Overview
- Description
- The Hidden Child Foundation/ADL records consist of conference materials, correspondence, photographs, printed materials, readers files, Speakers Bureau materials, subject files, testimonies, personal accounts, photographs and photocopies of personal stories, and audiovisual and electronic materials documenting the Hidden Child Foundation/ADL and its work organizing conferences, providing speakers, hosting memorial and holiday events, and providing reference and tracing services for Holocaust survivors who were hidden as children during the Holocaust and who are searching for relatives, acquaintances, and information about their experiences. The collection also includes many personal stories about the experiences of hidden children during the Holocaust.
Conference materials include announcements, invitations, clippings, correspondence, rosters, planning information, publicity, programs, registration information, schedules, and workshop materials documenting the Hidden Child conferences planned and led by the Hidden Child Foundation as well as additional conferences planned and led by other hidden child organizations.
The correspondence series consists of a handful of alphabetical correspondence files as well as chronological fax and email files. Additional correspondence can be found in the Conferences, Readers files, and Speakers Bureau series.
Photographs primarily document Hidden Child Foundation conferences, events, and holiday celebrations and are arranged chronologically.
Printed materials consist of catalogs, pamphlets, newsletters, essays, articles, and clippings documenting the Holocaust and hidden children and written by the Hidden Child Foundation, the AntiDefamation League, historians, and former hidden children.
Readers files consist of correspondence (mostly outgoing correspondence) thanking donors for financial donations, participating in events, or sharing stories; answering questions about the HCF newsletter and acknowledging contributions to it; announcing events; addressing requests for speakers; responding to requests to trace survivors; sharing information about the Foundation’s work; and coordinating the Foundation’s work with other child survivor and Holocaust memory organizations.
Speakers Bureau files consist of speaker applications, contact lists, correspondence, requests for speakers and confirmations, and thank you letters documenting the work of the Speakers Bureau, its speakers, and their popularity. Subject files consist of correspondence, printed materials, contact lists, and speeches documenting topics such as child survivor groups, hidden children, and memorial projects.
Testimonies, personal accounts, photographs and photocopies of personal stories include personal narratives (of various length, some rough, some polished); photographs, copy prints, and photocopies of photographs; photocopies of original Holocaust-era documents; poems; reflections; narratives about family members and acquaintances; and a handful of original Holocaust-era documents. These records document the experiences of hidden children throughout Europe during the Holocaust and are arranged alphabetically by name of hidden child. This series also include search requests posted to bulletin boards during Hidden Child conferences and events.
Audiovisual and electronic materials consist of CDs, DVDs, videocassettes, and audiocassettes containing recordings of conference sessions, media coverage, and special events. - Date
-
inclusive:
1936-2016
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Hidden Child Foundation/ADL
- Collection Creator
- Hidden Child Foundation / Anti-Defamation League
- Biography
-
The Hidden Child Foundation is a volunteer-run organization supporting Holocaust survivors who were hidden as children during the Holocaust. With the help of Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League and a Hidden Child from Poland, 1,600 former Hidden Children from 28 countries met for the first time in May 1991 in New York City at the First International Gathering of Children Hidden During World War II. The purpose of the gathering was to share memories, help those who were too young to remember, and most importantly, tell the world that they were witness to the atrocities committed against their people. After the gathering, the Hidden Child Foundation joined the Braun Holocaust Institute of the Anti-Defamation League. The mission of the Hidden Child Foundation is to educate all people about the consequences of bigotry and hatred so that never again will anyone suffer the atrocity, the injustice, and the agony of the Holocaust. The Foundation is in close contact with its worldwide membership, over 6,000, to convey current Holocaust related issues; liaises between the U.S. and international hidden child/child survivor groups; provides cultural and social programs for the New York metropolitan area membership; honors the rescuers, the Righteous Among the Nations, on International Rescuers' Day; publishes The Hidden Child, an international newsletter, sent to members, Holocaust centers and college and university libraries; advocates for all members, including 2nd and 3rd Generations, who are in need of financial, psychological or social assistance; provides a Speakers Bureau for all audiences; offers an International Family Tracing Service to locate survivors and relatives; and is a source of information for writers, filmmakers, journalists and researchers.
Physical Details
- Genre/Form
- Photographs. Sound recordings. Video recordings.
- Extent
-
31 boxes
1 oversize folder
- System of Arrangement
- The Hidden Child Foundation records are arranged as 9 series and 17 subseries:
Series 1: Conferences, 1990-2016
Subseries 1: Conference, 1990-1991
Subseries 2: Conference, 1993
Subseries 3: Conference, 1994
Subseries 4: Conference, 1995
Subseries 5: Conference, 1997
Subseries 6: Conference, 1999
Subseries 7: Conference, 2000
Subseries 8: Conference, 2001
Subseries 9: Conference, 2002
Subseries 10: Conference, 2003
Subseries 11: Conference, 2004
Subseries 12: Conference, 2005
Subseries 13: Conference, 2008
Subseries 14: Conference, 2009
Subseries 15: Conference, 2010
Subseries 16: Conference, 2016
Subseries 17: Miscellaneous, approximately 1990s
Series 2: Correspondence, 1995-2006
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- Material(s) in this collection may be protected by copyright and/or related rights. You do not require further permission from the Museum to use this material. The user is solely responsible for making a determination as to if and how the material may be used.
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- Hidden children (Holocaust) Holocaust survivors. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Jewish children in the Holocaust. Jews--Persecutions. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Study and teaching. Holocaust survivors--Biography. Holocaust survivors--Congresses. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Personal narratives.
- Geographic Name
- New York (N.Y.)
- Personal Name
- Hidden Child Foundation/ADL.
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The Hidden Child Foundation donated the Hidden Child Foundation records to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2017.
- Funding Note
- The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
- Record last modified:
- 2023-02-24 14:30:15
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn558385
Additional Resources
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- Terms of Use
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-
Request in Shapell Center Reading Room
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Also in Hidden Child Foundation records
The collection consists of documents, media, correspondence, and a piece of Theresienstadt scrip, relating to the Hidden Child Foundation (a part of the Anti-Defamation League), in New York after the Holocaust.
Date: after 1943-before 2016
Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp scrip, 20 kronen note, acquired by the Hidden Child Foundation
Object
Scrip, valued at 20 kronen, distributed in Theresienstadt (Terezin) ghetto-labor camp and later acquired by the Hidden Child Foundation/Anti-Defamation League. At Theresienstadt, currency was confiscated from inmates and replaced with scrip, which could only be used in the camp. The scrip was part of an elaborate illusion to make the camp seem normal and appear as though workers were being paid for their labor, but the money had no real monetary value. The scrip was printed by the National Bank in Prague in 7 denominations: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100. The notes are dated 1 January 1943, but were not distributed until May 1943. Peter Kien, a Czechoslovakian poet, artist, and inmate of Theresienstadt designed the notes, but his original design was rejected by SS General Reinhard Heydrich. He was ordered to make Moses appear more stereotypically Semitic in appearance and to arrange Moses’s hand so that it is covering one of the commandments.