One Thousand Children


The One Thousand Children is a designation, created in 2000, which is used to refer to the approximately 1,400 Jewish children who were rescued from Nazi Germany and other Nazi-occupied or threatened European countries, and who were taken directly to the United States during the period 1934–1945. The phrase "One Thousand Children" only refers to those children who came unaccompanied and left their parents behind back in Europe. In nearly all cases, their parents were not able to escape with their children, because they could not get the necessary visas among other reasons. Later, nearly all these parents were murdered by the Nazis.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, in its on-line "Holocaust Encyclopedia," in the article on "Immigration of Refugee Children to the United States," recognizes this official name: the "One Thousand Children," for this group of children.
The archives of the "One Thousand Children," which contain much documentary material, including audio and video of both the One Thousand Children 2002 Conference, and individual interviews of OTC children, as well as many other original materials, and which all together are the fundamental reference-source, are held by the YIVO Institute.
The OTC children were rescued by both American and European organizations, as well as by individuals.
Originally only about one thousand such children had been identified as OTC children — hence the name "The One Thousand Children". By 2017 about 1,400 have been identified.
The One Thousand Children, Inc. was an organization created for further welfare of the OTC children.

Definition and early history

Some 1.5 million children, nearly all of them Jewish, were deliberately murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust.
A relatively few Jewish children were saved by being hidden by courageous Gentiles in various ways, in or close to their Nazi-occupied hometown.
Another relatively few Jewish children were saved by moving to non-Nazi-occupied lands. Naturally this required the aid of adults - these were saved by the efforts of programs, groups, individuals, or actual parents. In western Europe these would include the Kindertransport program which included the individual efforts of Sir Nicholas Winton; and the work of the French Jewish organization Œuvre de Secours aux Enfants. Most of the programs that worked specifically to save children had the children remain within Western Europe.
Other well organized programs did prepare and send children to Palestine.
In contrast, in the One Thousand Children "program," approximately 1,400 children, nearly all Jewish, were successfully rescued and brought across the ocean to the United States.
In general, they were brought in quiet operations designed to avoid negative attention from isolationist and other antisemitic forces. Originally 1,177 such children had been identified as OTC — hence the name the "One Thousand Children".
These OTC children:
The OTC history is divided into four periods:
The first small group of six children arrived at New York City in November 1934. This was followed by subsequent small groups, totaling about 100 children annually, that occurred in the early years of operation, and they were taken to foster homes arranged through appeals to congregations and other organizations' members.
Most of the children came through programs run by private refugee agencies such as the German Jewish Children's Aid. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society as well as the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee,, HICEM, and the Society of Friends. Many of these efforts were combined to form the U.S. Committee for the Care of European Children which was registered with the US government and later became part of the National War Fund. Fundraising efforts were assisted by the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, and the National Council of Jewish Women.
For instance, many of the OTC were initially gathered together, supported, taken care of, and educated by the French Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants, sometimes for many months in the OSE "chateaux". They stayed with OSE until OSE able to pass them on to "the Joint", or the Quakers, which then took them to the United States. Under the leadership of Andree Salomon, OSE did manage to gather together about 350 such children in three large groups, who travelled to America with the aid of the organizations mentioned. Many of these children came from the Gurs internment camp.
Other OTC came under private arrangements and sponsorship, typically made by the parent with a family relative or friend. Such children would live with their sponsor, or sometimes live in a boarding school in close contact with their sponsor.
Before 1938, only small groups were brought into the country by such organizations, because of concern for anti-semitism and social hostility to allowing foreigners to enter the U.S. during the Depression. The sponsoring organizations wanted to avoid drawing undue attention to the children. Furthermore, their immigration was limited by the U.S. immigration quota system for their countries of origin.
The demand on these organizations increased markedly after Kristallnacht on November 9/10, 1940 convinced more European parents that the destruction of Jews was an element of the Nazi agenda.
In the later period of 1941–1942, when news of Nazi atrocities was more widely circulated, larger groups of OTC were organized and arrived in the U.S. A few of the OTC came under the British Children's Overseas Reception Board program, as well as the "U.S. Committee for the Care of European Children".
In the OTC programs under the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, German Jewish Children's Aid Society,, the Quakers, etc., foster families in the U.S. agreed to care for the children until age twenty-one, see that they were educated, and provided a guarantee that they would not become public charges. Most of these children were assigned a social worker from a local social service agency to oversee the child's resettlement process. Jewish children were generally placed in Jewish homes. These children, and their sponsors, expected that they would be reunited with their own families at the end of the war. Most of the children lost one or both parents, and most of their extended families, by the time World War II had ended.

Where the Children Came From, And Some of Their Journeys

Most of the OTC children came from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. Some came from France, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg. Only very very few came directly from Eastern Europe. However, some families of OTC had previously made it from Eastern to Western Europe; and then the OTC child fled from Western Europe.
Before the war, many simply managed to get to Hamburg or another port, and sail from there. though this itself was not easy.
After the German blitzkrieg of May 1940 through Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg, and rapidly into France, many OTC children fled from Occupied France or Vichy France by going south and west to the Spanish border. Then they made the difficult climb over the Pyrenees, usually guided by a passeur guide/smuggler. From Spain, they traveled to neutral Portugal and Lisbon. From there, they sailed to America, often on one of the Portuguese liners Serpa Pinto, or Mouzinho, or Nyassa. This escape route was also taken by many families.
This escape route, through France and over the Pyrenees to Spain, then Portugal and Lisbon, was also followed by those who fled from Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg.
Some other OTC children managed to get to Casablanca in North Africa, and sailed from there.
It was often the case that whole families made some or all the journey to the port, before the sad parting when the OTC child continued alone. For instance, some French intact families followed a trajectory that led them to one of the French concentration camps such as Gurs. Then OSE was able to extract the child from that camp, but with the parents still interned. Then OSE would aid the child over the next OTC stages to their final transport across the Atlantic. In the later stages of this journey, often HIAS, or the "Joint" would also assist the OTC children.
Remarkably, a similar small group of about 6-8 unaccompanied Jewish children fled to the United States from Venezuela. Their parents, in the small Jewish community in Maracaibo to Venezuela, were well aware of Hitler's possible global threat, which included German submarines off the Venezuelan coast.

The "OTC" Children

For many of the OTC children, the period before they reached America was very difficult. Before World War II, most were simply assembled by rescue agencies directly from their home towns in Germany and Austria, and then easily escorted to America. But after the war started, nearly all of them went through extreme hardships and dangers before they boarded ship for the United States. Some did travel to the port with parents, but many traveled alone, at least for part of their flight. Some were smuggled over the Pyrenees. Some were incarcerated for a time in concentration camps such as Gurs internment camp in southern France, while some spent time in a French "château" run by the Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants or OSE. It was usually only late in a journey that a Rescue Agency would start positively escorting the children.
Some of the OTC children came by individual arrangements made by their family, in which the child would be sent into the care of a relative in America. In America, they would either live with that family, or perhaps be placed in a boarding school.
Many OTC children made notable contributions to American society. Among them are:
At the time, the OTC children went through much emotional stress and trauma and practical difficulties in Europe before their arrival in America, also during their initial period in America, and even in later war-time years. At war's end, most OTC children would learn that their parents had been murdered by the Nazis. At that time, they had to adjust to, and create for themselves, another new set of life experiences. As is now well-understood, such stress and trauma will continue to create conscious and unconscious trauma, and their repercussions, for many years.
These OTC trauma, both at the time and afterwards, are closely similar to those met by other Child Holocaust Survivors who survived in Europe.
Like other Child Holocaust Survivors, the actual experiences and psychological trauma received by the OTC Child Survivors differed fundamentally, crucially and negatively from that of an adult Holocaust Survivor. An adult generally would have developed a sense of self and ego, which would provide him or her with a way of attempting to deal with the practical and emotional trauma. Usually a child has not yet developed a strong ego nor sense of self. Also, a child depends on his or her parents for support and protection, and especially love. Yet for these Child Holocaust Survivors, they lacked their parents and their parents' love; and they only had weakly developed egos and sense of self, at the very time that the external and psychological trauma were most extreme.
The first very significant trauma occurred at the moment of parting from their parent, whether when boarding ship or at an earlier time and event. For the younger OTC children, regardless of whatever reassuring words the parent might say, the child would feel abandoned by his parents. Even older children, who could understand the reality "intellectually," none-the-less would feel as having been abandoned.
For the very young children, even though in later years they would have no actual memory of the parting and of these feelings, and also no memory of the later years, yet the trauma of parting and of continued separation will still have current and continuing subconscious impact.
Most OTC children were placed in "foster-families," some of which were loving and some not; or sometimes they were placed in various types of institutions, some caring, and some not. But in most cases these could not replace the love and support from his own family; and the new relationship would take time to develop. In some fortunate instances, the OTC child would grow to totally blend into the foster family, and learn to love them as if they were his own parents and siblings.
The older OTC children fully knew the dangers their left-behind parents faced from the Nazi threat. And then, at the end of the war, nearly always the OTC child would find out, sooner or later, that his or her parents had been murdered by the Nazis; and there would also have been the prior stress of waiting and hoping, before that final factual discovery.
Not surprisingly, some of the OTC children became very angry with their situation. Some would act out, sometimes so much so that their "foster-parents" decided they had to return the OTC child to the original Organization, such as HIAS, to be placed elsewhere – but then the cycle might repeat.
As an example, one OTC child, Phyllis Helene Mattson, also acted out at the "Orphanage" Institution, where twice she had to be placed – she ultimately stayed with four "foster-families," and was in the "Orphanage" twice. She ran away from two of her "foster-families," and one "foster-family" sent her back to the "Orphanage." As she herself writes, it is somewhat remarkable that she managed to become a responsible mature adult. She recounts all this in her book "War Orphan in San Francisco"
At a more practical level, nearly every OTC child arrived in America not being able to speak English, and so he or she was held behind in school grade placement. He or she had to adapt to a new culture and way of behaving.

Holocaust Child Survivors - Hidden Children; OTC similarities; Kindertransport; German Government recognizes Kinder; OTC are "American Kindertransport," OTC are Holocaust Child Survivors

Hidden Children of the Holocaust; OTC had similar trauma; OTC are Holocaust Child Survivors

of the Holocaust are those children who were hidden in some way during the Holocaust from the Nazis in occupied Europe, hidden so as to avoid capture by the Nazis.
One sub-group even of Hidden Children are children who, during the Holocaust, were placed into the care of a "foster-family," usually Catholic, and raised as-if one of the family.
These Hidden Children were saved from murder by the Nazis. None-the-less all of them, including those in "foster-families," suffered great trauma at the time, and also later both consciously and subconsciously.
OTC children went through very significant trauma, both in terms of the psychological and the practical – caused by the Holocaust. These trauma in large part correspond to many aspects of those trauma developed by the "foster-family" sub-group of the Hidden Children – Child Survivors who had been raised as-if one of a family. The OTC trauma similarly was caused by the Holocaust. For this reason alone, we see that OTC are Child Survivors of the Holocaust.

Kindertransport; OTC are "American Kindertransport;" German Government creates payment Fund and recognizes "British" Kindertransport as Holocaust Child Survivors; Similarly OTC are Holocaust Child Survivors

The OTC are the "American Kindertransport." The Kindertransport Program is discussed in more detail in a later section. Here, we only need to know that, during the period between Kristallnacht and the start of World War II, the Kindertransport Program brought about 10,000 Jewish children to England from Germany, German-annexed Austria, and German-occupied Czechoslovakia - but the children had been forced to flee by themselves, and forced to leave their parents behind. (Nearly all the children's parents were later murdered by the Nazis.

Research and discovery

The fact that some unaccompanied children fled from Europe directly to the U.S.A. was first researched by Judith Baumel-Schwartz in a doctoral thesis and related book.
However, only in 2000 did Iris Posner have the realization and then implement it, that these children should be considered a significant distinct group of Holocaust Survivors, which should be discussed in the truly public domain.
Specifically, in 2000, Iris Posner had learned of the British Government-assisted Kindertransport effort, and was intrigued by the question of whether there was a similar actual official American Government effort. Posner wrote letters to newspapers asking any such children to contact her. Posner and Leonore Moskowitz also researched ship manifests and other documents. In this way, Posner "created" the story of this group of unaccompanied children to America. At that time, they managed to identify slightly over 1,000, hence the name. Posner and Moskowitz managed to locate about 500 of these who were still alive, and invited each of them to the 2002 OTC Conference.
Soon after, in 2001, Posner and Moskowitz jointly founded the non-profit organization The One Thousand Children, Inc.
Posner and Moskowitz, under the aegis of their organization "The One Thousand Children, Inc" organized a three-day International OTC Conference and Reunion in Chicago in 2002. Approximately 200 attendees had the opportunity to listen and interact with over 50 speakers drawn from OTC children, their children and grandchildren, and "foster" family members and rescuers from rescue organizations.
At the time of the Conference in 2002, they had found the names of about 1,200 OTC'ers. Since that time the known number has increased to about 1400.

American "Response"

The OTC story is somewhat similar to that of the [|kindertransport] in which unaccompanied children came from mainland Europe to Great Britain. In contrast to the OTC 'program," the British kindertransport program was officially created by the British Government in very speedy response to kristallnacht on Nov 9/10, 1938. Within six days the British Government presented an official bill in Parliament which was rapidly passed, which waived all immigration and visa requirements for unaccompanied children, though it left actual arrangements to private relief organizations and individual sponsors.
In contrast, the United States did not change any immigration laws. In 1939, the proposed Wagner–Rogers Bill to admit 20,000 Jewish refugees under the age of 14 to the United States from Nazi Germany, cosponsored by Sen. Robert F. Wagner and Rep. Edith Rogers, failed to get Congressional approval in 1939. Jewish organizations did not feel able to challenge this decision. The full story of the failure of the Wagner-Rogers bill shows the power of the isolationist forces at that time. Even the Ickes plan for settling Jews in Alaska, known as the Slattery Report, did not come to any success.
Furthermore, the State Department had a deliberately obstructionist "Paper Walls" policy in operation to delay or prevent the issuing of any officially permitted visas for all refugees who desired entry to America.", This Paper Wall contributed to the low number of refugees. From July 1941 all immigration applications went to a special inter-departmental committee, and under the "relatives rule" special scrutiny was given to any applicant with relatives in German, Italian or Russian territory.
Beginning in July 1943, a new State Department visa application form over four feet long was used, with details required of the refugee and of the two sponsors; and six copies had to be submitted. Applications took about nine months, and were not expedited even in cases of imminent danger. Furthermore, from fall 1943, applications from refugees "not in acute danger" could be refused. This created a huge barrier, since many of these children had fled there from other parts of Europe, some by being smuggled over the Pyrenees.
The American public also resisted the OTC program, because of social hostility to allowing foreigners to enter the U.S. during the Depression, and generally from isolationist and antisemitic forces.).

Some of the Groups of OTC Sailings, and their Rescuers

Iris Posner's contributions started with her "discovering" and "creating" the One Thousand Children as a concept.
Posner and Moskowitz then went on to search for information about these OTC children – their names and other OTC information – and then searched for the actual OTC "children."
Posner and Moskowitz then put on the 2002 OTC Conference.
Posner created the OTC story. Posner provided the new "One Thousand Children" group-identity for these children. Posner enabled these children to realize they were "Child Survivors of the Holocaust." Posner caused all Holocaust groups and scholars to recognize this "new" group of Holocaust Child Survivors."

Personal Realization that They were "Child Survivors of the Holocaust"

It was at this 2002 OTC Conference that many of the OTC Children first realized that they had two new identities – both as OTC, and as "Child Survivors of the Holocaust." They realized that they truly were Child Survivors of the Holocaust. For a very emphatic audio-visual statement by an OTC that she indeed was a Child Survivor of the Holocaust, listen to her YouTube testimony

One Thousand Children, Inc (OTC, Inc.)

Iris Posner and Leonore Moskowitz created the non-profit research and education organization One Thousand Children, Inc, whose primary purposes are to maintain a connection between the OTC children, to explore this little-known segment of American history, and to create archival materials and depositories. OTC,Inc's print, photo, and audio-visual archives, and some of its activities have been transferred to the "YIVO Institute for Jewish Research" though OTC, Inc itself has ceased to exist.

Video Summation of the OTC Experience, and the "Disbanding" of OTC, Inc in Oct 2013

OTC, Inc. formally disbanded in Oct 2013, but its work goes on. The "closing" took place at a two-hour conference at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Testimony by individual OTC'ers make up a significant part of this conference.

British Kindertransport, and Compared with the One Thousand Children Effort

A larger but similar British program, the Kindertransport, is more well-known. That effort brought approximately 10,000 similarly defined mainly Jewish children to the United Kingdom, between November 21, 1938 and September 3, 1939. It had to stop at that date, since that was the beginning of World War II.
The Kindertransport program was created by the British Government which within six days of Kristallnacht presented an Act in the British Parliament. This act waived all visa and immigration requirements for an unspecified number of unaccompanied children. Naturally, the children had to be privately financed and guaranteed, and placed by various British Jewish Organizations.
In contrast, the United States Government did nothing to aid any of the OTC children, and did not waive any quota or immigration requirements. The 12-year OTC effort required each OTC child to meet the American immigration requirements.

OTC Archived Documents and Other Media Are Now Mainly at the "YIVO Institute for Jewish Research"

The Organization's archives have been donated to and now reside at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City. These primary archives include video-recordings of the complete 2002 OTC Conference as well as partial written transcripts. Many artifacts, including personal diaries written as children or later as adults, are included; as well as data about each individual child, other information, and photographs. This archive is open to scholars.
The list of the 1177 originally-identified OTC'ers, with names and many other details, is at YIVO. It is also at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Other documents and artifacts are located at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia.

Story of the Rescue of 50 Brith Sholom OTC Children

Some of the OTC children were rescued by Jewish organizations such as HIAS. But some were rescued by individuals. For example, one American 51 year-old bachelor distant cousin sponsored and took official responsibility for a six-year-old OTC'er, but the OTC'er had to be placed in a small year-round boarding-school
A remarkable rescue was made by a private wealthy Philadelphia family, Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus. On their own, they rescued 25 boys and 25 girls from Vienna after Kristallnacht, but before the war in Europe started. They had many practical difficulties, including those to obtain the necessary 50 American visas from within the immigration quota system. On arrival, these children were first placed in the summer camp facilities of the fraternal order Brith Sholom, and then were placed into the homes of Philadelphia families.