One Thousand Children

Definition and Early History, Initial Arrivals of Children, Helping Organizations, Later arrivals

Some 1.5 million children perished in the Holocaust (see Children in the Holocaust), yet millions of children did survive.

Only a few children 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 Œuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE). Most of the programs that worked specifically to save children, had the children remain within Western Europe or moved to Palestine.

In the One Thousand Children program, approximately 1,400 children were successfully rescued and brought to the United States, in contrast to the efforts made within Europe. In general, they were bought in quiet operations designed to avoid attention from isolationist and other antisemitic forces. (Originally 1,177 such children had been identified as OTC children — hence the name "The One Thousand Children") (OTC). These children:

either came from Europe directly to the United States around the time 1934 to 1945;

were of age up to sixteen (the "arbitrary" cut-off age, before they were considered adults). The youngest was only fourteen months old;

arrived unaccompanied, leaving their parents behind, (of course there were adult escorts); and

were then placed with foster families, schools and other facilities across the U.S.

It may be useful to divide the OTC story into four periods: a) the first being 1934, until kristallnacht when there was only a trickle of the OTC'ers; b) then when kristallnacht had strongly alerted the American public to the oppression of the Jews in Nazi Germany, until the outbreak of the European War on Sept 1, 1939; c) next while Europe was at war until Pearl Harbor Dec 7, 1941, when America joined the war, a period when travel from all of Europe to the neutral United States was still permitted, if one could obtain the required travel documents; d) and finally after America and Germany were at war, when legal travel from the Nazi-occupied lands to America was not available.

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 (GJCA). The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) as well as the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, "(colloquially known as "the Joint"), HICEM,and the Society of Friends (the Quakers, see History of the Quakers). Many of these efforts were combined to form the United States Committee for the Care of European Children (USCOM) which was registered with the US government and later part of the National War Fund. In 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 children were initially gathered together, supported, taken care of, and educated by the French Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE), sometimes for many months in the OSE "chateaux." Only then was OSE able to pass them on to "the Joint" and 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 then travelled to America with the aid of the Organizations mentioned above. Many of these children came from the Gurs internment camp.

Other OTC children came under private arrangements and sponsorship, typically made by the parent(s) 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 social hostility to allowing foreigners to enter the U.S. during the Depression. Sponsoring organizations wanted to avoid drawing undue attention to the children, whose immigration was limited by quotas for their countries of origin.

The demand on these organizations increased markedly in late 1938, when Kristallnacht convinced more parents that the destruction of Jews was an element of the Nazi agenda. In the later period of 1941–1942, larger groups of OTC children were organized and arrived in the U.S.A, when news of Nazi atrocities was more widely circulated. A few of the children came under the British Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB) program, as well as the "U.S. Committee for the Care of European Children" (USCOM).

In the official OTC programs under the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), German Jewish Children's Aid Society, (GJCA), 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 conflict. Most of the children lost one or both parents and most of their extended families by the time World War II had ended.

American Response

The OTC story is somewhat similar to that of the kindertransport in which unaccompanied children came from mainland Europe to Great Britain (see a later section). However, most importantly the 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 (And see the latter part of the transcript of the Parliamentary debate of Nov 21, 1938.).

However, United States immigration laws remained unchanged. 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, co‑sponsored by Sen. Robert F. Wagner (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Edith Rogers (R-Mass.), 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 (and antisemitic?) forces at that time. Even the Ickes plan for settling Jews in Alaska, known as the Slattery Report, did not come to any success.

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 (e.g. people who had reached Spain, Portugal or North Africa). This created a huge barrier, since many of these children (usually with their parents) 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.(see for instance the review article "Children in Europe are Europe's-problem" ).

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 when 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 (usually with their parents). 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" (large mansion) run by the Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants. It was usually only late in a journey that a Rescue Agency would start escorting the children.

Before the war, 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 placed in a boarding school.

Most OTC children went on to contribute positively to American society. Some notable ones are:

One OTC child, Jack Steinberger, became a Nobel Laureate in physics.

Another OTC child, Ambassador Richard Schifter, during and after World War II was one of the Ritchie Boys,those refugees who were trained, by the U.S. Army, in intelligence at Fort Ritchie, and then operated behind German lines during World War II. Several OTC became Ritchie Boys, or served in the Armed Forces. Ambassador Richter then had a very significant diplomatic and legal career, and was the U.S. Ambassador for Human Relations at the United Nations. As a child in Austria, his father told him that no Jew could become an Ambassador (in Austria). Schifter did become an American Ambassador to the United Nations, but his father had been already murdered by the Nazis. (See his personal video cited below.)

Another child renamed himself Bill Graham and became prominent in the 1960s as the concert promoter and music venue operator in the rock music and psychedelic rock scene in San Francisco. He was the promoter for the musical groups Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, operated the Fillmore East, Fillmore West, The Fillmore and Winterland Ballroom rock music venues and organized the large Summer Jam at Watkins Glen and US Festival events before his death in a helicopter crash in 1991. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

Gunther (Guy) Stern was one of the Ritchie Boys, like Ambassador Ritcher (above). He then had a distinguished career as a university professor and Holocaust Museum director.

Harry Eckstein (born Horst Eckstein) became a political science professor at Princeton University and the University of California, Irvine.

Emotional and Practical Effects

The OTC children went through much emotional trauma and practical difficulties before their arrival in America, during their initial period in America, and even later, similar to those met by other Child Holocaust Survivors in Europe.

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 that could not replace the love and support from his own family; and the new relationship would take time to develop.

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 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 extreme(?) example, one OTC, Phyllis Helene Mattson, also acted out at the Institution where twice she had to be placed - she ultimately stayed with four "foster-families," and was in an Institution twice. 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 was held behind in school grade placement (though most rapidly learned English and then advanced rapidly into his proper school-grade). He had to adapt to a new culture and way of behaving.

Hidden Children of the Holocaust

Hidden Children 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.

OTC are Child Survivors of the Holocaust

OTC children went through very significant trauma, both in terms of the psychological and 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 (generally Catholic) family. (And see Hidden Children). The OTC trauma similarly was caused by the Holocaust. OTC are Child Survivors of the Holocaust.

Research and discovery

The fact that some unaccompanied children fled from Europe directly to the U.S.A. was first researched by Judy 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 (and see next section).

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 ("The One Thousand Children," as she later named them). 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 (see below).

Soon after, in 2001, Posner and Moskowitz jointly founded the non-profit organization The One Thousand Children, Inc. (see below.)

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 other rescuers.

At the time of the Conference in 2002, they had found the names of 1,177 OTC'ers. There exists a data-base of these 1,1177, available to scholars at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Since that time the known number has increased to about 1400.

Iris Posner's contributions to the OTC story

Iris Posner's contributions started with her "discovering" and "creating" the One Thousand Children as a concept, as is described in the previous section.

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." (see above.)

Posner and Moskowitz then put on the 2002 OTC Conference (see above).

In summary, without Iris Posner, there might have been no OTC story; and no new group-identities for these children both as OTC, and as "Child Survivors of the Holocaust."

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." Very importantly, 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, see the link at the bottom of the OTC web home-page

One Thousand Children, Inc (OTC)

Iris Posner and Leonore Moskowitz created the non-profit research and education organization One Thousand Children, Inc (OTC), 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. A very important 2 hour video of this function at

presents many aspects of the OTC experience, and includes the testimony of several OTC'ers, who speak about the practical and psychological impact of their OTC experience.

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. (Some of the "kinder" from Britain subsequently migrated to America, e.g. the Nobel Prize-winning scientists Arno Penzias and Walter Kohn.)

In contrast, it must be noted that the United States Government did nothing to aid any of the OTC children, and specifically did not waive any quota or immigration requirements. The 12-year OTC effort required each OTC child to meet the American immigration requirements. It was the result of the work of various "network[s] of cooperation" among many different private American individuals and organizations.

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 (identified) 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, and also at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) (both are only available to scholars).

Other documents and artifacts are located at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) and the National Museum of American Jewish History (NMAJH) in Philadelphia.

Videos About OTC or OTC'ers

1. "I, an OTC, am a True Holocaust Survivor!! Hitler Wanted to put Me on the Dung-Heap of History!! I am Here to Say He Failed!!" says Thea Lindauer, a Jewish OTC. (2 minutes) (2008)
   
   
2. "The Complete Story of the One Thousand Children" This tells the story of the OTC, the kids, the rescuers, and the rescue-programs. It tells of the tortuous physical paths and difficulties many of the OTC kids went through to get to America and freedom.(2008)(12 minutes)
   
   
3. "'Was there an American Kindertransport?' An Interview with Iris Posner" This 27 minute interview about OTC is mainly factual and historical, primarily about the search for the OTC kids. It presents a great deal about the OTC story, discussed from various view-points. Iris presents an overview of how she first asked the key-question "Was there an American Kindertransport?" and then searched for and found the OTC kids, and actually created the "OTC concept." She presents much about the OTC, how the kids were placed in America, and how appropriate records were made. (She does not talk about the kids themselves.) (27 minutes) (2007).https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykb878J4nOM
4. Claude Kacser's One Thousand Children Story. Claude, an OTC, was 6 when he arrived in New York City in 1940. This video presents an important aspect of the OTC experience - the typical life-path impact upon the OTC kids. Claude not only presents his own story, but he also discusses the effect his OTC experiences had upon his personal, professional, and emotional life, very much as such an example of the OTC impact on all OTC kids. (30 minute video). While this video is somewhat slow-moving, it does emphasize the impact of the OTC experience. (2002)
   
   
5. Ambassador Richard Schifter's One Thousand Children (OTC) Story. Richard, at age 15, fled Vienna in 1938 immediately after Kristallnacht. He went on to serve in Intelligence in the U.S. Army in Germany 1944-46, and had a career that culminated by serving as U.S. Ambassador for Human Rights at the United Nations. (2003) (18 minute video)
   
   
6. Thea Lindauer's One Thousand Children Story Thea left Germany in 1934 as an OTC at age 12. She presents the social background of her story in Germany, the beginning of her own OTC story in Germany, then her own OTC story in America 1934-1937. She also presents the developments in Germany during that time, and their specific impact upon her Jewish family that she left behind. (2008) (44 minute video).https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih4wTrIakTw
7. As already presented above, the "closing" session of OTC Inc in Oct 2013 was recorded. It includes testimony by several OTC'ers, as well as a round-table discussion. It presents very much about the OTC story and experience, and its practical and psychological impact.
   
   

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 instance in Claude Kacser's story, which is presented in one of the videos below, it was a private family arrangement where an American distant cousin sponsored and took official responsibility and cared for Claude after his arrival.

A most remarkable rescue was made by a private very 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 to obtain the necessary American visas. These children were first placed in the summer camp facilities of the fraternal order Brith Sholom, and then were spread around in the homes of Philadelphia families. This story is presented in detail in the referenced article http://www.thejewishweek.com/arts/hbo-series/unlikeliest-rescue-mission. This story was also made into a documentary film. The film story outline and a trailer for the film are presented at http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/50-children-the-rescue-mission-of-mr-and-mrs-kraus/synopsis.html. (Sadly, the film is not available on the web, since it is under copyright by the film distributor, but it can be acquired from him, though sometimes for payment.)

One OTC Child's Story: Werner S. Zimmt

Werner S. Zimmt is just one of the many stories of these One Thousand Children, who survived because the German Jewish Children's Aid rescued him. In an exclusive interview with journalist David Leighton, published in the Arizona Daily Star newspaper, on May 13, 2014, he told his story (see external link below):

Werner and his twin brother were born to a Jewish family in Berlin, Germany. After Adolf Hitler's rise to power and the inception of his anti-Semitic policies, his parents, fearing for their sons lives, worked with the German-Jewish Children's Aid to quietly move them to safety in the United States. The twins arrived in the U.S. in 1935, and after a short time in an orphanage in New York, were moved to Chicago, where they lived with a foster family for a few years. During this time Werner Zimmt learned English and attended school. His parents would eventually escape the Nazi's death grip and come to the U.S. to join their sons.

When the U.S. entered World War II, Werner volunteered to serve in the U.S. Marines, but was rejected because he was considered an enemy alien due to his German heritage. The following year, the U.S. Government changed its mind and he was drafted in the U.S. Army, where he became one of the Ritchie Boys. "He had the dangerous job of manning listening posts in front of the main line and sending back intelligence to headquarters, and of going on reconnaissance patrols. He also served as the interrogator of German prisoners of war."

After the war, Werner Zimmt went on to become a chemist, working for DuPont in Philadelphia for many years. After he retired he relocated to Tucson, Arizona, where he worked at the University of Arizona, Department of Agriculture and also volunteered at the Arizona State Museum on campus. Zimmt died on September 12, 2014.

This suggests the arc of life of a typical OTC.