The Auschwitz Museum published an online lesson presenting the fate of children in KL Auschwitz. Its author, Helena Kubica, pointed out that during the almost five years of the camp’s existence, the Germans deported about 232,000 children and adolescents to it.
Helena Kubica, a historian from the Auschwitz Museum, pointed out that the Germans deported children and adolescents to the camp for various reasons.
“Jewish children – as part of the action of total extermination of the Jewish population; Romani – as part of the isolation and extermination of the Romani population; Polish – as part of repression against Polish youth, for cooperation or participation in the resistance movement, in connection with the deportation to the camp of entire families from the displaced Zamość region and the insurgent Warsaw, for ‘crimes’ against the war economy of the Third Reich, which included escapes from forced labor or food smuggling,” she pointed out.
Among the deported were Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian children in retaliation for the activities of partisan units in those areas, for escaping forced labor or other economic “crimes”.
Among the at least 1.3 million people deported to the Nazi German Auschwitz camp during the almost five years of its operation, there were about 232,000 children under the age of fifteen and adolescents under the age of 18.