The Holocaust's youngest survivors: Born in a labor camp, on a death train, in a concentration camp

Journey to Auschwitz and Arrival04:01

By mid to late 1944, killings accelerated, remaining ghettos liquidated, all three newly pregnant women loaded from different cities onto packed freight cars to Auschwitz. Hana's mother with her husband on train; sitting on floor, naming baby: Hana if girl, Michael if boy. They knew Auschwitz were death camps. Arrival platform at Auschwitz-Birkenau: families ripped apart, most including mothers with children and elderly sent to gas chambers murdering 6,000 people a day at peak. Selected for work, including three women, stripped, shaven, sent to overflowing barracks. Hana's mother saw father once after arrival across barbed wire fence; he said, "Be careful and think only good thoughts," repeated; last time they saw each other.

Selections and Encounter with Mengele05:34

Prisoners endured frequent selections, some by Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele, known for gruesome experiments. Hana's mother met Mengele naked in line; he said in German, "Good-looking woman, are you pregnant?" She denied it: "Nein, I'm not." Each woman decided to deny pregnancy despite danger. Author Wendy Holden studied Auschwitz, wrote book on three babies and mothers; each sensed great danger and denied it, sent to slave labor camp in Germany: Freiberg Saxony. They never met or knew of each other. Over 1,000 women prisoners worked 12-hour shifts in converted porcelain factory making parts for German fighter planes, living on ersatz coffee, thin soup, tiny bread daily. Hid pregnancies with baggy dresses from gassed prisoners' clothing. Became starved and obviously pregnant over six months, but Germans didn't realize or would have sent back to Auschwitz to be killed.

Death Train and Births07:30

Early spring 1945, Allies advancing, Auschwitz liberated, Germans planned to eradicate evidence by sending slave laborers to be gassed. No more work or food. Hana's mother went into labor on factory floor on plank across table; guards watched, bet on boy or girl. 36 hours later, slave laborers and newborn Hana loaded onto open coal wagons, filthy death train for 16 days seeking camp to kill them, no food, hardly water. Farmer saw Eva's mother (scarcely living pregnant skeleton), brought glass of milk, possibly saved her life. Mark's grandmother under 70 pounds, nine months pregnant, in sick car; people died, thrown off train. Woman with bad leg rested it on her pregnant stomach amid dying people. Gave birth to alive baby despite expecting dead baby and no milk; she had milk. Learned date April 20th when announced as Hitler's birthday.