Mass Migration (Page 186)

« Previous Page

Table of Contents

Next Page »

[Page 186]

Chapter IX

Epilogue

The Jewish communities that existed in Europe for centuries were deracinatedby the Germans and their local helpers during World War Two. Entire communities disappeared without leaving a survivor. The mass killings were beyond description. The most advanced mechanical systems were used to expedite the mass slaughter. These operations stopped with the end of the war. Many Jewish survivors, especially in Western Europe, returned to their former homes where they tried to resume their lives and restore their communal life. Many of the East European Jews refused to go home. They knew that their families were gone and saw no point in returning home. They remained in the camps in Germany and Austria. Those Jews who returned to Eastern Europe faced bitter hostility from their former neighbors. Anti– Semitic attacks aimed at Jews became a dailyreality. In some places pogroms against Jews resulted in deaths and injured Jews.

Safety and security became the issue of the day amongst the surviving Jews. Masses of Eastern European Jews began to leave their recently acquired places. They were led by “Brichah” agents to German, Austrian and Italian camps which were. By 1947, there were about 250,000 Jewish residents in these camps. With few exceptions, they remained in the camps, since no one wanted to accept them. Only Palestine wanted the Jews, but the British closed the gates that were broken through by the illegal ships carrying Jewish refugees to Palestine.

Finally, England abandoned Palestine and a Jewish State was proclaimed. The gates to Palestine were thus opened and thousands of Jewish refugees left the camps.

Within a short period of time, most of the refugee camps were closed. They were soon followed by many of the Eastern Europen Jews that had remained in theircountries of origin. The State of Israel solved the Jewish refugee problem in Europe. Many of the East European countries lost almost all of their Jewish residents. Indeed, the period following World War II was one of the greatest transfers of Jewish populations.

« Previous Page

Table of Contents

Next Page »

This material is made available by JewishGen, Inc. and the Yizkor Book Project for the purpose of
fulfilling our mission of disseminating information about the Holocaust and destroyed Jewish communities.
This material may not be copied, sold or bartered without JewishGen, Inc.'s permission. Rights may be reserved by the copyright holder.

JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material for verification.
JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.

Mass Migration Yizkor Book Project JewishGen Home Page

Yizkor Book Director, Lance Ackerfeld
This web page created by Jason Hallgarten