Youth Social welfare

1941-1944

Origin and development:

Beginnings

Children arrived in Theresienstadt with the first transports from Brno and Prague in 1941. They were originally housed in the barracks with their parents, girls and boys up to age 12 with their mothers, older boys with their fathers. In all of the men’s barracks, a special room for boys up to age 16 was arranged immediately, and later rooms for children of both sexes were set up in the Podmokly barracks (Bodenbacher Kaserne).

First Houses

In February, the first home for girls was established in the Hamburg (Hamburger Kaserne) and Dresden barracks (Dresdner Kaserne). Children were separated into rooms in groups according to age. These rooms then became the youth homes, which were placed in special buildings after the ghetto was opened in the summer of 1942, and thanks to the energetic representation of the children’s interest, took up the best houses in Theresienstadt (former school, former command of the division etc.).

Educaters

The staff consisted of a team of volunteers that was put together by Gonda Redlich and Fredy Hirsch, the first head of the Youth Social Welfare division. Both had come to Theresienstadt voluntarily with the first to be evacuated. There weren’t many experts among them, most were young people. Their experience consisted mostly of organizing summer camps and taking part in youth movements.

Life in the houses

Over time, a special rhythm of life developed in the houses. In accordance to the principles of collective education, the individual rooms became like separate houses that managed their own daily schedule. Besides their lessons, the children did house chores and organized frequent evenings programs. The caretakers lived with the children and thus could significantly influence their whole lives.

The status of children in ghetto

After the ghetto was opened, the children were allowed to move around freely, exercise, and play on a specially reserved part of the fortress. One must keep in mind that the Jewish Council wanted to help as many children as possible, even if it was at the expense of the old. Being out in the fresh air was an unattainable pleasure for an old person. The space set aside for the children was about 2x larger than that for adults. The children received various food rations from the very beginning (food was also cooked in a special kitchen for the children). Nevertheless, an average of 20-30 children (but also as high as 120) lived in one room without a bed or any other furniture.

Diseases

They were wholly insufficiently nourished, and very soon various diseases and epidemic infections broke out (scarlet fever, inf. hepatitis, and later typhus,

childhood polio, and encephalitis), avitaminosis, lung diseases and, despite our best efforts to maintain good hygiene, skin diseases (impetigo, phlegmons, etc.)

Organization

After the ghetto was opened, youth organization and social welfare deepened and expanded.

Closed welfare

For children 4 to 18 years in houses that were gradually made ready by January 1943.

Nationality - Czech; sex - boys; age 10-14; former building - school; current building - L 417 condition at the time largest number of children during summer 1943 - 350

Nationality - Czech; sex - girls; age 10-16; former building - mil headquarters; current building - L 410; condition at the time largest number of children during summer 1943 - 450

Nationality - German; sex - children; age 10-14; former building - mil. headquarters; current building - L 414/II; condition at the time largest number of children during summer 1943 - 350

Nationality - Czech, German; sex - children; age 4-10; former building sick room; current building - L 318; condition at the time largest number of children during summer 1943 - 300

Nationality - Czech, German; sex - children; age 4-12; former building - in rooms; current building - C III; condition at the time largest number of children during summer 1943 - 100

Nationality - Czech, German; sex - boys; age 14-18; former building - apprenticehouse; current building - Q 710, L 218, Q 706, Q 708; condition at the time largest number of children during summer 1943 - 500

Nationality - Czech, German; sex - children; age 4 -12; current building - Q 609; condition at the time largest number of children during summer 1943 - 250

Health care staff took care of children up to age 4, who were placed in a house for infants, and a house for toddlers, and lived together with their mothers and the staff. A children’s hospital was established with a special section for children with tuberculosis, who were all sent to the gas chambers in the fall of 1944 (about 100 children).

After a large typhoid epidemic that claimed many children as victims, a house for people convalescing after surviving typhus was established in January 1943, L 216.

Internal organization of houses

In the summer of 1943 when the population of children was at its highest, i.e. in the summer of 1943 when there were about 5,000 children in Theresienstadt, the internal youth welfare staff had about 2,500 houses under their care. Besides their educational staff (caretakers, house leaders), each of these institutions had a social welfare staff that oversaw repair shops, smaller tailor's workshops, a clothing issue counter, the collection of dirty laundry etc. A social welfare nurse took care of weaker children, for whom extra dinners were prepared in the kitchens. (A normal dinner was black coffee or watery soup).

In each house there were sick rooms with a doctor and nursing staff.

Public care

Children weren’t forced to move into the homes. Children who didn’t live in the homes were taken care of by the public youth welfare. The institute of public welfare consisted of homes for mothers and children (housing in various homes where only mothers with children up to 6 years of age lived with no staff), and a Czech Kindergarten. When the number of children in the camp was at its highest, about 300 children from the Hebrew school and about 70-100 other children attended it. Public welfare was ensured by social welfare nurses, who regularly visited the children, ascertained their health condition, and arranged everything for them

as much as the situation allowed.

In the Youth Social Welfare Center, an orphan ledger was maintained and the office worked on an agenda for the youth (foster care etc.).

Training and employment

The Training and employment of children in Theresienstadt was very complicated due to external circumstances. Training was forbidden, but the ban was ignored. Children were trained for daily work according to the tenets of public schools. The results were positive given the classes’ irregularity and illegality.

Kindergartens

Younger children up to age 7 received a basic education in kindergartens.

Teaching in the houses

Older children that lived in the houses received 3-4 hours of school subjects alongside their day job, which officially only consisted of singing, manual labor, and drawing. The most basic teaching aids were lacking. There also weren’t enough experts in education and work was interrupted by such outside influences as transports and checks.

Daytime children’s homes

Children up to age 14 who lived with their parents went to the shelters every day, where they attended lessons in the most difficult circumstances.

Youths over 14 years of age

Young people over age 14 who lived either with their parents or in homes were forced to work. They were assigned jobs mostly as needed and usually in agriculture and wartime production, some worked in the ghetto and only a small number received qualified handcraft work. Night courses that were designed to give them theoretical as well as practical schooling in the particular craft. These young people were also taken care of by a special apprenticeship commission that also administered exams once their training was completed.

Educative activities

A children’s library for children up to age 13 and a young people's library for older children were established. Youths could also attend regular lectures on various topics (the national economy and various specialized subjects).

Educational goal

Besides the ethical and practical educational goals and collective child rearing, we tried to encourage the children’s awareness. By teaching them about their lives and future jobs we wanted to help them rise above their sad and hopeless situation.

Transports

Around 15,000 children passed through Theresienstadt. The main effort of the youth welfare, especially in the homes, was to create for the children the atmosphere of a free space safe from the physical and moral failings of their surroundings. This effort was unfortunately interrupted by transports that left in intervals of 1 week to 6 months. The transports not only interrupted daily schedules and the normal rhythm of life, but put an end to the care of the child placed on the transport. Being transported was a death sentence for the child and the sword of Damocles hung over the children that remained. In the beginning, it was possible to protect children younger than 12. But this age limit was gradually lowered, and in October 1944 even babies were transported.

Beautification

In February 1944, the so-called Verschönerung began, i.e. the preparation of the ghetto for the arrival of the international committee. During this process, all homes were adapted, the school building in which classes were never taught was established, a children’s sanatorium and a children’s pavilion were established, children’s food rations were raised, the harshest regulations were repealed. To make sure that the town wouldn’t be overcrowded, right before the committee arrived 7,500 people were sent to Auschwitz to the gas chambers. Based on a special order, almost all were orphans. The remaining orphans above 5 years of age left in October 1944 together with the leaders and most of the staff.

Conclusion

Out of the 15,000 children that spent time in Theresienstadt, 1,086 children remained in the winter of 1944-1945 after the last transport departed. After the end of the war, no more than 100 children over age 14 returned from concentration camps.

All of the efforts and work, all of the mental and physical care, all of the individual and collective education led nowhere. They could only make the children’s stay in the ghetto a little easier.

They couldn’t avert their terrible fate.