Start of Main Content
Upcoming Events Calendar

The Lost Children After the Holocaust

Virtual Event
These photographs of children in the Kloster Indersdorf displaced persons camp were published in newspapers in an effort to identify their families. US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Lilo, Jack, and Micha Plaschkes

These photographs of children in the Kloster Indersdorf displaced persons camp were published in newspapers in an effort to identify their families. US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Lilo, Jack, and Micha Plaschkes

The children who walked through the doors of the medieval monastery in Germany had endured all manner of Nazi terror. One Jewish boy from Poland had survived more than a dozen labor or concentration camps. Underweight infants arrived without names or dates of birth. Learn about the relief workers and nuns at Kloster Indersdorf who cared for the children. Often there were no family members left who might claim them after World War II.

Guest
Dr. Kierra Crago-Schneider, Museum historian and expert on displaced persons camps

Host
Dr. Edna Friedberg, Historian, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Watch live on YouTube or Facebook. After the live broadcast, the recording will be available to watch on demand on the Museum’s YouTube and Facebook pages.

Related

  • Children During the Holocaust

    Children were especially vulnerable to Nazi persecution. Some were targeted on supposed racial grounds, such as Jewish youngsters. Others were targeted for biological reasons, such as patients with physical or mental disabilities. As many as 1.5 million Jewish children alone were murdered or died at the hands of Nazi officials or their collaborators.

    Learn More
  • Kloster Indersdorf Displaced Persons Camp

    By mid-September, 1945, 192 boys and girls from 13 nations, including 49 Jewish children, were sheltered at Kloster Indersdorf, more than double what had been anticipated. Over the next year, the numbers increased to over 300. The care of the children was provided by a staff of more than a dozen workers from the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, as well as by Catholic nuns.

    Learn More
  • The Lebensborn Program

    Nazi authorities created the Lebensborn program to increase Germany’s population. Pregnant German women deemed “racially valuable” were encouraged to give birth to their children at Lebensborn homes. During World War II, the program became complicit in the kidnapping of foreign children with physical features considered “Aryan” by the Nazis.

    Learn More