One and a half mil­lion Jew­ish chil­dren were mur­dered in the Holo­caust. The Nazis’ goal to erad­i­cate the entire Jew­ish pop­u­la­tion in Europe includ­ed chil­dren – from infants to teenagers – who were tar­get­ed as part of the coor­di­nat­ed geno­cide that led to the mur­der of six mil­lion Jews. Those chil­dren who sur­vived were often hid­den: in con­vents, orphan­ages, haylofts, forests – even sewers.

Hid­den Lives is a col­lec­tion of true sto­ries writ­ten by the youngest sur­vivors of the Holo­caust. Des­per­a­tion com­pelled par­ents to make the ago­niz­ing deci­sion to leave their chil­dren with strangers or to let them fend on their own. Many were too young to under­stand why they were being left behind, often under assumed iden­ti­ties. While the vast major­i­ty of these chil­dren were orphaned by the end of the war, some were reunit­ed with fam­i­ly who, in many cas­es, now seemed like strangers. Their accounts are marked with fear, con­fu­sion, and aban­don­ment, as well as a loss of their Jew­ish iden­ti­ty. These true sto­ries are pro­files of brav­ery: of the chil­dren who sur­vived in often ter­ri­ble cir­cum­stances, of the par­ents and fam­i­lies who were forced to leave them behind, and of the many peo­ple – includ­ing Chris­t­ian fam­i­lies, many times com­plete strangers – who risked their lives to save them.