How many of us really care about our children, so much so, that we would willingly hide a child from a person or a group of people whose only purpose was to harm that child on the basis of their color, race, religion, creed, or other political issues? Over the years as a teacher, I have witnessed many children whose home life was atrocious, who got caught up in their parents’ violence, or were faced with living on the streets because no one wanted them, but what about when an evil dictator comes to power who cares only for himself? Would you have the courage to stand up against that evil, even if it meant losing your own life?
Recently, I came across two countries where people did just that so the children would have a future and would not be harmed: France, on the Plateau du Vivarais of Lignon, where over 3000 Jews were saved from the Nazis, many of whom were children, and Amsterdam, Holland, where over 400,000 children were saved by the underground resistance. Being an old soul, I sometimes wish I had been a teacher during the years of WWII in Europe, but I was born too late for that. I do know I could never harm a child for any reason whatsoever. They are God’s greatest gift to us, and I want all children to have the best life they can have. In the corrupted minds of many Germans, Italians, and Japanese before and during WWII, there was only one god: Hitler, Mussolini, and Emperor Hirohito, respectively. What these three dictators demanded was what they received, even the killing of innocent children. In Japan, if you couldn’t kill a child for the emperor, you took your own life. The world hoped that genocides would never happen again, but they continue to happen around the world, most recently, in the Ukraine by the Russians.
According to “Heroes” in 1940, the Germans invaded northern and western France, with southern France being controlled by Marshall Petain as a free zone until 1942, when the Germans moved to occupy the whole country. What was unique to the Plateau du Vivarais is that almost all of the people in the area resisted the Nazis and decided their children’s protection and spiritual needs were worth standing up for. The teachers of this area, even still today, believe if we do not learn from our pasts, we will be denying a better future to our children. When you teach tolerance and solidarity, mutual respect and understanding can develop among many peoples. Once the Germans began moving out from Paris in search of hidden Jews, the people of this area began hiding Jews and German deserters in the surrounding farms. The plateau is a very harsh area to live and work in throughout the four seasons, but when the people learned to care about each other and help each other, the special welcoming attitude pervaded the area, and many who sought safety felt like they were coming “home.”
A further example of the love that helped the Jews was when students from the local schools sent a protest letter to the Vichey government stating, “To imprison Jews because they have a different religion is not right. We do not know these people who seek help, but we do know them as human beings.” When America seems to be lost in trying to find its core values today, can you imagine the courage it took for French teenagers to stand up against the Nazis, knowing their lives meant nothing to the evil people who surrounded them?
Further resistance and disobedience to Marshall Petain’s collaboration with the Germans was seen when he wanted all the church bells rung at the same time to acknowledge the anniversary of the invasion of France in 1940. The pastors and elders from this area refused and were imprisoned for months. The people of the area remembered the Beatitudes in the Bible; “Because God loved the world, I cannot hate my neighbor.” Jewish children who were hidden in Christian homes became targets of the Nazis when teachers would not identify those students who were Jewish in their classrooms. Even today, relatives of ordinary people who saved others during the war refuse to talk about their selfless acts of heroism. Pride was not part of the people of the plateau; they did what had to be done, regardless of the consequences for themselves. A code of silence was used throughout the towns and farms so that hidden Jews could remain undetected. Teachers also refused to teach their students German songs, so that their students would not learn German. In many situations, the teachers of Jewish children stayed with them when the Germans raided homes, churches, and schools, often going with the children into the cattle cars that proceeded to concentration camps. Many of the hidden children learned about charity as well as Christian values and to trust others once more.
As the Jews went underground with the help of the resistance, forged passports helped those who were continuing on with their journeys to Switzerland, 186 miles away. They stowed away on trains, lying in coal bins or under seats in the cars, but the trains became more dangerous as German planes attacked any moving targets in the countryside. If the Jews made it to the borders, they were often captured and killed by zealous border guards on both sides. Many escapees were wounded trying to climb over barbed wire and glass-topped bridge walls. Many drowned in the rivers, trying to evade the police dogs.
The people of the plateau area know that if everyone does a little bit to help others, that little bit becomes an avalanche when an entire area comes together to change others’ lives. As one saved Jewish child learned from having lived through WWII, we can all make a difference if we make loving values a life style and have the will to stand up and not just stand by. We all have experienced fear, but when courage conquers that inability to stand up, it can be the best thing for humanity. On the plateau, that courage made a real difference in the lives of 3000 Jews, many of whom were scared, crying children, torn away from their parent’s arms forever.
According to Mary Jo Ledday in Hidden Heroes, “Although we know something about why people are cruel and violent, we need to learn more about why human beings are good and merciful.” Fueled by their faith in the loving God, Dutch resistance members in Amsterdam saved over 400,000 Jewish children during WWII. Through the years following the German invasion of Holland in 1940, two types of evil Dutch people emerged: those who betrayed the people in general and those who collaborated with the Nazis. Less than 2% of the Dutch sided with the Germans, but fear immobilized many to shrink from their duties as human beings to care for the oppressed. Two/thirds of Holland’s Jewish population lived in Amsterdam, and they were immediately persecuted by the Germans in closed cafes, parks, and any form of transportation. Jews who were betrayed were taken to the Westerbrook Warehouse to be transported to concentration camps. Jewish children were moved many times from their hiding places by the resistance.
The underground movement fought against Jewish oppression, religious bullying, lose of jobs in highly educated areas, violent politics, and a morality lost to the corrupted souls of the Nazis. Mrs. H. Th. Kniepers-Reitberg organized the nationwide resistance to hide Jews through the Christian Reformed Church. According to the Dutch Ten Commandments, “Thou shalt pursue light in the darkness, for the light remains light.” Hiding children was not about risk; it was about caring for them. It has been documented that those who hid Jewish children were always deeply religious. The women who took care of the children had little resources, little running water, and little food, but 150 Kinderhoffens were proof of the loving, Dutch attitude. These children became parts of their hiding families, developed a sense of belonging and understanding of Christianity while attending churches, and many had difficulty returning to their real parents after the war. As one Jewish child related after realizing that her whole family was lost to the Halocaust, “The war started when peace broke out because I realized that I was really alone.”
For the betrayed Jewish children, many were held in the large building which had originally been the Jewish nursery before they were taken to the Westerbrook Warehouse for transportation to the camps. I recall a famous photograph taken at Aucshwitz of four and five year old children rolling their sleeves up to show the photographer their identity numbers burned into their forearms. The fear in their eyes and the strong courage to show their “numbered identity” to the world bring both tears to my eyes and a profound pride in them despite the horrendous things that had happened to them. The Resistance rescued only 232 children from the nursery building and placed them in safe houses. Once they were settled in their new homes, they were told that they were no longer Jewish but Christian for their safety. One family in Brunssun, Holland already had ten children of their own, but they hid over 100 children in their basement until they could be moved to other safe houses. Many of these children felt as though their new foster parents “gave them new births and that love abounded for all.” If their real parents could be found after the war, these children often felt as “though their real parents had hearts full of stones,” and they never fully recovered from having love and then losing it after the war. We must, however, never forget the hell that their parents had experienced in the camps; stones might not be the noun to use to describe their circumstances. Of the 110,000 children taken to Westerbrook between 1942 through 1944, only 6000 returned to Amsterdam after the war.
Today, the Amsterdam Westerbrook Memorial houses volumes of names of those killed in the Halocaust. 28,000 Dutch resistance members died in their efforts to save the children. One can ask, “Did their efforts make a difference?” The answer is, “Yes.” It did not shorten the war years or lessen the incredible pain inflicted on the people of the Jewish faith, but it did give the Jewish people hope and courage to face life for future generations. With every child saved from the Nazis, each member remembered the Dutch adage; “Love your neighbor as yourself and God above all else.” They were courageous and good role models for future generations, the moral minority of faith-driven Dutch citizens.
Where do you stand on the sacred value of our children today? There is only one God, and He is the judge of our actions. Whether we like it or not, we are also judged by society for what we do. It’s what we don’t do that will haunt us for the rest of our lives. As a mother who lost her only child to a miscarriage, I understand that people in authority- parents, teachers, coaches, ministers, the justice system, policemen, politicians- we all have the responsibility to take care of our children, to teach them right from wrong, love from hate, caring from cruelty, and to help them grow into strong adults. Do you have the courage to risk all for our children, or in some future museum, will we see your name listed under those who allowed evil to exist in our world? Remember, evil only exists when good men do nothing. I hope our children can count on you for a better future.
Anna Hartt
