Yad VaJerusalemhem Volume 78, October 2015 Life After Liberation (pp. 2-5) Yad VaJerusalemhem Contents Volume 78, Tishrei 5776, October 2015 Life After Liberation: The DP Camps in Europe ■ 2-3 Published by: Yad Vashem New Clothing, New Beginnings ■ 4-5 The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Survivors’ First Garments after Liberation Remembrance Authority ■ ■ From the Testimony Collection 5 Renewal of Religious Life in the Dr. Ella Florsheim Chairman of the Council: Rabbi Israel Meir Lau Pocking-Waldstadtt DP Camp Vice Chairmen of the Council: Dr. Yitzhak Arad Education ■ 6-13 Dr. Moshe Kantor ■ Seventy years ago, as the Holocaust survivors Prof. Elie Wiesel “When the Gates Opened” ■ 6-7 began the slow and painful process of returning Chairman of the Directorate: Avner Shalev Israeli Teachers Examine Effects of the Shoah on to life in the wake of the Shoah, many of them Director General: Dorit Novak Individuals and Society found themselves in, or were directed towards, Head of the International Institute for Holocaust New Educational Programs to Tackle Displaced Persons (DP) camps in Germany, Research and Incumbent, John Najmann Chair Contemporary Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial Austria and Italy. Lasting from the end of WWII for Holocaust Studies: Prof. Dan Michman and Distortion ■ 6 until the early 1950s, the period of the DP camps Chief Historian: Prof. Dina Porat was short-lived, but is exemplified by the vibrant Academic Advisor: Educational Awards 2015 ■ 7 Prof. Yehuda Bauer Jewish life created therein. Graduate Spotlight ■ 8 The living conditions of the thousands Members of the Yad Vashem Directorate: Yossi Ahimeir, Michal Cohen, Urs Urech, Switzerland of Holocaust survivors who gathered in the Matityahu Drobles, Abraham Duvdevani, Swiss “Teachers of Tomorrow” Study various DP camps were characterized, primarily Prof. Boleslaw (Bolek) Goldman, at first, by hardship and scarcity. The shock of Vera H. Golovensky, Moshe Ha-Elion, at Yad Vashem ■ 8 liberation, the realization that many of them Adv. Shlomit Kasirer, Yossi Katribas, Hamburg Extends Commitment Yehiel Leket, Effi Shtensler, Baruch Shub, were alone in the world, and the physical and to Holocaust Education ■ 9 Dalit Stauber, Dr. Zehava Tanne, emotional scars and deprivations burdened many Adv. Shoshana Weinshall, Dudi Zilbershlag “A Huge Burden of Responsibility” ■ 9 survivors who, even under American and British THE MAGAZINE “People to People” ■ 9 Editor-in-Chief: Iris Rosenberg Educational Project with Jerusalem Bilingual School In the first few weeks Managing Editor: Leah Goldstein Strengthening Ties with Italian Educators ■ 10 after liberation, the Editorial Board: “Can These Bones Live?” ■ 10 Simmy Allen members of She’erit Yifat Bachrach-Ron Conferences for Ultra-Orthodox Educators Deborah Berman International School Facebook Group ■ 10 Hapleita began to Marisa Fine Dana Porath News from the Virtual School ■ 11 express a vitality and Lilach Tamir-Itach Susan Weisberg Fate and Identity ■ 12-13 wish to rebuild their lives Cynthia Wroclawski “Non-Jewish Jews” during the Shoah Editorial Coordinator: Shira Nakav supervision, suffered antisemitic violence from New on the Shelf ■ 14 Language Editor: Leah Goldstein time to time. A certain improvement in basic Displaced Persons at Home Proofreader: Ezra Olman living conditions slowly emerged, yet even Translated by: James Joseph Mclntosh Studying Human Behavior during the Holocaust then the sense of transience and the yearning Assisted by: Alexander Avram, Completing the Picture ■ 15 to leave the camps, whether for Eretz Israel or Shaya Ben Yehuda, Inbal Kvity Ben-Dov, New Information Allows Couple to be Recognized other destinations, remained dominant. Ayala Peretz, Amanda Smulowitz, A significant change in the attitude towards Martin Sykes-Haas as Righteous Among the Nations the Jewish survivors and their living conditions Photography: Yossi Ben-David, Sarit Bruno, Yad Vashem Online ■ 16 Isaac Harari, Martin Sykes-Haas in the DP camps took effect in the wake of the News ■ 17-24 Production: Ahva Printing Press Company Ltd. Harrison Report in the summer of 1945. Earl G. Harrison, envoy of US President Harry Truman, Design: Stephanie & Ruti Design Friends Worldwide ■ 25-31 visited the DP camps in Germany to examine This magazine was published with the The International Institute for Holocaust assistance of The Azrieli Group. the military authorities’ treatment of the Jewish ■ 32 Research: Publications survivors. Harrison’s unequivocal report was ISSN 0793-7199 not late in coming: “We appear to be treating ©Articles appearing in this issue may be reprinted the Jews as the Nazis treated them, except that with proper acknowledgement. we do not exterminate them,” he declared in no Yad Vashem’s activities are supported by uncertain terms. Harrison called for an immediate the Ministry of Education increase in food rations and clothing for the Jewish survivors, improved housing conditions, and the Claims Conference ■ On the cover: and the creation of separate DP camps for Jews. Babies born at the Truman adopted the Harrison Report, instructed DP camp in Bad Reichenhall, Germany 2 Life After Liberation The DP Camps in Europe established and, with time, youth movements and sports organizations began to operate. Another example of this desire to rebuild was the attempt to reestablish religious life, which was expressed in the many holiday assemblies, the founding of yeshivot in a number of the camps, and efforts to regulate kosher slaughter and other needs. Also noteworthy was the energetic cultural activity that developed among the members of She’erit Hapleita. This activity, most of which was conducted in Yiddish, included the publication of more than a hundred different newspapers, some of which became regular and wide-ranging publications. Yiddish theater blossomed in the camps, with numerous bands of amateurs and serious professionals taking part and performing for the benefit of the DPs. Another important venture that the survivors founded was the establishment of historical commissions in numerous camps and the beginning of gathering wartime testimony. It should be noted that the public mood in the DP camps had a striking Zionist character, ■ Elementary school pupils dancing the “hora" in a DP camp, Schwaebisch Hall, Germany. Yad Vashem Photo Archives and the members of She’erit Hapleita waged an insistent campaign in favor of immigration to the US Army to improve their treatment and and increasingly during the development of the Eretz Israel. This last aspect was just another attitude towards the Jews in Germany at once, DP camps, a vitality and wish to rebuild their example of how the DPs themselves were active and even ordered that a special advisor for Jewish lives. Many survivors married, had children, and in the return to life after the long years of war, affairs be appointed. began to collect the fragments of their lives. This and fulfilled a prominent role in rehabilitating However, even before any major improvement trend found a parallel expression in the public the fragments of the Jewish world after the in their living conditions, the members of arena, too: local leadership from within the Holocaust. She’erit Hapleita (Surviving Remnant) began to DPs sprouted quickly in the various camps, an express in the first few weeks after liberation, education system and relief departments were The author is Editor-in-Chief of Yad Vashem Publications. 2015-16 Calendar: The Return to Life ■ This year's Yad Vashem desk calendar offers transformed their new communities into centers a visual representation of the life of hundreds of social, cultural and educational activity: they of thousands of Holocaust survivors in Europe celebrated Jewish holidays and held sporting in the period after liberation, illustrating their events; they established theaters and orchestras, cultural, religious and communal ventures and published Yiddish newspapers; and they in the years immediately following the war. studied, acquired professions and raised families, Postwar conditions were difficult, with preparing themselves for a new – and more inadequate amounts of food, clothing, medicine hopeful – life after the Holocaust. and other crucial supplies. The survivors' The 2015-16 desk calendar was produced with stay in the Displaced Persons (DP) camps, in the generous support of the French Friends of Yad Vashem (Comité Français pour Yad Vashem). children's homes and in internment camps was regarded by most of the Jewish refugees as a The calendar is available for purchase in the Yad Vashem Online Store. temporary arrangement. Nevertheless, they www.yadvashem.org for two expanded online exhibitions on the liberation and the return to life: "DP Camps and Hachsharot in Italy after the War" and "The Return to Life in the Displaced Persons Camps, 1945-1956 - A Visual Retrospective" 3 Treasures from the Collections New Clothing, New Beginnings ■ “First of all the starving people had to Those who survived the horrors of the Although it had been be fed… then the Typhus controlled… all Holocaust were in pitiful physical condition their clothing had to be burnt… and tens of and lacked even the barest necessities of life. made for inmates, thousands of new garments needed to be Most had no remnants of their former identities, found… As long as they wore the striped no documents, no personal items – literally for Ehud, the coat pajamas, they felt, and indeed looked, nothing. The only clothing they had was the symbolized freedom debased… But dress her