“One of the most extraordinary aspects of the Nazi genocide was the coldly deliberate intention to kill children in such large numbers that there is no historical precedent for it.” (Lukas, 13 Kindle) Approximately 1.5 million children were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust, one million were killed because they were Jews (ushmm.org) The Germans had a clearly defined goal of killing Jewish children so that they would not there were remnants of their race to reproduce, with consequent extinction. Not only were the child victims of the Holocaust persecuted and murdered, but they were all deprived of their childhood. Children were not allowed to be children: they had, for their own survival, to be adults. The oppression of children because of race was a direct result of Hitler's cruel policies and beliefs. To prevent the growth of the Jewish race, children were the first to be massacred in the extermination camps (ushmm.org). Through selection in death camps, the Nazis forced children to be separated from their relatives, thus destroying the basic unity of the Jewish race. society, family. As the children were taken to different barracks or camps, they had to fend for themselves. In Thomas Buergenthal's book A Lucky Child, the author describes the relief he felt upon being reunited with his mother after the war. Thomas writes: I felt that a tremendous weight had been lifted from my shoulders and placed on his: now Mutti was responsible for me again... Until then I had been responsible for my life, for my survival; I couldn't afford to depend on anyone but myself; I had to think and behave like an adult and be constantly alert to all possible dangers. But once I was back in his arms, I could be a child again, the ... middle of paper ... that were all Nazi-induced (ushmm.org). Children's experiences in the Holocaust remind society of the innocence of young people and the cruelty of exposing them to horror at an early age. Works Cited Buergenthal, Thomas. A Lucky Child: Memoirs of Surviving Auschwitz as a Boy. New York: Little, Brown, 2009. Lukas, Richard C. Did the Children Cry?: Hitler's War on Jewish and Polish Children, 1939-1945. New York: Hippocrene, 1994. Do you remember me? Children of the Holocaust talk about survival. Dir. United States Holocaust Museum. Perf. Nathan Kranowski. VideoXfinity. Comcast. Network. March 8, 2015. http://xfinity.comcast.net/video/remember-me-holocaust-children-talk-of-survival/2085065960United States Holocaust Museum. "Children during the Holocaust". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. January 6, 2011. Web. March 8, 2015. http://www.ushmm.org