Created by Eli Waldeck, Cooper Low, Mason Slug & Walker Leonard

Surviving in the Shadows

We attempted to capture the fear of hiding, as well as the courage it took to hide someone into your home. Our artifact shows the power different groups involved in hiding had through the imagery of the wilderness. In our documentary we give a brief overview of the Holocaust and WW2, then talk about how hard it was to hide but how impactful it was in helping Jewish people to avoid concentration camp to tell their stories today.

A Helping Hand in a Horror

Following World War 1, and prior to Adolf Hitlers rule, the Weimar Republic that lasted from 1919-1933, was in shambles. They needed to rebuild their economy, and infrastructure. In the time of rebuilding, many Jews became shop owners, and as a whole, they were becoming more part of the community. But there were looming feelings between some people that Jews were responsible for Germany losing the war. Soon after they took power, the Nazi Regime issued new laws to persecute Jews.These laws were called the Nuremberg Laws. Each new law was more and more aggressive than the last.

At first, the goal of the laws was to single out Jews and make them feel different. Jews were only allowed to go shopping for groceries and other necessities from 3-4 in the afternoon, and not allowed to play in public parks. Later, Jews had to put a sign on their businesses that indicated it was a Jewish store. Then the goal of the laws was to make life harder for the Jews. They were not allowed to own a business at all. After that, Jews were then forced to wear the Jewish Star of David. Jews had to sew the Star onto whatever clothing they would wear as your outermost layer so it could be seen at all times. IF someone was caught without their star on, they would be taken away. After that, Jews were also not allowed to own bicycles, or cars, had to travel in the last car of the subways, and couldn’t be out in public after 8pm. They had to work harder than everyone else for even the simplistic thing as getting to school. With these laws, non Jewish people started to look down on Jews.

Many people would stare at the Star of David, and say things like “dirty Jew” as they saw someone in public. Then around 1940, anti semitism started being taught in movies, and school curriculum. It became clear to all Jews in Germany that they weren’t wanted. Many tried to leave the country but the German government made it very hard for them. A Jewish person who tried to leave could be able to, but they had to keep all of their assets in Germany.

Jews would lose all of their money if they left, but the Nuremberg laws were continuing to get more and more aggressive, so Jews were forced to go into hiding. The need to hide was about to become even greater, because what was about to ramp up, would change the course of history forever.

During the time of new laws, some Jewish people would be called to the police station, never to return. In the beginning, the only people who were taken were men. And it was relatively rare. People weren’t surprised by this because of all the past discrimination from the Nazis. However this was the first step that began to show even the most ignorant of Hitler intentions. This is when the hiding began as people were forced to react to this drastic step. In 1941, the local police started taking groups of people, and holding them in a barricade with guards around them until a train arrived to take them away to an unknown location.

Sometimes, people would be kept in large buildings with no AC and nowhere to go to the bathrooms for days until a train arrived. At this time, women and children were being taken, not just men. No one was safe from roundups. It was clear what was happening to the Jews. Everyone could see, but still, no one stopped it. Some few people were able to avoid this fate. These lucky few would either be hidden by a close friend or hide themselves in plain sight.

Jewish people hid in many different ways, but no matter how you hid, it took a lot of courage. Either from yourself or from others. When the Nuremberg laws were ramping up, and moving away became costly, some people took it upon themselves to find safety. Some ran into the woods or caves, and had to fend for food and shelter alone. Others, were able to hide as Aryans in plain sight if they didn’t possess stereotypical Jewish features. To do this they would have to get fake documents for identity checks, as well as for renewing ration cards.

To try to avoid any chance of being ratted out,those folks would sometimes move so none of their neighbors knew them as Jewish, as well as change to a less commonly Jewish name. But moving was suspicious, so they had to be very careful. Sometimes, Jewish families would change their children to be Aryan, but even then, if they were a boy, there was a specific Jewish circumcision so there was nothing that would completely hide them. Many non Jewish German citeizens also took action during this time. Some would take thier friends, neighbors, or even strangers into their home to save them, putting their own life at risk.

Those who hid Jews might hide them in an attic, closet, basement, or even chicken coop. No matter how you hid, there was an unimaginable amount of fear and depression caused by being isolated from the outside world, but they had to, unless they were willing to get rounded up, and experience for themselves the disturbing torture and labor the NAzis would put them through. That’s if the NAzis felt they could use them. Countless Jews who were rounded up were deemed unwanted and killed either on the spot in a field, or after the long, dreadful train ride to a concentration camp where they were put in creamatoriums and burned to death by poison gas.

As if tis wasn’t bad enough, In March 1943 things took a turn for the worse. It was announced that anyone caught assisting Jews in any way would be sentenced to death. It was also announced that any Jew who knew where others were hiding and sold them out would be free from deportation to a concentration camp. So the fear of being ratted out grew, but the fear of hiding someone also grew making it even harder for JEws to stay safe.

Despite all this there were still stories of courage. Some of these are the stories of Anne Frank, and Sarah Peretz and Suzanne Gross. Anne Frank went into hiding with her family at 13 and kept a diary of all she went through.her and her family hid in the annex of her fathers companies building. The dads employees kept the business running as well as provided the family with food and clothes. The Franks out their lives in their hands. Sarah Peretz lived in Poland. When Germany took over Poland in 1939, she and her mother were forced into a ghetto. At the time, she was just three years old. And forced to move out of her home for a reason she probably couldn’t understand at the time.

One day, a Polish Catholic Police officer told them their ghettos was about to be liquaidated. The Officer then took them into shelter first in his house, then a potatoe bunker, and finally a chicken coop. She was in the chicken coop for two years. (Add testamony on playing with chickens and straw) Suzanne Gross lived in Paris, and went into hiding with her sister and mother in a cave underneath the family’s old beauty salon/apartment. To hide, their father went with other men to fake work at a farm, and instead were resistance fighters who would come back to Paris and sabotage the next scheduled roundups in the night. Gross’ mother would cry all day and night, and she and her sister had to just day dream to keep themselves busy. It was so boring throughout the day, that whenever Susanne didn’t hear any footsteps form above, she would run out into the world to remember what it was like.(add testimony about how would rely on concierge and dads old customer for ration cards.) (tape 2, 23 minutes in) Taking someone into your house took a lot of courage, especially when the gestapos would arrive and question you, but sadly sometimes nothing could protect Jews from being caught.

For Anne Frank, her hiding ended in august 1944, after two years of hiding in the annex with her family. They were tipped off to a Gestapo by a community member and her whole family was sent to a concentration camp,and the dad’s employees who hid them were all arrested.For many unlucky people, this was the way their stories sadly ended. But for some, hiding saved them from concentration camp, which meant most likely their lives. Sarah Peretz was never found by the Gestapo. She was in hiding in the chicken coop until Soviets liberated the land around her. Suzanne Gross was also one of these lucky people, but it took great bravery from the concierge of her building. Gestapos arrived at the building, with only the concierge inside. The Gestapos came in asking if she knew where the Gross family was. Someone had told them that they were in hiding and now they were looking for them.The concierge risked her life, and denied any temptations for reward of hanging someone in and lied.She told the Gestapos she had no idea where the Gross family was and so they left.

Anne Frank met her death in a concentration camp two weeks before it was liberated. She died of typhus that she picked at the camp she and her family were sent to.Her story had a tragic ending however some like Suzanne Gross and Sarah Peretz survived and were able to tell their story and talk about their experiences. everyonr who hid, lived and died because of courage or lack there of. The person who ratted out Anne Frank was most likely fearful of the gestapo’s wrath. And The brave people who kept Suzanne Gross and Peretz and many others alive through the Holocaust showed incredible courage.

While learning about these stories, the good and the bad, people learn just how hard it was to hide. There was much more than just keeping quite and not being seen. You had to find someone who you could truly trust to risk their life in order to keep yours.Or if you hid in plane sight, you had to rapidly obtain new documents, move houses, all while keeping a low profile so no one grew suspicious. No matter how you hid, you had to deal with living in constant fear, and depression from being isolate from the rest of the world.

The Holocaust killed over 6 million Jews, but today there are still 245,000 people who are survivors of the holocaust, many because the courage the found within themselves to hide on their own, or the courage of their community who hid them.

Artifact Statement

The artifact that you are looking at right now represents hiding Jews. We researched about the different types of hiding the Jews did, the consequences of hiding the Jews and the conditions of the hiding places. Jews did two kinds of hiding, hiding in plain sight under a new identity or physically hiding themselves. The conditions for physically hiding were often terrible with low amounts of food, water, and space to move around. If Jews were found hiding or if people were caught hiding Jews, the Jews would be sent to Ghettos and the hiders of the Jews would be arrested or killed.

Although it might look like a forest, each animal or tree represents an important part of Jews going into hiding. The trees represent the homes, attics, chicken coops, caves, basement, mine callers, and the many places the endangered Jews hid. The rabbits represent the people who courageously hid the Jews from the Nazi Gestapo. We chose rabbits because squirrels were too difficult to successfully 3D print.

The acorns with the Star of David on them represent the Jewsish people who were forced into hiding and who were being hid by the rabbits. The birds of prey circling above represent the Nazis hunting for the Jews and the rabbits who hide them. We chose a forest and animals to represent the hiding of Jews because every animal has its predator that wants to hunt them, in this case, the birds of prey want to hunt the rabbits and when they find the rabbits, they find the acorns they are hiding as well. Also, trees are homes and safe places for many animals in the forest so they are a good representation as a place Jews can go to avoid the Nazis.

We used many different materials to create our final product. To build the trees we used tennis ball cans and spray paint to paint the trunk which was then covered in ripped up cardboard as bark. We 3D printed the rabbits and birds and used hot glue to glue them to the ground and thin wood rods. We spray painted cotton balls and used them as bushes. The base and walls are wood board spray painted green and black.

We made this memorial as it is important to remember the courageous people who risked their lives and money and food to help the Jews that needed hiding. We also made this to remember why the Jews needed to hide in the first place. We need to remember this horrible event so that it can be prevented from ever happening again. With less and less survivors of the holocaust in our world, now is the best time to remember this important and tragic time in history so it never occurs again and so we can think back to how they must have felt.

Explore our Gallery of Images

Personal Reflections

Remembering Courage

~Walker Leonard, The Fenn School, Class of 2025

Courage is resistance to fear, master of fear, not absence of fear.
~Mark Twain

My name is Walker Leonard. During this project I mostly worked on the documentary but I also helped out with the artifact. My thought process during this project was that I would help as much as I could. I kept this mentality for the whole project. I enjoyed the parts of the project that let me be creative and make big choices. A major theme of my experience was hard work and pushing through to get things done. I co-wrote the script as well as narrated part of the documentary. I did most of the editing and found photos for the first half of the documentary. I also hot glued the eagles to the trees. This was a very necessary step in this project and I felt that I really had to push myself in this way.

I was sitting there one day when I realized I had work to do. I immediately jumped out of my seat like a kangaroo And hoped to it. This was a difficult project. However our group was able to climb the mountain that was this project, through effective teamwork and top notch communication. This project took me from a confused child to a bold man ready for all that life will throw at me. I learned many lessons such as ‘anything is possible through hard work and perseverance’ and ‘don’t count your eggs before they hatch’. This project made me realize how much these people had to go through just to survive.

I changed beautifully during the project. If I went into this project as a lion cub I came out as a proud pack leader. It was hard to stay on task and keep the group focused. Once I decided that I wanted to really lock in and make this project better I had less trouble.

It was profound to learn about all these peoples courage and what it took to persevere through these hard times.

Embracing the workload

Destroy procrastination…

~Eli Waldeck, Class of 2025

“Do the best until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
– Maya Angelou

On our first day, we were introduced to our topic, and decided who would do what. We were given the topic of hiding Jews. Walker and I were assigned to the documentary while Cooper and Mason would work on the artifact. I was a little bit disappointed because I wanted to do the artifact. I like working in the Ilab, but I knew I would be good for the documentary. I work well on writing and planning things out. I wrote most of the script, but periodically would help with the artifact. I helped when they didn’t have any ideas of how to portray our intended theme. Also I did some spray painting and gluing of the pieces Mason and Cooper already made.

The hardest thing about the project was overcoming procrastination. I never wanted to write the script, work on planners, and think of ideas. Especially while others in my group worked on the artifact. If I did it differently, I would have tried to have everyone do part of the artifact and part of the documentary. This project was very impactful to me. The topic we chose was al layout courage and would make me think a lot about what I would have done.

Now, because of this project, I will always know the impact of the Holocaust and how awful it truly was.

Trust the Process

Cooper Low, The Fenn School, Class of 2025

“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”
― Ernest Hemingway

When we were introduced to the choices we had for our project, Hiding Jews immediately caught our eye. We liked the idea of researching Hiding Jews because it was one of the more inspiring and lighter topics, which could make it easier to research. We looked at the other options but decided that Hiding Jews was the consensus. We got it, and Mason and I worked on the artifact while Eli and Walker worked on the documentary.

I was eager to start this project and to work with my group on how to make this project as good as it can be. Mason came up with a great idea that really hammered home the symbolism part of our artifact. The idea was eagles that represent the Gestapo, hunting and preying on rabbits, who were the Jews hiding. We used trees to represent the many different places that they hid. After we got it approved, I was as excited as the energizer bunny with two full batteries, and I felt like I could work for days. Our determination combined made really hard work that we were both satisfied with.

One challenging part about this project was when our first idea of how we were going to build the artifact got denied. Our original plan was a house cut in half to show the inside, with Jews hiding in a basement while the Gestapo were pressuring the German citizens in the house to give up the hiding Jews whereabouts. However, that idea wasn’t approved by the teachers, so we had to come up with a new idea. I was a little devastated, because I had already planned out the whole project in my head, but it wasn’t worth thinking about anymore. This taught me that I should never go into things with only one idea and plan, and that I should have a backup plan just in case something doesn’t work out.

This project was impactful to me. I learned so many things, and I will never forget how powerful the project was. I believe we did this project not just for the letter grade, but for an unforgettable experience that is much more important than any grade.

Life Skills Learned

Mason Slugg, The Fenn School, Class of 2025

“Remember that you are not alone; there is an entire team supporting you and cheering you on”
-Caeleb Dressel

I was one of the people who worked on the artifact. We had a hard time figuring out how to show Jews hiding without being too literal. At first we went to our teachers for help and they helped us think more about possible ideas by giving us small suggestions so we still came up with the result on our own. I really appreciated how the teachers stretched my thinking and imagination to choose how to represent the different ways the Jews could hide. After a class period brainstorming we came up with the perfect artifact idea. A forest and its food chain.

We started off a little weak as we were not completely sure of what the end result would be but we had an idea of what it should look like. After we got the bases of the trees done, tennis ball cans spray painted brown and green paper cups with pine sticks glued onto them, we realized that we need more to the trees to make them better. I spent half an hour ripping up cardboard paper-ish stuff that made my hands cramp like a rock. We glued them onto the tree like bark and gave them a thin coat of light brown paint. I was still not satisfied with the end result. I talked with my partners but we were divided about how the trees looked. Around halfway through the project, I got sick so over the weekend I made new, less detailed, but good looking trees. When I brought them in my group mates had already glued in the previous trees, which was exactly what I told them NOT to do. We were still divided on it so I went to get some help from my advisor.

We worked out a solution that included the new and old trees and that made the project look better. I learned a valuable skill during this time and it is how to communicate and sort out disagreements in groups. I struggle with group communication and don’t like handling disagreements. This exact issue arose during the middle of our project. Half of my group wanted the old trees and half of us wanted new trees. We could not come to an agreement so I made new trees over the weekend and told them not to glue anything when I was out on Friday. I came back on Monday and worked out a solution that worked out really well.

Hiding Jews