Most people picture concentration camps as places of adult suffering, but for children, life was even more poorly and brutal. From the moment they arrived, children were seen as a problem. Because they could not work, they needed food, and the system was not formed to keep them alive. Many of the children were killed almost immediately without ever understanding where they were.
Children who were kept alive lived under a cloud of fear. They were always hungry, cold, and often ill. Food was limited, and children were always the weakest. Many watched their parents disappear and never return. They lived surrounded by death, without comfort, protection, or explanation.
Some children were forced to work despite their age. While others were used in medical experiments or get punished for small things like crying or being too slow. Even small actions, like asking for food, could also result in beatings. There was no Childhood in the concentration camps. Survival depended on being silence, luck, and receiving help of others.
What makes this hardest to imagine is all children were innocent and they did nothing wrong. They were punished simply for being alive. The camps were created to take away children’s innocence and their lives. The suffering of children from this fear remains one of the darkest truths of World War II.
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