"Children…. leave almost no trace. They don't usually write letters, and don't leave written or oral testimonies… They have friends, but they are also children. They live close to their families, to their parents and siblings. And if the adults disappear along with them, no one will ever consider them, even with a fleeting thought."
Adolfo García Ortega, The Birthday Buyer, Even Hoshen 2007, p. 83
Approximately 1.5 million children were murdered in the Holocaust. They left almost no trace – a handful of photographs and some personal belongings.
This exhibition features the personal stories of 8 children during the Holocaust. Each child is a world entire. Details about their lives are revealed in the albums they left behind. These albums offer a window into the world of these children: children suffering cruel and relentless persecution under living conditions that defy the imagination. But the albums also show us that in spite of everything, children remain children: writing dedications to their friends and embellishing them with happy illustrations; writing of everlasting friendship, even though in many cases their lives were brutally cut short.
The albums, which miraculously remained intact, were made in ghettos, concentration and labor camps, while on the run or in hiding, in different countries throughout Europe and in Asia.
The life-stories of the album owners and their families, and the fate of some of those who wrote dedications, are brought to you here.