Among adoptees for whom the discovery of a Jewish past is most wrenching are the “hidden children” — those who survived the Holocaust by posing as Christians.

Joanna Michlic is director of the Families and Holocaust Project at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute. She said that children who survived the Holocaust living as Christians with adopted families experienced “two massive ruptures” that affected their sense of self.

The first occurred following the separation from their biological families. Jewish parents hid their children in Christian homes or convents, where the children had to learn to conceal their identities. The second rupture was “when the children were confronted with the news of being Jewish,” as Michlic put it, and had to leave their Christian lives behind.

Open gallery view Many Jewish children who escaped the Holocaust by being hidden as Christians discovered their true heritage later. Credit: Courtesy of the Forward

Michlic’s research into the wartime biographies of Jewish children highlights stories of vulnerable young people suffering repeated traumas and dislocations — including custody battles between Jewish relatives and Christian rescuers. Even without a custody battle, many children felt significant disruption when they left the sense of security associated with their adopted parents and were sent to Jewish relatives in the United States or Palestine.

Read more at the Forward.

