Even after the Holocaust was over, the survivors had to deal with many struggles.
Some Jews feared returning home because of anti-Semitism. In Poland, there were still pogroms, violent anti-Jewish riots. In 1946, Polish rioters killed 42 Jews and beat many others in town of Kielce. Tens of thousands of homeless Jews migrated to European territories liberated by the Allies. Jewish agencies helped to support survivors. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) resettled the Jews. When the UNRRA ran into problems, a new group called the International Refugee Organization (IRO) took over to help find homes. The Jews also moved to other countries. The countries that received the most number of Jews were the United States and Israel. There and in other countries the Jews immigrated to, they had the chance of starting new lives and living. The Jews who stayed in Europe were often denied finding new homes and new lives. Efforts were made to reunite families and find other survivors to help them.
Some Jews feared returning home because of anti-Semitism. In Poland, there were still pogroms, violent anti-Jewish riots. In 1946, Polish rioters killed 42 Jews and beat many others in town of Kielce. Tens of thousands of homeless Jews migrated to European territories liberated by the Allies. Jewish agencies helped to support survivors. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) resettled the Jews. When the UNRRA ran into problems, a new group called the International Refugee Organization (IRO) took over to help find homes. The Jews also moved to other countries. The countries that received the most number of Jews were the United States and Israel. There and in other countries the Jews immigrated to, they had the chance of starting new lives and living. The Jews who stayed in Europe were often denied finding new homes and new lives. Efforts were made to reunite families and find other survivors to help them.
Nightmares plagued the survivors and found trouble communicating with anyone.
“I was 18, but I was, in fact, only 13 because those years were nothing. Those were erased from my life. So I was 13 year old in a 18-year old girl's body. And I didn't know anything. I was a frightened little girl. I could not communicate with anybody except the immediate family--my mother's sister and brother-in-law and their son, their only son. And then we went to New York, again, my mother's aunt and her cousins. I...I couldn't go out to the street. I was petrified. I was afraid that the Nazis are still out there. I was having nightmares for years and years. For many years, I was still reliving everything. The trip to Auschwitz, the...the beatings, the killings, the dead people that were taken off the train, the...the beatings and the...and the dogs that were, uh, released and ju... jump on the people and...and tear them apart. I lived with this. Years and years. I still live with it, but I don't have these horrible nightmares anymore except occasionally. ” – Madeline Deutsch
“I was 18, but I was, in fact, only 13 because those years were nothing. Those were erased from my life. So I was 13 year old in a 18-year old girl's body. And I didn't know anything. I was a frightened little girl. I could not communicate with anybody except the immediate family--my mother's sister and brother-in-law and their son, their only son. And then we went to New York, again, my mother's aunt and her cousins. I...I couldn't go out to the street. I was petrified. I was afraid that the Nazis are still out there. I was having nightmares for years and years. For many years, I was still reliving everything. The trip to Auschwitz, the...the beatings, the killings, the dead people that were taken off the train, the...the beatings and the...and the dogs that were, uh, released and ju... jump on the people and...and tear them apart. I lived with this. Years and years. I still live with it, but I don't have these horrible nightmares anymore except occasionally. ” – Madeline Deutsch
Even after liberation, the Jews ran into problems on where they could go and had trouble finding family.
“It wasn't all that, all that easy to leave Poland. You know, I had no papers, or anything else, and my mother was in Germany at the time, in the, in the British zone. So the, uh, American, uh, Joint Distribution Committee [the Joint] basically smuggled me out in December of 1946, from Poland to Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovakia to the American zone, and then the American zone to the British zone in Germany, until I was reunited with my mother. And there was, the Joint operated with the Brihah ["flight"], which had bribed a lot of people on the border. And, uh, that's how I got to Germany in '46. That was really three years after I'd been separated from my mother.” – Thomas Buergenthal
“It wasn't all that, all that easy to leave Poland. You know, I had no papers, or anything else, and my mother was in Germany at the time, in the, in the British zone. So the, uh, American, uh, Joint Distribution Committee [the Joint] basically smuggled me out in December of 1946, from Poland to Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovakia to the American zone, and then the American zone to the British zone in Germany, until I was reunited with my mother. And there was, the Joint operated with the Brihah ["flight"], which had bribed a lot of people on the border. And, uh, that's how I got to Germany in '46. That was really three years after I'd been separated from my mother.” – Thomas Buergenthal
Groups were organized to seek out survivors.
“And, well, we started to organize not only to, to have a gathering point for Jews to come to, but also to send out people to look for liberated Jews, you know. Because when people were liberated by the Soviet army, the first impulse of people was going back to their places. That was the natural instinct, to see if somebody survived, if the house survived, if something can be rescued. So I was assigned to, to do that with another girl. Her name was Krysia Biderman. Actually her real name was Sara Biderman, Krysia was her pseudonym during the war. And we were traveling criss-cross Poland looking for surviving Jews, and we found them. And sometimes these meetings were so packed with emotion that I, I lack the words to describe it, you know. Because the idea that we are really survivors couldn't sink in yet.” – Leah Hammerstein Silverstein
“And, well, we started to organize not only to, to have a gathering point for Jews to come to, but also to send out people to look for liberated Jews, you know. Because when people were liberated by the Soviet army, the first impulse of people was going back to their places. That was the natural instinct, to see if somebody survived, if the house survived, if something can be rescued. So I was assigned to, to do that with another girl. Her name was Krysia Biderman. Actually her real name was Sara Biderman, Krysia was her pseudonym during the war. And we were traveling criss-cross Poland looking for surviving Jews, and we found them. And sometimes these meetings were so packed with emotion that I, I lack the words to describe it, you know. Because the idea that we are really survivors couldn't sink in yet.” – Leah Hammerstein Silverstein