inlate April, U.S. soldiers liberatedthe prisoners. By May, the war inEurope was over.

Tibor was then taken with otheryoung people to a relief camp nearMunich, Germany. It was likegoing "back to civilization," he

continued on p. 22 ->

MAY 14, 2012/JUNIOR SCHOLASTIC 2 1

WEB WATCH"Remember Me?"

rememberme.ushmm.org

Born in France, Ami Levinsity-Kaufman Is shown here in 1948,a year after the war ended.

f «>.

Born in Budapest, Hungary, TiborMunkácsi, now Tibor Sands, isshown here in 1945.

tells ]S. "We were sleeping in realbeds and eating real food. Someof the guys and girls were using afork and knife for the first time intheir lives."

Again, fate played a role. Withthe war over, relief agencies wentthrough the camps photographingsurvivors, hoping to reunite themwith their families. By chance,the man who took Tibor's pictureknew the boy's older brother.Martin Munkácsi had moved to the

EUROPE, 1942]

U.S. before the war and was a well-known photographer in New York.

"I was already determined tocome to the U.S.," Tibor says.

Tibor contacted his brother andin time was able to move to NewYork. A few years later, when hebecame a U.S. citizen, he decided hewanted a new last name. Opening aphone book, he chose the first onehis finger landed on. The Hungariansurvivor was now Tibor Sands.

Sands was also fortunate that

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his mother and other family mem-bers had survived the war. Butmillions of children were orphanedby the Holocaust.

Ami Levinsky-Kaufman wasonly an infant when his mother andfather died in the Holocaust, andhe has no memory of them. Born inMontargis, France, in January 1942,he was saved from his parents' fateby a Roman Catholic priest whofound shelter for the boy.

A "Normal" LifeWhen the war ended. Ami

ended up in a children's home. Anaid worker photographed him atthe age of 4. The Catholic priestwas able to contact Ami's aunt inPalestine (now Israel), where theboy went to join her.

"I grew up in a very warm homewith my adoptive mother, and Ithink I grew up fairly normal,"Levinsky-Kaufman says.

In hindsight, one thing wasstrange. Nobody ever talked tohim about the Holocaust or abouthis parents.

"Maybe they thought it would

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U.S. soldiers tend>* to an emaciated

prisoner after theliberation ofthePenig camp inGermany.

be too traumatic for me," he says.Levinsky-Kaufman's aunt died

when he was just 16, and he hassince tried to piece together hisfamily history. After serving in theIsraeli army, he moved to NewYork City, where he married andresumed a "normal" life.

Then one night last year, he sawa CBS news report about a projectcalled "Remember Me?" Historiansfrom the U.S. Holocaust Museumin Washington, D.C., had collectednearly 1,200 ofthe photographstaken of children after the war andposted them online.

Levinsky-Kaufman went to theWeb site and found the photo ofhimself at age 4. He'd never knownit existed. "I don't know how toexplain the emotions," he says."It's very moving."

Preserving a HeritageToday the "Remember Me?"

project is using photos ofHolocaust survivors taken nearly70 years ago to reconnect adultswith their lost childhoods.

"These survivors are already in

Prisoners who sur-vived Dachau cheeras U.S. forces arriveto iiberate the camp.

their 70s and 80s," says JudeRichter, a historian at themuseum. "We want to be able toreach out and find as many ofthem as we can."

For Richter, the project is allabout preserving their stories forfuture generations. "It's reallyimportant that we know . . . whatchildren went through to reach thatmoment captured in thosepictures," he tells JS.

Since the project began to postphotos online in March 2011,about 80 people have identifiedthemselves, Richter says.

As for Tibor Sands, he's had afull life since coming to the U.S. Hewas a respected Hollywoodcameraman, working on films likeThe Godfather. But for most of hislife. Sands kept his experiencesduring the Holocaust to himself.

"For many years after I wasliberated, I wouldn't talk about it,"he says. "I absolutely avoided thesubject of the Holocaust. It's onlyabout 10 or 15 years ago that Ifinally started talking about it oranswering questions."

My grandmother was one oftheEuropean Jews who survived theHolocaust. We called her "Oma,"which is German for Grandmother.

Oma was born in Germany in1929. When she was 9, her parentssaved her from Hitler's genocide byputting her on a train for England.She was one of about 10,000 Jewishchildren who escaped the Nazisthrough a rescue mission called theKindertransport. [Kinder \s Germanfor children.) Oma's mother, brother,and 12 aunts and uncles were killedin concentration camps.

Oma grew up with strangers inStratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare'sbirthplace). After the war, sheimmigrated to the U.S., where shereunited with her father. She met herhusband in California; one of theirchildren was my mother.

Oma rarely spoke about theHolocaust. But she did pass on twoimportant words: "Never forget." Iknow that she would have wantedme to share her story. In doing so,I help ensure that her past will notbecome her grandchildren's future.

—JoeBubar

Sands now plans to attend areunion of survivors from the reliefcamp where he was placed afterthe war. Levinsky-Kaufman, for hispart, believes in the importance ofsharing his story so that historywon't repeat itself.

"I think it's important that thestories will never be forgotten andnever be lost," he says. "It's myown history and the history of theJewish people."

—Joe Bubar & Bryan Brown

THINK ABOUT IT: Why might itbe important for Holocaust survivorsto learn more about lost familymembers?

MAY 14, 2012/JUNIOR SCHOLASTIC 2 3

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