Children in Crisis: Voices from the Holocaust Published April 13, 2007 By Senior Airman Shannon Gothro 43rd Services Squadron POPE AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. -- Editor's note: Holocaust Remembrance Day is Sunday. The following article was written in observance of this day. By the end of World War II in 1945, more than 1 million children under the age of 16 had been killed throughout Europe by the Nazi regime. This article is meant to speak for the children who were lost during the Holocaust; the children in crisis. With the onset of the war, Jewish children and their families across Europe were sent to live in overcrowded and dilapidated ghettos. Starvation, disease and death soon became a way of life. Children often became the sole providers for their families; smuggling food was often their only means of survival. Getting caught meant certain death. The Nazis saw children as 'useless eaters' and sent them to death camps. For the children who were spared death, the journey had started; these children were often selected for medical experiments and twins were favorite specimens. When twins were spotted, a guard would alert Joseph Mengele, a nazi doctor, and with a small flick of Mengele's finger they were taken from their families and sent to the showers. They were now 'Mengele's children' and he had special plans for them. The only upside of suffering through medical experiments was the children were often allowed to keep their hair and clothing. Twins were given tattoos and taken to separate barracks where they were asked a series of questions. Part of the interview process included a brief medical history as well as height and weight. The twins' day generally began at 6 a.m., first with roll call outside the barracks followed by a meager breakfast. Living conditions for the twins were some of the best at the concentration camp, until trucks arrived to take them to the lab. As a general rule, twins would have their blood drawn daily. In addition, they were subject to a barrage of medical experiments. In an attempt to create average Aryan racial characteristics, Mengele would often inject chemicals into their eyes causing severe pain, infection, and permanent blindness. Other types of experiments included disease experimentation. Diseases such as typhus and tuberculosis were given to one twin and not the other and they would be monitored. When one twin died, the other was given a shot of chloroform into their heart causing instant death. The autopsies were the final experiment for Mengele and his team. Tissue samples were kept and sent to another physician for further study. In the Nazi plan, all Jews were targeted for death; fortunately they never reached their goal although the mortality rate for children was extremely high. Approximately 6 to 11 percent of Europe's pre-war Jewish child population survived while 33 percent of the adults survived. Liberation from Nazi tyranny was only the beginning of a now life long struggle for the children. Many had come to the painful realization they no longer had a family, they were the sole survivor.