Surviving the Holocaust

The teen hesitated. She and her mother were barely surviving. But outside the fence was just as dangerous. German dictator Adolf Hitler and his Nazi forces were carrying out their plan to conquer Europe and kill all its Jewish people.

If Janine were caught, she could be killed. But there was also a chance she could escape and start a new life

Tears gushed from her eyes. She embraced her mother one last time. Then Janine moved through the open gate. She did not dare to look back.

“I didn’t know where I was going,” Janine later said. “But I knew that another part of my life was starting.”

Janine was no longer just a teen. She was now a teen on the run.

As the Nazis’ empire grew, antisemitism increased. Many people turned against their Jewish neighbors. They attacked them in the streets. They destroyed their businesses.

Nazi forces began ordering millions of Jewish people across Europe into concentration camps. Those were prisons or places of forced labor, some of which were designed to murder them. Those who were not killed were forced to work long hours with little food.

The Nazis also built more than 1,000 ghettos. They forced Jewish people into them. The ghettos were a way to persecute and isolate Jewish people before they were sent to concentration camps, explains Helene Sinnreich. Sinnreichis a religious studies professor and Holocaust expert. She works at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

As antisemitism continued to spread, Janine’s father was forced to give up his business and take a lower-paying job. The family often didn’t have enough to eat. But their city in eastern Poland was still free from Nazi control. At 15, Janine continued to have moments of normalcy. She enjoyed sleeping in, reading, and spending time with her friends.

Then, in June 1941, Nazi forces invaded Lwów. They murdered thousands of Jewish residents within weeks. Those who were spared were robbed of their rights. They could not attend schools or use public transportation. And like elsewhere in Nazi-controlled Europe, Jewish people in Lwów had to start wearing armbands with the Star of David, a Jewish symbol (see sidebar, below).

For the next few months, Janine and her parents stayed mostly in their apartment other than when her father went to work. But Nazi officials were creating a ghetto in Lwów. By the end of 1941, they began forcibly relocating Jewish people there. 

Antisemitism continued to spread. Janine’s father was forced to give up his business. He had to take a lower-paying job. The family often did not have enough to eat. Yet their city in eastern Poland was still free from Nazi control. At 15, Janine still had moments of normalcy. She enjoyed sleeping in, reading, and spending time with her friends.

But in June 1941, Nazi forces invaded Lwów. They murdered thousands of Jewish residents within weeks. Those who were spared were robbed of their rights. They could not attend schools or use public transportation. And Jewish people had to start wearing armbands with the Star of David, a Jewish symbol (see sidebar, below). That happened throughout Nazi-controlled Europe.

For the next few months, Janine and her parents stayed mostly in their apartment, except for her father going to work. But Nazi officials were creating a ghetto in Lwów. By the end of 1941, they began forcibly relocating Jewish people there.

Janine and her parents were able to avoid the ghetto at first. For several months, they hid at friends’ homes. But by the summer of 1942, they had run out of places to hide. Their first night in the ghetto, they slept outside in a crowded courtyard.

The family eventually found a cramped apartment to live in, but Janine and her parents were never settled. Conditions in the ghetto were miserable. Many people froze to death during winter because there was no heat.

Hunger was extreme because the Nazis severely restricted food portions. They allowed Jewish people only tiny amounts of bread or potatoes to last entire families several days. Some prisoners had to beg or steal to eat, and many of them died of starvation and disease.

People who survived the horrible conditions faced the terror of roundups—when they were apprehended without warning and sent to concentration camps.

At first, Janine and her parents were able to avoid the ghetto. For several months, they hid at friends’ homes. But by the summer of 1942, they had run out of places to hide. Their first night in the ghetto, they slept outside in a crowded courtyard.

The family eventually found a cramped apartment to live in. But Janine and her parents were never settled. Conditions in the ghetto were miserable. There was no heat. Many people froze to death during winter.

Hunger was extreme because the Nazis severely restricted food portions. They allowed Jewish people only tiny amounts of bread or potatoes to last entire families several days. Some prisoners had to beg or steal to eat. Many of them died of starvation and disease.

People who survived the horrible conditions faced the terror of roundups. That was when they were captured without warning and sent to concentration camps.

Janine’s family moved from place to place to avoid being seized. During the roundups, they hid in attics and closets.

With every roundup, Nazi forces were slowly destroying the ghettos and everyone inside them. “Under the Nazi regime, Jews didn’t have the right to live,” Sinnreich says. “Hitler’s goal was for them to die.”

Most ghetto prisoners who were captured were shot dead. Or they were sent to Nazi concentration camps to be killed in poison gas chambers. It was part of a plan called the Final Solution. The Nazis’ intent was to systematically murder all of Europe’s 9.5 million Jewish people. It was the devastating last stage of what came to be known as the Holocaust.

In early 1943, Janine’s father was rounded up while he was out getting potatoes for his family. Nazi soldiers sent him to a concentration camp, where he was killed. “I was absolutely heartbroken,” she recalled.

Not long after learning of her father’s death, the teen and her mother found the open gate in the ghetto. They had been out walking. As Janine later recalled, they were grieving and discussing their future.

“We still had hope,” Janine said, “because as long as you live, until the end, you hope.”

When they discovered the opening, everything happened in a flash. One minute, Janine was a ghetto prisoner. The next, she was on the outside, already aching for her mother. The teen hoped that she could somehow return for her. But in that moment, Janine realized she needed to blend in. She dried her eyes and ripped off her armband.

In early 1943, Janine’s father was rounded up while he was out getting potatoes for his family. Nazi soldiers sent him to a concentration camp. He was killed there. “I was absolutely heartbroken,” she recalled.

Not long after learning of her father’s death, the teen and her mother found the open gate in the ghetto. They had been out walking. As Janine later recalled, they were grieving and discussing their future.

“We still had hope,” Janine said, “because as long as you live, until the end, you hope.”

When they discovered the opening, everything happened in a flash. One minute, Janine was a ghetto prisoner. The next, she was on the outside. She was already aching for her mother. She hoped that she could somehow return for her. But in that moment, Janine realized she needed to blend in. She dried her eyes and ripped off her armband.

The small bag Janine’s mother had handed her right before her escape held her ticket to freedom. It held false identification papers given to Janine by a friend before she was forced into the ghetto. The papers identified her as a Catholic person. That gave her a better chance of not being rounded up. The teen set out to find her aunt, who was secretly living as a Catholic in Lwów.

Janine’s aunt helped her get to the Polish village of Ponikwa. That was where her grandmother and uncle were living as Catholics. Janine thought she would be safer there. But any moment of peace she may have felt in getting away from Lwów was short-lived.

Soon after Janine arrived in Ponikwa, she was arrested by Nazi police on suspicion of being Jewish. But the officers could not prove her background. So they did not send her to a concentration camp. Instead, they sent her to Stuttgart, Germany, for forced labor.

For the next two years, Janine had to work in a restaurant kitchen. She worked nearly nonstop with no pay. She faced grueling, 15-hour shifts washing dishes. Once, she was so badly burned by a pot of steaming hot water that she had to be hospitalized.

“I was so overworked that I thought I wouldn’t last,” she said.

Still, Janine felt lucky. Many forced laborers worked in more dangerous jobs. They toiled in coal mines and chemical plants. They were often under the watch of Nazi guards. They were fed very little. And the majority of workers slept in crowded barracks.

Janine had her own room above the restaurant where she could sleep. And she never went hungry. She was still working at that restaurant in May 1945. That is when Germany surrendered to the Allied powers.

The war in Europe was finally over. But the human loss was catastrophic. In total, the Nazis had killed 6 million of Europe’s Jewish residents. That was two-thirds of the continent’s Jewish population. They also had killed millions of other people.

Tragically, Janine’s mother was one of the millions who lost their lives. She was killed in the Lwów ghetto in 1943. That was the same year that Janine had escaped.

Shortly after the war, Janine met her future husband, Joseph Oberrotman. He was a fellow Holocaust survivor. They married and started a family. In 1953, they moved with their young son to Chicago, Illinois. They soon had two more sons. Janine Oberrotman went on to become a middle school teacher. Later she was a career counselor.

Today Janine is 99 years old. She still lives in Illinois. But the war is never far from her mind. Neither are the beloved parents she lost. She has asked herself many times over the years why she survived the Holocaust when so many did not. She believes it is so she can share her story.

Tens of thousands of people have heard Janine speak at various events and in interviews. She is also a volunteer at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie, Illinois. Through her words, the horrors of the war are not forgotten.

Janine has said that her goal is to ensure that an atrocity like the Holocaust never happens again.

“There’s one thing I could never stand and still cannot stand,” she says, “and that is injustice.”

^{A full accounting of Janine Binder Oberrotman’s experience can be found at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. She and her family approved this version for Junior Scholastic.}