The end of the war brought on many different consequences and discoveries for both Aryan and Jewish children.
As for the Aryan children, life after the Holocaust was somewhat different. These children finished growing up and were constantly scared of being shunned for being a Nazi. Many times they would be scrutinized for being an Aryan child. They lived their lives in shame due to what their race had tried to do to the Jewish population. Many of the children in the Lebensborn homes were often left in the dark about their pasts and who their real fathers were. It wasn’t until after the Holocaust ended that they were able to discover files of their lives to connect the dots and discover who their real family was. These children did not find out this information until they were well into their adulthood so they lived the majority of their lives wondering who they were and what their family was like (Hammer).
After the end of the war in 1945 Jewish children tried to locate their long lost families and restart their lives. Many moved to different countries including 140,000 survivors that moved to the United States. When they first arrived in the United States, the survivors repressed their memories and did their best to start a new life and build a new home. It wasn’t until these children reached retirement age that they really became comfortable talking about what happened to them during the war (Heberer, 2011; After the holocaust, 2012). When the survivors first arrived in the United States they tried to talk about what had happened to them but they found that no one was really interested in hearing what they had to say. Many people even thought that they were just telling stories. What was more important however, was the fact that even if the people cared to listen, they would never understand the horrible events that occurred in their lives. This caused these Jewish survivors to become quite bitter towards the Americans. Not only did the survivors feel misunderstood, they also suffered from physical trauma due to the war (After the holocaust, 2012; Living after the, 1979).
When arriving in the United States, many of the survivors experienced physical issues. Dizziness, high blood pressure, anxiety, nightmares and heart palpitations just name a few of them. Many of the survivors were afraid of dark places and subways and they were always in fear of being taken away. It was very hard for these child survivors to live regular lives without constantly being reminded of what had happened to them during the Holocaust (After the holocaust, 2012; Living after the, 1979).
As these survivors started establishing a home and starting a family, they still were never able to forget their pasts. The children of the child survivors have shared their experiences of growing up with a survivor of the war. Many of these children had to listen to their parents relive their days during the holocaust. Many of them described what they saw and how it made them feel as a child. They would tell their children how badly they missed their own parents and how they saw their children as the closest things to having a mother, sister, aunt or friend. Often times, the survivors found it difficult to talk about how their loved ones died during the war. Not only was reliving the past an issue for these survivors, but living a day to day life is also hard for these people (After the holocaust, 2012; Living after the, 1979).
Often times the survivors tell their own children to only be friends with the Jews because they are the only ones who wouldn’t betray them. Their priorities were spent buying lavish things to prove that they were a part of the higher end of a social hierarchy. They would purchase things such as nice furniture, dinnerware, jewelry, clothing, cosmetics and they also fixated on owning property. This has to do with the fact that these things were taken from them as children and they were seen as the lower class. The survivors felt that it has now come their time to prove that they are no longer a part of the lower class (After the holocaust, 2012; Living after the, 1979).
All in all, the Holocaust had lots of effects on both Aryan and Jewish children. Although the affects of the war were more harshly impacted for the Jewish children and affect them more deeply as adults, both races had some similarities after the war. Both races found many discoveries about their pasts and were afraid of what the future held. Even grown with families, they still recall their experiences and choose their life decisions based on their past and what they experienced during the horrible, devastating times of the Holocaust (After the holocaust, 2012; Living after the, 1979).