[Page 54]

Gebersee D.P. Camp

Address: Hardhöhe (1945), Finkenschlag (1946)

Leaders: Mojsze Birowicz (Hardhöhe), Emil Kroo (Finkenschlag)

Population:

850 December, 1945 (Hardhöhe)
1,350 March, 1946 (Hardhöhe + Finkenschlag)
790 July, 1946
750 December, 1946
724 /July, 1947
717September, 1947
563 /January, 1948
665 October, 1948
521 March, 1949

Opened: Hardhöhe October, 1945, Finkenschlag /January, 1946

Closed: Hardhöhe /March, 1946, Finkenschlag Summer, 1949

Sports Clubs/Soccer Clubs: Makabi Fürth, Hapoel Fürth

Cultural Institutions: Kindergarten, Elementary School, Vocational School, Library

Religious Institutions: Prayer Room, (Cheder)/Talmud Torah School, Kosher Kitchen

Address: Ehemalige Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Gabersee/former Mental Hospital Gabersee, Wasserburg

Leader: Leopold Weiss, Elias Fiks

Population:
May, 1946
2,093 August, 1946
1,932 December, 1946
1,853 March, 1947
1,945 July, 1947
1,942 October, 1947
1,904 January, 1948
1,444 May, 1948
1,477 October, 1948
1,311 March, 1949
1,292 December, 1949
1,369 March, 1950

Opened: March, 1946

Closed: June, 1950

Sports Clubs/Soccer Clubs: Hakoach Gabersee

Cultural Institutions: Kindergarten, Elementary School, Vocational School

Religious Institutions: Prayer Room, (Cheder)/Talmud Torah School, Kosher Kitchen, Yeshiva, Ritual Bath

Heidenheim D.P. camp was located in the Stuttgart district of the US occupational zone. Until its closure in the summer of 1949, the camp had, on average, over 2,000 inhabitants, a vast majority of whom wanted to emigrate to Palestine. The D.P.s were living in requisitioned private houses. The camp had an extensive religious life with a number of religious schools including the Talmud Torah, a Yeshiva and a rabbinical school. There was also a large kosher kitchen.

The ORT school in Heidenheim was established on October 1,1946. A year later, in November, 1947, the school already had 190 students. They took courses in watch repair, jewelry and goldsmiths training, radio-mechanics, joinery, auto-mechanics, weaving, dress making, underwear garment making and locksmiths training. The school had close ties with local firms and many of the graduates worked as apprentices in the local businesses. The director of the school was Perez Hersz.

Banner: “Welcome to the Heidenheim D.P. Camp”

Address: Settlement

Leaders: Leon Klott, Julius Muskat, Michel Singer, Hermann Pantorin, Dr. Weisstein

Population:

535 May, 1946
589 July, 1946
2,465 September, 1946
2,470 December, 1946
2,517 March, 1947
2,571 July, 1947
2,424 August, 1947
397 January, 1948
2,205 Mai/May, 1948
2,090 October, 1948
2,339 March, 1949

Opened: April, 1946 (Jewish Home), August, 1946 (Voith Siedlung/Settlement)

Closed: August, 1949

Sports Clubs/Soccer Clubs: Makabi Heidenheim

Cultural Institutions: Kindergarten/Elementary School, Berufsschule/Vocational School

Religious Institutions: Talmud Torah School, Kosher Kitchen

This camp was basically a children camp. In the summer of 1946, the former Flying School was converted into a Jewish D.P. camp.

The children belonged to the Zionist Religious organization known as the Mizrahi Movement. The camp had many activities devoted to children, mainly sports and it also had a large choir.

Address: Velmeden (Hoher Meißner), ehemalige NS-Fliegerschule/former NS Flying School

Leaders: D. Puslik, A. Obermann, Brandwein

Population:

319 August, 1946
244 November, 1946
220 February, 1947
207 May, 1947
179 August, 1947

Opened: Juli/July, 1946

Closed: Autumn, 1947

Sports Clubs/Soccer Clubs: D.P.-Lager Herzog at the D.P. Camp Herzog

Cultural Institutions: Kindergarten

Sonstiges | Miscellaneous: Part of the Hessisch Lichtenau Camp complex.

The Hof Camp received many Jewish refugees from other overcrowded D.P. camps, closed in 1948.

Hofgeismar Jewish D.P. Camp

Hofgeismar D.P. camp was located about 30 kilometers north of Kassel in the American occupied zone. The camp was run mainly by D.P.s. It maintained a hospital and a number of schools including a Tarbut school and a Talmud Torah. The living conditions in Hofgeismar were relatively good even though the camp was overcrowded. The D.P.s were living in barracks, with two or three families living in one room. There was extensive sports and cultural life. In mid 1947, the camp had over 1700 inhabitants. The conditions in the ORT school organized in Hofgeismar reflected good level of living in the camp. An ORT inspector noted:

'This is one of those ORT schools that immediately reflects the initiative, understanding and proficiency of the director. While it is true that the building in which the shops are housed are in rather good condition, compared with those in some other schools, it is also true that other schools and shops set up in equally good buildings are much inferior. The school gives one a sense of real educational accomplishment in a difficult situation.'

In 1947, ORT's courses were attended by 164 students who were trained in tailoring and garment cutting , radio technology, electrical engineering, dental technology, hat making, auto mechanics and dressmaking. ORT also ran a very successful bricklayers course in Hofgeismar. Describing the course, an ORT inspector visiting the school, noted:

'This work was being done in a garage that had probably been used for parking cars. The students were building brick walls, using old bricks. All types of construction were being attempted and accomplished quite efficiently. The teacher, whose appearance was more that of a rabbi than a manual worker, seems to be accomplishing very effective work'[1]

The school employed fourteen teachers. Its director was engineer Efraim Kristianpoller. Hofgeismar D.P. camp was closed in early 1949.

Entrance to the Lampertheim D.P. camp

The camp had a strong Orthodox community that revolved around the synagogue. The camp had a Talmud Torah and a. kosher kitchen. There was also a Hebrew library, a culture house, a theatre group and a small orchestra. The camp also ran a secular elementary school and a kindergarten. A summer camp was organized for the children during the holidays. A few kilometers from the town, the camp operated a kibbutz for thirty young people training in farming in preparation for their emigration to Palestine. The ORT school had ninety-seven students, most of whom attended a course in dressmaking and worked in the modern clothes repairing workshop organized in the camp. The director of the school was Josef Schottland.

Leaders: Dr. Wagschall, Holzmann, Oskar Wendryger

Population:

634 January 19,46
999 May, 1946
1,021 September, 1946
1,144 January, 1947
1,138 May, 1947
1,107 September, 1947
1,128 January, 1948
1,060 May, 1948
1,080 October, 1948
968 March, 1949

Opened: December, 1946

Closed: Mai/May, 1949

Sports Clubs/Soccer Clubs: Makabi Lampertheim

Cultural Institutions: Kindergarten, Elementary School, Vocational School

Religious Institutions: Talmud Torah School

Camp Newspaper: Frajhajt-Liberty.

Landsberg is situated at the center of the Lechrain region. The official name is Landsberg am Lech or Landsberg by the river Leech. The town is noted for the prison where Adolf Hitler spent time in 1924 and dictated his book “Mein Kampf” together with Rudolf Hess. The city became a pilgrimage place for Nazi members and it also was known as the town of the Hitler Youth.

Following World War II, it was the location of a large D.P. camp for Jewish refugees. From October, 1945 Landsberg functioned as an exclusively Jewish Camp. The population of 5,000 Jewish D.P.s, chiefly comprised of Russian, Latvian, and Lithuanian Shoah survivors. Landsberg was known for its severe problems with underfeeding, overcrowding, and lack of adequate housing and basic sanitation. Despite all the difficulties, under the leadership of an American-Jewish military commandant, Irving Heymont, Landsberg became the center of Jewish cultural life in the American zone of Germany. The inmates of the camp published a number of newspapers, including the prominent “Landsberg Lager Caytung”' or Landzberg Camp Newspaper in Yiddish. They also run a radio station. Entertainment in the camp was provided by a l 'Shalom Aleihem' theater group. The local theater hall had 1,300 seats. There was also a choir. At the same

Jewish newspaper published in the Landsberger D.P. camp

A number of prominent leaders emerged from the camp, including Samuel Gringauz, who became the chairman of the Council of the Central Committee of Liberated Jews in the U.S. zone of occupation in Germany. This organization represented all Jewish D.P. camps in the American zone of occupation. The camp closed on October 15, 1950.

Jewish policemen at the Leipheim D.P camp

Address: Leipheim Airfield

Leaders: Jakob Lewin, Fischl Leseruck

Population:

2,900 January, 1946
3,150 May, 1946
3,099 November, 1946
1,817 October, 1948
141 January, 1949

Opened: December, 1945

Closed: Spring 1949

Sports Clubs/Soccer Clubs: Makabi Leipheim

Cultural Institutions: Kindergarten, Elementary School, Vocational School, Bibliothek/Library

Religious Institutions: Talmud Torah School, Kosher Kitchen, Yeshiva

Miscellaneous: Camp Hospital, Kibbutz-Hachsharah on a nearby farm

Entrance to the Lindenfels children's camp. Visitors were welcomed in English and Hebrew		Jewish children marching through the town of Lindenfels

Address: Lindenfels

Leader: Mordechaj Grajnic

Population:

300 July, 1946,
431 September, 1946
383 January, 1947
374 May, 1947
379 July, 1947
219 October, 1947
256 January, 1948
199 May, 1948
22 October, 1948

Opened: Summer, 1946

Closed: November, 1948

Cultural Institutions: Elementary School, Vocational School

Address: Kaserne Hasenecke

Junker's D.P. Camp — UNRRA — Area Team 1024 Assembly Center 525

Leaders: Mordechaj Peltz, Chaim Neuwirt, Glasberg, Abraham Szydlovicz

Population:

2,379 September, 1946
2,112 December, 1946
2,290 February, 1947
2,211 April, 1947
2,224 July, 1947
2,211 October, 1947
2,210 January, 1948
2,001 May, 1948
1,707 October, 1948
885 March, 1949

Opened: August, 1946

Closed: March, 1949

Sports Clubs/Soccer Clubs: Kadima Hasenhecke, Makabi Hasenhecke, Elizur Hasenhecke

Cultural Institutions: Elementary School, Vocational School

Religious Institutions: Synagogue, Religionsschule (Cheder)/Talmud Torah School

Miscellaneous: Camp Hospital

When the Second World War ended, Munich became the center for the Jewish Agency's welfare activities in the Displaced Persons (D.P.) camps and for the operation of the Berihah and the illegal immigration to Palestine. These activities were curtailed after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Since then, Munich has had one of the largest communities in Germany, but it includes only a sprinkling of the Jews who had lived in Munich before the Second World War.

Munich did not have a D.P. camp but a large D.P. Jewish population because all major Jewish organisations had offices in the city where the Central Committee of

Ohel Jacov synagogue in Munich. The new synagogue of Munich stands near the old synagogue that was burned to the ground in 1938

“Yiddishe Shtime” newspaper published in Munich, Germany. It represented religious Judaism. Editorial item in the “Yiddishe Shtime”, we shall go to Palestine by all means written in Hebrew. Then the item continues in Yiddish and informs the reader that an illegal ship with about 3000 Jewish refugees was intercepted by the British and brought to Haifa port, Palestine.

In Passing, a suburb of Munich, a small Orthodox synagogue established to serve the needs of about 30 Jewish families, transferred from the old Foehrenwald displaced persons camp to a housing development here, and was dedicated ..The families had refused to vacate the camp until they were promised an Orthodox house of worship and a ritual bath. The synagogue was built largely with German Government funds and a contribution from the American Joint Distribution Committee.

Rabbi Herzog greeted at Neu Freimann D.P camp

Due to its proximity to Munich, the camp attracted many Jewish leaders namely Rabbi Herzog and David Ben Gurion.

Jakob Leibner was in charge of the wood supply in Pocking that was used as fuel for cooking and heating. William Leibner recounted how his father bribed one of the UNRRA drivers to take a group of Mizrahi party members to the Neu Freimann D.P. camp near Munich to hear the rabbi speak.

The Neu Freimann D.P. camp in the Munich district was located in the American zone of occupied Germany. The camp was opened as a refugee camp in July, 1946.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, commander of the Allied forces in Europe

On June 7, 1946, Rabbi Herzog journeyed to Frankfurt am Main where he met with Major General Isaac D. White, Commanding General of the U.S. Constabulary for the European Command, the “super–police” force that controlled the population of the American zone in Germany. General White was no desk–bound bureaucrat. He had been a war hero leading troops in the successful Battle of the Bulge. The two men discussed the Polish Jewish situation. Rabbi Herzog stressed the need to keep the American zone open to all Polish Jewish refugees fleeing for safety. The rabbi had a list of other requests. He asked that the general recognize the legitimacy of the elected Jewish leaders in the camps, that the campprovide kosher food to the refugees, and to help to develop religious and social services.

No records.

The Pocking camp, also known as Waldstadt, was an ancient city in Germany near the city of Passau, close to the Austrian border. It was located in the American Zone of Germany. During the Nazi regime, the Flossenberg concentration camp established a sub camp or subsidiary in Pocking. Hundreds of workers died in

Pocking camp

The camp consisted of wooden barracks with insufficient heating. The camp was known for its bad sanitation, lack of food and bad living conditions. Despite that, the D.P.s managed to organize a thriving community life. Pocking had several Talmud Torahs and Yeshivot and maintained a kosher kitchen. There were also two kibbutzim or groups of pioneers that prepared to settle in Palestine.

The camp had several Jewish orphanages and a kindergarten for 200 children and also a primary school named Chaim Nachman Bialik, after the great Hebrew poet.

The ORT organization set up a technical school where about 300 students acquired technical skills. The school was based in an abandoned air force hangar. The subjects taught included nursing, corset making, radio technology,

Yehuda Leibner at the blackboard of the Pocking elementary school

Official Address: Waldstadt (Pine City)

Leaders: Chaim Goldstein, Moisze Garfinkel

Refugee Population: Mostly Jewish Date of report

650 January, 1946
2,100 March, 1946
5,119 July, 1946
8,122 October, 1946
7,453 July, 1947
5,756 October, 1947
4,312 October, 1948

Refugee camp Opened: January, 1946

Refugee camp Closed: February, 1949

Health: Infirmary. Serious cases were sent to the nearby hospital.

Police department and a jail

Sport- Soccer Clubs: Hagibor Pocking, Hapoel Pocking

Cultural Institutions:

A cinema where shows and concerts were held. There was also a large synagogue and several small Synagogues. The children used the air strip as a bicycle Track. During the summer many residents of the camp would go to the mineral hot spring pool near the camp. The official language of the camp was Hebrew but Yiddish was the prevalent street language with a sprinkling of Polish, Hungarian, Romanian and Lithuanian.

The camp was administered by a council elected by the residents who in turn selected a chairman and an assistant. The political Zionists parties ranging from the Revisionists to the Hashomer-Hatzair on the left functioned in the camp. They were all very active. A variety of social clubs or survivor s groups functioned in the camp.

Regensburg synagogue

Address: Pfauengasse 1 (Café Central),
Gabelsbergerstraße 11 (Götz-Villa)

Leaders: Jakob Gottlieb, Efraim Brenner

Population:

600 November, 1945
1,200 January, 1946
1,087 May, 1946
1,183 September, 1946
1,366 February, 1947
1,401 September, 1947
1,540 January, 1948
822 May, 1948
425 March, 1949
266 February, 1951

Opened: 1945

Closed: 1950 – integrated into the German Jewish Community

Fußballvereine | Sports Clubs/Soccer Clubs: Bar Kochba Regensburg, Hapoel Regensburg

Cultural Institutions: Elementary School, Vocational School

Religious Institutions: Prayer Room, Talmud Torah School

Miscellaneous:

It was the seat of the Regional Committee Lower Bavaria-Upper Palatinate of the liberated Jews in the US zone. The Committee published the weekly Yiddish newspaper Najer Moment (New Moment).

Camp existed from 1945 until 1948. Camp was closed with the departure of D.P.'s

Sanct Ottilien D.P. Hospital

Birth rate 1946 (202) children

April: 1
May: 10
June: 22
July: 16
August: 19
September: 23
October: 32
November: 40
December: 39

Birth rate 1947 (196) children

January: 42
February: 37
March: 30
April: 23
May: 19
June: 11
July: 10
August: 3
September: 6
October: 5
November: 7
December: 3

Birth rate 1948 (20 children)

January: 7
February: 6
March: 5
April: 2

List of parents residences

D.P. Camp Landsberg am Lech: 126 (a number of the mothers lived outside the camp)

D.P. Hospital St. Ottilien: 22
D.P. Camp Pocking (Waldstadt bzw. Schlupfing): 17
D.P. Camp Gabersee (Wasserburg am Inn): 16
D.P. Camp Freimann: 14
D.P. Camp Neu-Ulm: 14
D.P. Camp Eichstätt: 10
D.P. Camp Dornstadt (Ulm): 5
D.P. Camp Holzhausen (Buchloe): 5
D.P. Camp Ulm: 4
D.P. Camp Heidenheim: 4

The camp had a small student population. June, 1947 it had a population of 550 students and in October, 1947, 538 students. It closed November, 1947. It was located near Frankfurt.

Address: Wittelsbacherstraße 2

Leaders: Stefan Schwarz, Heinrich Holländer, Victor Kupfer

Population:

250 November, 1945
330 January, 1946
248 March, 1946
312 August, 1946
384 December, 1946
414 February, 1947
421 September, 1947
406 January, 1948
293 May, 1948
177 March, 1949
97 February, 1951

Opened: 1945

Closed: integrated into the German Jewish Community

Soccer Clubs: Makabi Straubing

Cultural Institutions: Elementary School

Religious Institutions: From 1945 onwards, the Synagogue of 1907 and the adjacent buildings again functioned as the religious and cultural center of the Jewish Community of StraubingPostkartensammlung)

Stuttgart West was an all Jewish D.P. camp located in the city of Stuttgart. The camp housed approximately 1400 Jewish D.P.s who were living in requisitioned private apartments. Stuttgart West was a site of March, 1946 D.P. riots which followed after US military officials allowed the German police to enter the camp in search of black market offenders. The result was a death of one of the D.P.s and later a ban on German police forces entering D.P. camps unless under special circumstances. A large vocational school run by ORT in Stuttgart was established in March, 1946. By the end of 1947, it was attended by 234 pupils. A visitor to Stuttgart describing the difficulties faced by the school's twenty-eight instructors wrote:

'The school classes are housed in ordinary dwelling rooms and are therefore much smaller than desirable…The machine shop is being extended from the basement of one apartment house to that of another, and this has been done by breaking through a two-foot masonry…A rather fruitful lesson was taught by a young German woman teacher. She was giving the technical information related to men's andwomen's clothing manufacture. The lesson was on cotton, its culture and uses. The drawing rooms were small and rather poorly lit , but were usable. All the material for hat making comes from old hats. The photography course is being conducted in a kind of cubby-hole in the attic, hardly large enough to accommodate more than three or four people.

Despite these problems the school offered a wide variety of courses which included training workshops for dental mechanics, metal work, leather work and goldsmiths training, as well as needlework, dressmaking, underwear garment making, corset making and hat making. There were also specialized children's workshops for cardboard and metal work.

The Jewish D.P. population consisted of Polish, Ukrainian, Baltic, and German Jews.

Stalag IX A Ziegenhain

The camp received Polish and French prisoners of war then Russian. Following the war the camp was used as a detention camp for Nazi officials. Later it became a big Jewish D.P. camp.

Ziegienhaim camp

Jewish D.P.s line up in preparation for an anti-British demonstration at the Ziegenhain displaced persons camp protesting British policies of preventing Jewish immigration to Palestine

The camp became a waypoint for the so-called D.P.s (Displaced Persons) on their longed-for journey to Palestine, the USA and other countries.

The D.P.-Camp 95-443 Ziegenhain existed until November, 1947. It held about 2000 persons on average.

View of Ulm

Ulm school yard

• Sedab-Kaserne
• Hindenburg-Kaserne
• Beidorn-Kaserne
• Boelke-Kaserne

Schools: In Dornstadt was a camp for children (now documented in Lochamei ha Gettaot, Israel), and in Neu-Ulm were several institutions and the Ludendorff- Kaserne.

School teachers and kindergarten

The teachers came from different sides. Some of them were D.P.s themselves, other came to Europe to serve there as teachers. Those teachers were called by the government or NGO's. The range of schools in Ulm was wide, from religious schools and kindergartens for the children, up to job-training schools and high schools. Those schools were (as it seems at the present) mostly in the hands of the ethnic groups of the D.P.s. They are not documented in the Ulmian school history.

Activities: The Jewish D.P.s and their institutions are also well documented in photographs. They show the kindergarten, schools, job-trainings, Rabbis and Jeshivot and even a sportsclub (Ha Koach).

Billets for Jewish D.P.s at the barracks Silhöfer Au in Wetzlar		Classroom of the elementary school at the Jewish D.P. Camp in Wetzlar

Address: Kasernen/Barracks (Silhöfer Au)

Population:

4.291 November, 1946
4.135 January, 1947
4.279 May, 1947
4.284 September, 1947
4.104 January, 1948
3.997 May, 1948
3.714 October, 1948
2.443 March, 1949

Opened: September, 1946

Closed: March, 1949

Sports Clubs/Soccer Clubs: Makabi Wetzlar, Bar Kochba Wetzlar, Elizur Wetzlar

Cultural Institutions: Kindergarten/Kindergarten, Volksschule/Elementary School, Vocational School

Religious Institutions: Talmud Torah School, Yeshiva, Ritual Bath

Sonstiges | Miscellaneous: Hospital

First D.P.s were transferred from Cham and Berlin.

Wetzler entrance gate

Address: Windischbergerdorf

Leader: Mr. Ampel

Population:

692 August ,1946
635 November, 1946
454 January, 1947
423 March, 1947
426 June, 1947

Opened: August, 1946

Closed: June, 1947

Cultural Institutions: Kindergarten, Elementary School

Religious Institutions: Prayer Room, Kosher Kitchen, Yeshiva

Miscellaneous: Separate children's kitchen for the 70 infants and toddlers up to five years.

Windsheim D.P. camp was located in a vicinity of small spa town in Bavaria in the American-occupied zone of Germany. Windsheim was one of the most overcrowded camps in the area. In November, 1946, despite a capacity of 2,500, the camp had 3,200 inhabitants. Over 500 of them had no living space and had to sleep in attics or cellars. Sanitary facilities were also far from satisfactory and eighty percent of rooms did not have basic furniture. The constant overpopulation negatively affected all aspects of camps community life. In the winter of 1946, the primary school in Winsdsheim had to be closed as barracks in which it was located was used to accommodate the growing population of the camp. Despite that, the camp maintained a well developed religious life. One third of Windsheim's population was orthodox and the D.P.s built a synagogue and a mikvah in the camp. At one point the camp had three Yeshivot- one for Hungarian and two for Lithuanian Jews. There was also a Talmud Torah and a Cheder for 40 children. Eleven kilometers km from the main camp was a kibbutz. Its members attended evening classes in the camp's school as well as Hebrew classes organized especially for them.

Despite problems with finding space for training, the camp maintained a number of sports teams which included a very strong football team, table tennis section, chess section, boxing section and a physical training group.

198 of the camps inhabitants attended an ORT vocational school established in Windsheim. As the large percentage of the students was Hungarian Jews who did not speak Yiddish, ORT had initial problems with effective running of the school. They were, however, soon overcome and courses were organized in dressmaking, men's tailoring, children's tailoring, machine knitting, locksmiths training, radio technology, dental mechanics, joinery, typewriter repair, book keeping and beautician training. The director of the school was engineer Iser Israelewitch. The camp was closed in July, 1949.

The camp was opened following WWII for Jewish refugees. In October of 1946, it had a Jewish population of 3,570 people. The camp had a synagogue, theater group and a soccer club called the Hashmonaim. The camp had a number of schools including an ORT vocational school. It also had an extensive library.Two Yiddish papers were circulated in the camp; Unterwegs- in transit and the Unzer Mut- Our Courage. Ziegenhain was located 2 kilometers from Frankfurt. The camp was very overcrowded. It was opened with the end of WWII. The camp was visited by the head of the Jewish Agency, David Ben Gurion, and Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Roosevelt.

All these D.P. camps were in the American zone of Germany. Some D.P.s left the camps and settled down in communities, namely Frankfurt or Munich. Others joined the reconstructed Jewish communities and still others joined collective groups known as “ kibbutzim” to prepare themselves for communal life in Palestine. All these Jewish D.P.'s received UNRRA help. UNRRA had to soften its hard line on Jewish refugees. The change came as a result of American pressure on England. The American Jewish organizations argued that UNRRA was favoring non-Jewish refugees at the expense of Jewish refugees. Polish or Slovak refugees were given the status of D.P. while Jewish refugees were denied this status under the pretext that they left their new homes after the war. The Jewish organization claimed that that these refugees abandoned their homes for fear of their lives namely the Kielce pogrom in Poland. The president of the United States, Harry S. Truman had to make a decision. He was a clever politician and realized that with the upcoming elections in the country, he needed every vote, especially the Jewish vote. He decided to ignore British objections and force UNRRA to expand the assistance programs to all refugees. The expansions benefitted the Jewish refugees and also helped the various Jewish social services financially since they were no longer the sole provider for the Jewish refugees.

Footnote

1. William Leibner resided in the DP camp Return

  Mass Migration     Yizkor Book Project     JewishGen Home Page

Copyright © 1999-2024 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 07 May 2019 by JH