Child Survivors of Buchenwald Child survivors dressed in clothes made from German uniforms One of the youngest survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp, shown in the center of the photograph above, was four-year-old Josef Schleifstein. The Communist prisoners, who were in charge of the day-to-day administration of the camp, made sure that the children were well cared for. The children are wearing clothes made for them by the Americans out of German uniforms. As prisoners in the camp, they wore striped uniforms just like the other prisoners. Josef Schleifstein is also shown in the photo below. He is sitting on the running board of a truck from the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Josef Schleifstein was rescued by the American liberators The little Jewish boy in the photo above was born Janek Szlajfaztajn on March 7, 1941 in occupied Poland. He and his father, Izrael, were sent to Buchenwald on January 20, 1945; his mother Esther was sent to Bergen-Belsen. After the Buchenwald camp was liberated, the little boy and his father were taken to Switzerland for medical treatment. They were reunited with Esther in Dachau, where they lived until emigrating to the United States in 1947. Liberated orphans march out of the main gate of the Buchenwald camp Elie Wiesel leaving Buchenwald, April 27, 1945 In the photo above, Elie Wiesel is the tall boy with a full head of dark hair who is the fourth from the front on the left side of the column. The gate house of the Buchenwald camp is in the background on the right. Most of the Buchenwald orphans were teenagers, and only 30 of them were under the age of 13. Young survivors in the Buchenwald camp, May 1945 Teenagers who survived Buchenwald Young survivors leaving Buchenwald on a train Most of the 904 children who were in the camp when it was liberated were orphans. The American army chaplains, Rabbi Herschel Schacter and Rabbi Robert Marcus, contacted the offices of the OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants), the Jewish children's relief organization in Geneva, Switzerland. The OSE made arrangements to send 427 of the children to France, 280 to Switzerland and 250 to England. On June 2, 1945, OSE representatives arrived in Buchenwald and along with Rabbi Marcus, accompanied the transport to France. Rabbi Schacter escorted the second transport to Switzerland. Elie Wiesel, the most famous survivor of the children's camp at Buchenwald, was among the orphans who were sent to France. Later, he emigrated to America where he was instrumental in getting the $167 million U.S. Holocaust Museum built near the Capitol Mall in Washington, D.C. Wiesel has written 47 books, including "Night," a memoir about his ordeal in the Nazi camps. Among his many accomplishments, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The following words by Elie Wiesel are often quoted: Every Jew, somewhere in his being, should set apart a zone of hate - healthy, virile hate -- for what the German personifies and for what persists in the German. To do otherwise would be a betrayal of the dead. Congressmen & Reporters Edward R. Murrow Report Liberation Claims Liberation Day First American liberators Buchenwald Survivors German civilians tour Buchenwald Exhibits put up by prisoners More exhibits at Buchenwald Back to Buchenwald liberation Home