Witnesses of War: Children's Lives Under the Nazis

Author Nicholas Stargardt comments that many Holocaust and war memoirs are “restrained” and “matter-of-fact”. I find this applies to his account Witnesses of War: Children’s Lives Under the Nazis. Individual stories cover German, Jewish, and Polish boys and girls; Hitler Youth, ghetto and camp inmates, and civilians – Germans and Poles - caught up in the war and the aftermath. As much as possible is taken from testimony and diaries of the children themselves. (In the front matter, Stargardt apologizes that privacy laws prevent using the real names of some of the children).

The stories are ordered chronologically. In the early days, German boys and girls are enthusiastic about serving the Reich. In the end, they are show more disillusioned by bombing and Allied armies. And, of course, in the middle is brutal occupation for the Poles.

And The Holocaust. I find it difficult to write anything about children and The Holocaust.

I’ll have to read some more about Himmler. The SS maintained a “showpiece” camp at Theresienstadt (now Terezín), stocked with families and the elderly. The International Red Cross was allowed to inspect it and reported favorably. Himmler apparently believed his own propaganda, thinking that “International Jewry” actually wielded enough power to stop the Allied bombing campaign or even sign a separate peace if offered the Theresienstadt inmates in exchange. It isn’t clear if the offer was ever made; at any rate as things ran down it became irrelevant and Theresienstadt was liquidated.

“Childish innocence” is a cliché. The German kids play at Germans and Jews. The Polish kids play at Poles and Germans. The Jewish kids play at Kapos and prisoners. Sooner or later the survivors of all the groups play at having enough to eat.

One of the most disquieting chapters – in the whole ghastly litany of disquiet – was the discussion of the T-4 program. Just before the war a couple wrote the Führer about their handicapped son; he was becoming too difficult to care for; could he be euthanized? Whoever was in charge of the reading the mail decided this was worthy of attention, and the T-4 program was initiated – handicapped children were collected at regional centers and gassed (later, they were simply locked up and starved to death). Some parents, like the original petitioners, were glad to get rid of their burden. Others attempted to visit, but were told that the military had priority over railroads and they couldn’t get travel passes; eventually they received a little package of their child’s possessions, after death from “natural causes”. The technicians who had built the T-4 gas chambers later helped out the SS with their own construction problems.

Extensively researched and footnoted, with a long bibliography. Maps of places under discussion; two photograph sections. Not an easy read, for obvious reasons, but worthwhile. show less

A good piece of history, obviously well researched. It contains some fascinating (and horrifying) stories, but suffers overall from a surfeit of detail and a lack of a connecting thread for the general reader.

This was a very interesting book that focuses on the children of WWII. Very rarely does a book come out that focuses on the lives of the children. Not only that, but this book deals with all of the children whether they be Polish, Jewish, Russian or German. The author also utilizes excerpts from the children's own writings that had been preserved and drawings that the children made during the war. Even though the author gets sidetracked at times I would still recommend this read.

4142 Witnesses of War Children's Lives Under the Nazis, by Nicholas Stargardt (read 16 Mar 2006) This book undertakes to tell of children during World War II, and right after the war. I was hoping for more insight into kids' thinking about Hitler--but it seemed they mostly accepted what they were told. Many suffered greatly and the accouts of what various children endured, while tragic, I did not find of overwhelming interest. The book seems somewhat "thrown together" although there was a tremendous amount of reeearch : 59 pages of endnotes, and 27 pages of bibliography (many German sources). There was much bad going on, the kids suffered horribly, and the author's concluding comments are telling. But in general I did not appreciate the show more book. show less

Review by David Cesarani in the Guardian here:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1472590,00.html

Review by Ruth Kluger in the Washington Post here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/26/AR2006012601677....

Review by Steven Welch in the Age here:

http://theage.com.au/news/reviews/witnesses-of-war/2005/07/08/1120704543436.html