The Nazis advocated killing children of “unwanted” or “dangerous” groups either as part of the “racial struggle” or as a measure of preventative security. The Germans and their collaborators killed children for these ideological reasons and in retaliation for real or alleged partisan attacks.
Nazi Germany and its collaborators killed about 1.5 million Jewish children and tens of thousands of Romani (Gypsy) children, 5,000–7,000 German children with physical and mental disabilities living in institutions, as well as many Polish children and children residing in the German-occupied Soviet Union. Jewish and non-Jewish adolescents (13–18 years old) had a greater chance of survival, as they could be used for forced labor.
The fates of Jewish and non-Jewish children can be categorized in the following ways:
children killed when they arrived in killing centers
children killed immediately after birth or in institutions
children born in ghettos and camps who survived because prisoners hid them
children, usually over age 12, who were used as forced laborers and as subjects of medical experiments
children killed during reprisal operations or so-called anti-partisan operations.
Deportation of Jewish children from the Lodz ghetto, Poland, during the "Gehsperre" Aktion, September 1942. [LCID: 50365]
