One Thousand Children
Encyclopedia
One Thousand Children refers to approximately 1400 mostly Jewish children who were rescued from Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied or threatened countries by entities and by individuals within the United States of America
, but specifically only those who came unaccompanied without their parent(s). The term also refers to the non-profit research and education organization One Thousand Children (OTC) whose primary purpose is to explore and document this little known segment of American history.
The first small group of six children arrived in New York
in November 1934. This and subsequent small groups, totaling about 100 annually in the early years of operation, were taken to foster homes arranged through appeals to congregations and organizations' members.
Some children also came under private arrangements and sponsorship, typically made by the parent(s) with a family relative or friend. Such children would live with their sponsor, or sometimes live in a boarding school in close contact with their sponsor.
Prior to 1941, only small groups were brought into the country because of social hostility to allowing foreigners to enter the U.S. during the Depression. Sponsoring organizations wanted to avoid drawing undue attention to the children, whose immigration was limited by quotas for their countries of origin.
The demand on these organizations increased markedly in late 1938 when Kristallnacht
convinced more parents that the destruction of Jews was an element of the Nazi agenda. However, U.S. immigration and foreign policy continued to place limits on immigration. The proposed Wagner-Rogers Bill
to admit 20,000 Jewish refugees under the age of 14 to the United States from Nazi Germany
, co-sponsored by Sen. Robert F. Wagner
(D-N.Y.) and Rep. Edith Rogers
(R-Mass.), failed to get Congressional approval in February 1939. Jewish organizations did not feel able to challenge this decision. The Ickes
plan for settling Jews in Alaska, known as the Slattery Report
, failed to get approval.
In the later period of 1941-1942, larger groups were admitted when news of Nazi atrocities was more widely circulated.
In the official programs under the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), German Jewish Children's Aid Society (GJCA), the Quakers, etc., foster families in the U.S. agreed to care for the children until age twenty-one, see that they were educated, and provided a guarantee that they would not become public charges. Most of these children were assigned a social worker from a local social service agency to oversee the child's resettlement process. Jewish children were generally placed in Jewish homes. These children, and their sponsors, expected that they would be reunited with their own families at the end of the conflict. Tragically most of the children lost one or both parents and most of their extended families by the time World War II
had ended.
Wyman reports that the State Department had a Paper Walls in operation to delay or prevent the issuing of visas. This Paper Wall contributed to the low number of refugees. From July 1941 all immigration applications went to a special inter-departmental committee, and under the “relatives rule” special scrutiny was given to any applicant with relatives in German, Italian or Russian territory. From July 1943 a new visa application form over four feet long was used, with details required of the refugee and of the two sponsors; and six copies had to be submitted. Applications took about nine months, and were not expedited even in cases of imminent danger. Furthermore, from fall 1943, applications from refugees “not in acute danger” could be refused (e.g. people who had reached Spain, Portugal or North Africa). This created a huge barrier, since many of these children (usually with their parents) had fled there from other parts of Europe, some by being smuggled over the Pyrenees.
A much more thorough presentation of all aspects of the One Thousand Children is given in the book Don't Wave Goodbye by Jason and Posner. This book has extensive presentations about the rescuers, the programs, and contains many individual OTC stories and actual journals of the OTC "children," both at that time, and later in life. Don't Wave Goodbye is a most important and complete primary source for much information about the One Thousand Children.
Another very useful source which presents many OTC stories as well as many other facts, is the official OTC Web-site WWW.OneThousandChildren.org (see external links below)
Several books have been written by individual OTC children which describe both their own personal OTC experiences in their homelands before they became OTC children, explicitly as OTC children, and in later life. Some of these are cited in the "Reference" section below.
There is an eight-segment video (see the external links) which presents much of the OTC story, as well as the story of one individual OTC girl.
Most of these OTC children went on to greatly contribute to American society. A very detailed study which demonstrates this is given in the book by Sonnert and Holton One OTC child Jack Steinberger
became a Nobel Laureate in physics.
effort. Posner and Leonore Moskowitz researched ship manifests and other documents, and originally found the names of approximately one thousand children, (hence the name), and then managed to locate about 500 of these who were still alive. (Since that time, they have managed to find the names of about 400 more, so thus they have identified a total of about 1400.) Soon after, Posner and Moskowitz jointly founded the organization The One Thousand Children.
Posner and Moskowitz, under the aegis of their organization "The One Thousand Children" organized a three day International OTC Conference and Reunion in Chicago, Illinois in 2002. Approximately 200 attendees had the opportunity to listen and interact with over 50 speakers drawn from OTC children, their children and grandchildren and foster family members and other rescuers.
In some sense, it was this conference that both created the concept of the "One Thousand Children," and gave a new group identity to all the "children" in this group. Now they realized that they were truly identifiable as "Child Survivors of the Holocaust." For a very emphatic statement by one OTC that she is a true Child Survivor, see the related external link below.
A website with extensive information on the One Thousand Children also exists at www.onethousandchildren.org. This also presents many individual OTC stories (both as children and as adults), as well as articles about OTC, about the 2002 OTC Conference, some OTC photographs, an annotated bibliography of OTC resources, and much other OTC information.
The Organization's archives have been donated to and now reside at YIVO
(www.yivoinstitute.org) at their Center for Jewish History, in New York City. The OTC Archives at YIVO are the only such archives in the world and include video-recordings of the complete 2002 OTC Conference as well as partial written transcripts. Many artifacts, including personal diaries written as children or later as adults, are included at YIVO as well as data, information, and photographs. This archive is open to the public and scholars.
Certain other artifacts are located at the National Museum of American Jewish History
(NMAJH) in Philadelphia.
, is more well-known. That effort brought approximately 10,000 similarly defined mainly Jewish children to the United Kingdom, between November 21, 1938 and September 3, 1939. While the Kindertransports came to England under a government sanctioned (but privately financed and guaranteed) program, this was not the case for the OTC children, where the 12 year effort was the result of the work of a "network of cooperation" among private American individuals and organizations. Some of the "kinder" from Britain subsequently migrated to America, e.g. the Nobel Prize-winning scientists Arno Penzias and Walter Kohn
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, but specifically only those who came unaccompanied without their parent(s). The term also refers to the non-profit research and education organization One Thousand Children (OTC) whose primary purpose is to explore and document this little known segment of American history.
Rescue effort
While a generation of 1.5 million children perished in the Holocaust, approximately 1400 children were brought to America in quiet operations designed to avoid attention from isolationist and anti-Semitic forces. (Originally only about one thousand such children had been identified - hence the name "The One Thousand Children.") (OTC) These children:- came from Europe to the United States mainly from 1934 through 1945;
- were aged from fourteen months old through the age of sixteen;
- arrived unaccompanied, leaving their parents behind, and
- were then placed with foster families, schools and facilities across the U.S.
The first small group of six children arrived in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in November 1934. This and subsequent small groups, totaling about 100 annually in the early years of operation, were taken to foster homes arranged through appeals to congregations and organizations' members.
Some children also came under private arrangements and sponsorship, typically made by the parent(s) with a family relative or friend. Such children would live with their sponsor, or sometimes live in a boarding school in close contact with their sponsor.
Prior to 1941, only small groups were brought into the country because of social hostility to allowing foreigners to enter the U.S. during the Depression. Sponsoring organizations wanted to avoid drawing undue attention to the children, whose immigration was limited by quotas for their countries of origin.
The demand on these organizations increased markedly in late 1938 when Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
convinced more parents that the destruction of Jews was an element of the Nazi agenda. However, U.S. immigration and foreign policy continued to place limits on immigration. The proposed Wagner-Rogers Bill
Wagner-Rogers Bill
The Wagner–Rogers Bill was proposed United States legislation which would have had the effect of admitting 20,000 Jewish children under the age of 14 to the United States from Nazi Germany.The bill sponsored by Senator Robert F. Wagner and Rep...
to admit 20,000 Jewish refugees under the age of 14 to the United States from Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, co-sponsored by Sen. Robert F. Wagner
Robert F. Wagner
Robert Ferdinand Wagner I was an American politician. He was a Democratic U.S. Senator from New York from 1927 to 1949.-Origin and early life:...
(D-N.Y.) and Rep. Edith Rogers
Edith Nourse Rogers
Edith Nourse Rogers was an American social welfare volunteer and politician who was one of the first women to serve in the United States Congress. She was the first woman elected to congress from Massachusetts...
(R-Mass.), failed to get Congressional approval in February 1939. Jewish organizations did not feel able to challenge this decision. The Ickes
Harold L. Ickes
Harold LeClair Ickes was a United States administrator and politician. He served as United States Secretary of the Interior for 13 years, from 1933 to 1946, the longest tenure of anyone to hold the office, and the second longest serving Cabinet member in U.S. history next to James Wilson. Ickes...
plan for settling Jews in Alaska, known as the Slattery Report
Slattery Report
The Slattery Report, officially titled "The Problem of Alaskan Development,” was produced by the United States Department of the Interior under Secretary Harold L. Ickes in 1939–40. It was named after Undersecretary of the Interior Harry A. Slattery...
, failed to get approval.
In the later period of 1941-1942, larger groups were admitted when news of Nazi atrocities was more widely circulated.
In the official programs under the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), German Jewish Children's Aid Society (GJCA), the Quakers, etc., foster families in the U.S. agreed to care for the children until age twenty-one, see that they were educated, and provided a guarantee that they would not become public charges. Most of these children were assigned a social worker from a local social service agency to oversee the child's resettlement process. Jewish children were generally placed in Jewish homes. These children, and their sponsors, expected that they would be reunited with their own families at the end of the conflict. Tragically most of the children lost one or both parents and most of their extended families by the time World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
had ended.
Wyman reports that the State Department had a Paper Walls in operation to delay or prevent the issuing of visas. This Paper Wall contributed to the low number of refugees. From July 1941 all immigration applications went to a special inter-departmental committee, and under the “relatives rule” special scrutiny was given to any applicant with relatives in German, Italian or Russian territory. From July 1943 a new visa application form over four feet long was used, with details required of the refugee and of the two sponsors; and six copies had to be submitted. Applications took about nine months, and were not expedited even in cases of imminent danger. Furthermore, from fall 1943, applications from refugees “not in acute danger” could be refused (e.g. people who had reached Spain, Portugal or North Africa). This created a huge barrier, since many of these children (usually with their parents) had fled there from other parts of Europe, some by being smuggled over the Pyrenees.
The OTC Children and their Stories
The One Thousand Children story was first documented by Judith Baumel in her 1990 book Unfulfilled Promise.A much more thorough presentation of all aspects of the One Thousand Children is given in the book Don't Wave Goodbye by Jason and Posner. This book has extensive presentations about the rescuers, the programs, and contains many individual OTC stories and actual journals of the OTC "children," both at that time, and later in life. Don't Wave Goodbye is a most important and complete primary source for much information about the One Thousand Children.
Another very useful source which presents many OTC stories as well as many other facts, is the official OTC Web-site WWW.OneThousandChildren.org (see external links below)
Several books have been written by individual OTC children which describe both their own personal OTC experiences in their homelands before they became OTC children, explicitly as OTC children, and in later life. Some of these are cited in the "Reference" section below.
There is an eight-segment video (see the external links) which presents much of the OTC story, as well as the story of one individual OTC girl.
Most of these OTC children went on to greatly contribute to American society. A very detailed study which demonstrates this is given in the book by Sonnert and Holton One OTC child Jack Steinberger
Jack Steinberger
Jack Steinberger is a German-American physicist currently residing near Geneva, Switzerland. He co-discovered the muon neutrino, along with Leon Lederman and Melvin Schwartz, for which they were given the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics.-Life:...
became a Nobel Laureate in physics.
The Discovery of the OTC Story, its Importance, and that the OTC are truly Child Survivors of the Holocaust
The very "existence" of the remarkable story of The One Thousand Children was discovered by Iris Posner in 2000. Posner was intrigued by the question of whether there was an American kindertransportKindertransport
Kindertransport is the name given to the rescue mission that took place nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The United Kingdom took in nearly 10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Nazi Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the Free City of Danzig...
effort. Posner and Leonore Moskowitz researched ship manifests and other documents, and originally found the names of approximately one thousand children, (hence the name), and then managed to locate about 500 of these who were still alive. (Since that time, they have managed to find the names of about 400 more, so thus they have identified a total of about 1400.) Soon after, Posner and Moskowitz jointly founded the organization The One Thousand Children.
Posner and Moskowitz, under the aegis of their organization "The One Thousand Children" organized a three day International OTC Conference and Reunion in Chicago, Illinois in 2002. Approximately 200 attendees had the opportunity to listen and interact with over 50 speakers drawn from OTC children, their children and grandchildren and foster family members and other rescuers.
In some sense, it was this conference that both created the concept of the "One Thousand Children," and gave a new group identity to all the "children" in this group. Now they realized that they were truly identifiable as "Child Survivors of the Holocaust." For a very emphatic statement by one OTC that she is a true Child Survivor, see the related external link below.
Other OTC Information and Documentation Sources
Several important sources of information have already been given above, and others are in the references below.A website with extensive information on the One Thousand Children also exists at www.onethousandchildren.org. This also presents many individual OTC stories (both as children and as adults), as well as articles about OTC, about the 2002 OTC Conference, some OTC photographs, an annotated bibliography of OTC resources, and much other OTC information.
The Organization's archives have been donated to and now reside at YIVO
YIVO
YIVO, , established in 1925 in Wilno, Poland as the Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut , or Yiddish Scientific Institute, is a source for orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to the Yiddish language...
(www.yivoinstitute.org) at their Center for Jewish History, in New York City. The OTC Archives at YIVO are the only such archives in the world and include video-recordings of the complete 2002 OTC Conference as well as partial written transcripts. Many artifacts, including personal diaries written as children or later as adults, are included at YIVO as well as data, information, and photographs. This archive is open to the public and scholars.
Certain other artifacts are located at the National Museum of American Jewish History
National Museum of American Jewish History
The National Museum of American Jewish History is a Smithsonian- affiliated museum in Center City Philadelphia, located on Independence Mall within the Independence National Historical Park.-Building:...
(NMAJH) in Philadelphia.
The British Kindertransport, and its important difference from the OTC story
A larger but similar British program, the KindertransportKindertransport
Kindertransport is the name given to the rescue mission that took place nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The United Kingdom took in nearly 10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Nazi Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the Free City of Danzig...
, is more well-known. That effort brought approximately 10,000 similarly defined mainly Jewish children to the United Kingdom, between November 21, 1938 and September 3, 1939. While the Kindertransports came to England under a government sanctioned (but privately financed and guaranteed) program, this was not the case for the OTC children, where the 12 year effort was the result of the work of a "network of cooperation" among private American individuals and organizations. Some of the "kinder" from Britain subsequently migrated to America, e.g. the Nobel Prize-winning scientists Arno Penzias and Walter Kohn
Walter Kohn
Walter Kohn is an Austrian-born American theoretical physicist.He was awarded, with John Pople, the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1998. The award recognized their contributions to the understandings of the electronic properties of materials...
.
External links
- http://www.onethousandchildren.org This "One Thousand Children" web-page www.OneThousandChildren.org includes many details about the One Thousand Children's rescue, lives before and during their OTC experiences, their resettlement and their lives as American citizens. It includes brief individual stories, relevant news-articles, photographs, multimedia, detailed bibliography, etc.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNiP32kWLKM This very important link goes to a 12 minute video-segment "part 1: American Kindertransport - the One Thousand Children" which presents much of the One Thousand Children story, with a particular emphasis on the children and the hardships they went through before their final arrival in the United States. This link connects with seven further video-segments (parts 2-8) which present the full story of one specific One Thousand Child.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhv4mgFUUG4] this "part 7" video is a dramatic statement by an OTC that the OTC are truly "Child Survivors of the Holocaust." It is followed by "part 8" - a moving memorial dedication to "The Six Million."
- http://contact@onethousandchildren.org gives the One Thousand Children's e-mail contact
- http://nmajh.org National Museum of American Jewish History, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.