Hidden Teens, Hidden Lives: Primary Sources from the Holocaust

Hiding behind a double wall in a ghetto in Poland, ten-year-old Aaron Elster heard gunshots and people screaming. In moments, Nazi troops discovered his family and herded them into the street, where Nazis were gunning people down. This young boy’s hiding place did not save his family that time, but thousands of Jews went into hiding during the Holocaust. Barns, trapdoors, bunkers, secret attics, forged identity papers, and fake names became tools for survival. Author Linda Jacobs Altman uses primary sources to detail the stories of many Jews who went into hiding to survive the Nazi’s planned extermination of Europe’s Jews.