Historiography of the Study of Holocaust Child Survivors

In the field of Holocaust study there is a plethora of research from perpetrators to victims, to resisters, to rescuers, to military history. Each of these groups has its own dynamic of how it was included in history. For example, the Nazi Trials provided data for the study of the perpetrators. The oral histories with rescuers, and the testimonies from survivors at yad Vashem`s recognition of the righteous among the nations of the world, offered historical material because of a lack of documentation. However, it is Steven Spielberg`s Schindler`s List that put rescuers on the map. The Holocaust child survivors were an invisible group for many years. It is estimated that six to seven percent survived, approximately 100,000. There are many unknow factors with this population, such as how many were not returned to the Jewish community or their parents after the war. This presentation will focus how an invisible group became visible, despite the enormous focus on Anne Frank -- the quintessential hidden child of the Holocaust and her diary. This shift will focus on the German reparation system that initially would not pay Holocaust child survivors until the last decade or so; On adult survivors ignoring the trauma of the child survivors; Historians rejecting Holocaust child survivors as witnesses. How did the consciousness of the second generation of Holocaust survivors impact the shift in the Holocaust child survivor consciousness that also impacted their presence in the history of the Holocaust.