Members of the Buchenwald children's transport pose outside the Ecouis children's home.
Overview
- Caption
- Members of the Buchenwald children's transport pose outside the Ecouis children's home.
Among those pictured are Abram Chapnik, Henri and Albert Dymant, Jozef Dziubak, Salek Finkelstein, Wolf Fojgel, Idel Goldblum, Jochan Goldkrantz, Jakob Kapelusz, Nachman Klugmann, Max Kozuch, Manfred Lewin, Theodore Lowy, Szymk Michalowicz, Heinz Oster (seated third row from bottom, second from right), Salek Rotschild, Salek Sandowski, Abram Schilcott, Jozef Schwarczberg, Moniek Solarz, Hersch Unger, Usher, Ivar Segalowitz, Moishe Shapiro, Romek Wajsman and Lolek Weinstein. [See enclosed sheet for precise identifications.] - Date
-
Circa June 1945
- Locale
- Ecouis, [Eure] France
- Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Joseph Szwarcberg
- Event History
- The Buchenwald children were a group of approximately 1000 Jewish child survivors found by American troops when they liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp on April 11, 1945. Most of the children were originally from Poland, though others came from Hungary, Slovenia and Ruthenia. Unsure of what to do with the child survivors, American army chaplains, Rabbi Herschel Schacter and Rabbi Robert Marcus, contacted the offices of the OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants), the Jewish children's relief organization in Geneva. They arranged to send 427 of the children to France, 280 to Switzerland and 250 to England. [Vivette Samuels reverses the figures for England and Switzerland in her monograph, "Sauver les Enfants."] On June 2, 1945 OSE representatives arrived in Buchenwald, and together with Rabbi Marcus escorted the transport of children to France. Rabbi Schacter accompanied the second transport to Switzerland. Because of the difficulty in finding clothing for the children, the boys were clad in Hitler Youth uniforms. This created a problem, for when the train crossed into France, it was greeted by an angry populace who assumed the train was carrying Nazi youth. Thereafter the words "KZ Buchenwald orphans" were painted on the outside of the train to avoid confusion. On June 6, 1945 the French transport arrived at the Andelys station and the orphans were taken to a children's home in Ecouis (Eure). The home had been set up to accommodate young children, but in fact only 30 of the boys were below the age of 13. This was only one of the many problems faced by the OSE personnel, who were not prepared to handle a large group of demanding, rebellious teenagers who were full of anger for what they had experienced. At Ecouis the boys were given medical care, counseling and schooling until more permanent accommodations could be found. Most of the children remained only four to eight weeks at Ecouis before being moved elsewhere, and the home was closed in August 1945. Among the first to leave were a group of 173 children who had family in Palestine. They were given immigration certificates and departed from Marseilles in July aboard the British vessel, the RMS Mataroa. The remaining boys at Ecouis were soon transferred to other residences and homes. Some of the older ones were sent to the Foyer d'Etudiants located on the rue Rollin in Paris, where they boarded while attending vocational training courses or working at jobs in the city. Others were sent to the Chateau de Boucicaut home in Fontenay-aux-Roses (Hauts-de-Seine). Many of the boys came from religiously observant homes. Since the OSE could not obtain kosher food for everyone, they divided the children into religious and non-religious groups. Dr. Charly Merzbach offered OSE the use of his estate, the Chateau d'Ambloy (Loir-et-Cher) for the summer, and between 90 and 100 boys chose to go there in order to receive kosher food and live in a religious environment. In October 1945 the children and staff of Ambloy were relocated to the Chateau de Vaucelles in Taverny (Val d'Oise). About 50 of the non-religious boys were taken to the Villa Concordiale in Le Vesinet (Yvelines) near Paris that housed an equal number of French Jewish orphans. In the summer they went to the Foyer de Champigny in Champigny-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne). In all the homes attended by the Buchenwald children vocational training as well as regular classroom instruction was offered. At the same time OSE social workers made every effort to locate surviving relatives, succeeding in about half the cases. By the end of 1948 all of the Buchenwald children who had come to France had left the OSE fold and begun new lives for themselves.
[Sources: Hemmendinger, Judith and Krell, Robert. "The Children of Buchenwald." Gefen Publishers, 2000; Grobman, Alex. "Rekindling the Flame." Wayne State University Press, 1993; Hazan, Katy, "Chronologie de l'histoire de l'OSE L'action de l'OSE apres la guerre."
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005131.
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumProvenance: Joseph SzwarcbergSource Record ID: Collections: 2003.392
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- Joseph (Josek) Szwarcberg is the son of Mordechai Dawid and Mala Szwarcberg. He was born December 22, 1930 in Kozienice, Poland, where his father owned a wholesale leather goods business. Joseph had five older siblings: Sara (Sabina), Benjamin, Raize, Henia, and Abram. Joseph had a wonderful voice, and his father, who served on the religious court, often brought him to the synagogue where he sang solos. After the German occupation of Kozienice, the Szwarcbergs were forced into a ghetto. Joseph was responsible for finding food for his family while his father and brothers hid in their attic to evade the round-ups for forced labor. Joseph's mother died while in the ghetto. In August 1942 he and his brothers were sent to a nearby labor camp in Wolka. There, Joseph witnessed a camp guard shoot and kill his brother Benjamin. A few months later, on November 11, 1942, he was taken to Skarzysko. Joseph was only twelve years old at the time and had built up the soles of his shoes so that he would look taller and older. He was one of approximately sixty children who had illegally come into the camp. A female prisoner who had smuggled her diamonds into the camp, used them to bribe a guard to allow the children to stay. Joseph and ten other children were allowed to stay, but the other fifty were taken away and shot. Of the ten who remained, only five survived the war. Joseph earned extra food by singing for the Polish prisoners. He worked in a warehouse that supplied the raw materials for the ammunition factory and had to carry heavy loads that he could barely lift. Joseph subsequently came down with typhus, but had to continue to work despite his fever and weakness. One day Joseph and fourteen other prisoners were lined-up against a wall by a sadistic guard, who declared his intention to kill them. He then proceeded to fire his weapon above their heads, deliberately missing and laughing at the trick he had performed on the prisoners. In August 1944, Josef was transferred to Buchenwald. One day he spotted some new arrivals from Auschwitz. He ran up to one man convinced that he was his father only to be sorely disappointed that it was not. He later learned that his father had been shot during the death march from Auschwitz. Joseph was liberated at the age of fourteen by the American army on April 11, 1945. A few days later he was taken into care by the Red Cross. That June, Joseph joined a transport of 427 child survivors of Buchenwald to France. He remained under the care of the OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants) until he immigrated to Australia three years later to join his sisters who had also survived.
- Record last modified:
- 2019-04-22 00:00:00
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