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Search for Displaced Holocaust Kids Seen in Photos

(AP) Sharon Cohen - The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has some 1,100 pictures of children who survived the Holocaust, photographed by social service agencies across Europe soon after World War II. More than 65 years later, the museum is reaching out around the world to find the people in these extraordinary photos. It has posted their pictures online and spread the word the search is on. Theodore Meicler, now retired in Texas, recognized his 8-year-old self immediately; he had never seen the post-war photo. Meicler was just 4 years old when his father was arrested. He still remembers the coats the Gestapo agents wore when they took his dad away. More than 1 million children died in the Holocaust. Tens of thousands of others were uprooted, temporarily or permanently. Many didn't talk about these experiences, not even decades later with their own children. But now that they're in their twilight years, the Holocaust museum decided the time was right to harness social media to find them - and collect their stories - in an effort called "Remember Me?" Since the photos appeared online, over 190 children have been identified from the U.S., Canada, France, Italy, Scotland, Belgium, Hungary, Switzerland, Israel, England and Australia. Michlean Amir, a research coordinator at the museum conducting the Hebrew interviews, says: "The amazing thing for me is most of them established normal lives. They managed to marry, have healthy relations, have children and grandchildren. People go through much lesser trauma and are unable to function in society."
2011-08-12 00:00:00
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