After WWII, the Allies established Displaced Persons (DP) camps in the Allied-occupied zones of Germany, Austria, and Italy to temporarily house the millions of Europeans who were displaced by the war. As more than 700,000 Jews, including many concentration camp survivors, flooded into these camps, they were quick to get married and, within less than a year, the birth rate of the Jewish population in Europe’s DP camps was the highest of any group in the world at the time. In this lecture, Serafima Velkovich, Head of the Family Roots Research Section at the Yad Vashem Archives, will discuss the history of this unique phenomenon and explain how you can search for information on the former DP babies in your family.
This event took place on September 12, 2023.
Hi everyone thank you for joining us today my name is moriah amit and I am the senior center for jewish history senior genealogy librarian welcome to family history today which is the center for jewish history’s monthly series of genealogy themed public programs the center for
Jewish history provides a collaborative home for five partner organizations that together form the largest archive on the modern jewish experience outside of israel in addition the center houses the akman and ziff family genealogy institute which strives to connect researchers to the wealth of
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Anytime during this program by using the q&a box on the bottom of your screen please note however that our guest speaker will be answering all questions during the dedicated q&a period after her presentation if you’d like to view the captions for this program please click on the
Close caption or cc button on the bottom of your screen and then click show subtitles and lastly this program will be recorded again it will be recorded so in two to three weeks you’ll receive an email with the link to watch the recording and one more special note I want to
Thank everyone in the audience but especially those who are former dp Camp babies we’d like to hear from you so feel free to to write a little bit about your story in the q&a box and we’ll try to read as many of those as your as possible okay so without further ado
I’d like to introduce serafima velkovich who is the head of the family roots research section in the reference and information department at yad vashem archives she is also a ph.d candidate in sociology and history at the hebrew university of jerusalem she has been working at yad vashem for
18 years in which she also served as a reference archivist and a family names database specialist she frequently lectures on the use of yad vashem resources for genealogy research for various groups and lastly serafima has been a regular speaker at the annual international conference on
Jewish genealogy and has been featured in multiple films on holocaust subjects I’m very happy to welcome back serafima velkovich please feel free to get started with your presentation thank you so much moriah and I I really appreciate your invitation and I’m really happy to hear
That former dp babys are in the audience this is amazing topic just a second I’m opening my presentation okay I suppose you see it okay so my goal today is to give background and general information about dp camps and to explain what was the phenomenon of dp baby boom
But together with that because we are at actually genealogical lecture I want to give some tips where to search for the materials documents about birth about parents and so on in which
Archives and how can we do it so I’ll start from the background and here you can see the map of the displaced person’s camp in Europe and we need to explain what is that actually just after the end of second world war in the holocaust western allies established displaced person
Camps in a lot of occupation zones of germany austria and italy and we are speaking about four zones of occupation british american french and soviet so in soviet zone at all the were no dp
Camp so we don’t speak today about this zone in french zone there was very small amount of jewish dps in british zone there were Jewish dps but the policy was rather strict so majority of jewish dps were
In american occupation zone and this map you don’t see Italy but it’s also very extensive area of displaced persons camp there were several dozens of camps majority one in bavaria and a very beautiful area of germany so from the early beginning of establishing of displaced persons camps
We speaking about summer 1945 just after the end of world war two jewish displaced persons were together with other dps that means um in europe that time there were several millions of people who were displaced many of them were moving to their home countries but those who didn’t want
because of different reasons to come back and we’re speaking about people from eastern europe from such countries as poland hungary also lithuania for example and latvia in the beginning as I mentioned jewish dps were together in the camps with non-jewish dps and it was very
Difficult time for jews because in many cases those non dps were previously collaborators and there were different cases of anti-semitism and very complicated situation in september 45 a emissary of president Errol Harrison arrived to germany with inspection to
See what is the situation with jewish dp and he wrote a report uh mentioning that jews are in very bad conditions in displaced person’s camp and that actually americans behave not much better than germans did for jews so just after that report in october 45 jewish dps were separated
From other dps they were in separate dp camps and also all kind of organizations relief organizations from united states and also unrra we are speaking about jewish organization like jdc joint distribution committee and also representatives from Israel
From palestine could arrive and to help jews in addition jews could be leaders in these camps it was managed by Jews so um let’s uh see the statistics about how many people we are speak so the population actually moved constantly it’s very difficult to know exact statistics but we
Know approximately that in the beginning of 1946 there were about 70,000 jewish dps in germany 12,000 in austria and 10,000 in italy but but by the end of this year of 1946 it was about
250,000 already and only in Germany it was 190,000 so what is the reason not such a big amount that what happened during this year so in the end of 1945 soviets wrote an agreement with polish government about repatriation the majority of polish jews who survived the holocaust survived in the
Territory of Soviet Union so by this agreement of repatriation they could come back to poland from soviet union and we’re speaking about 230,000 jews who came back from poland sorry from soviet union to poland majority of them didn’t not stay there because of anti-semitism
Pogroms and also communist politics of polish government that time so majority of them moved illegally to displaced person camps in american zone of occupation so this is the reason why the number of jewish dp is really much higher by the end of this year one more very important
Fact about population of dp camps we need to know the age of these people so once more we are speaking about the beginning of 46 this is example of statistics in bavaria and you can
See that majority vast majority of the dps were in the age actually of getting married and giving birth from 18 to 39 there were very small amount of children and there were really almost no babies small children under the age five it was really exception there so together with
This wave of polish jews who arrive [unintelligible] also they can see for the first time children because there were the whole families who arrived to the dp camp and also in the 40 we can say in for
In the spring of 46 the first babies started to be born so we can see really a baby boom I want to mention the locations of displaced person can so we are speaking about as I told germany austria
And italy in germany and austria the conditions were different let’s say this way for example in british occupation zone the major and the biggest camp was bergen belsen and it was next to former concentration camp bergen belsen people were holocaust survivors from bergen belsen concentration
Camp and they were really weak there were a very high level of mortality there so and also the conditions and the politics of british occupation government was rather strict so we are speaking about american zone for example that it was open door policy together with that
The relationships with german were traumatic for jews uh even german language that they heard surrounding was really traumatic in addition there were many staff members in the hospital for example was speaking about baby boom there were many doctors and nurses who were germans
And it was rather traumatic for holocaust survivors together with that in italy the situation was different dps lived in former italian villas if we’re speaking for example about uh south of italy it was very poor area at the same time the relationships with local
Population were rather warm even we can say the jewish people helped to italians because jews received some support from relief organizations from joint food and cloth but italians were really poor and they didn’t receive any help because we’re considered as collaborators and
Because italy was fascist country during the war so we can find in the testimonies and the interviews that italy is remembers as kind of renaissance and very good period for jews just after the holocaust uh here you see the photograph of actually not dp camp but
The photograph of the camp in the cyprus and I have to mention actually the important fact that holocaust survivors wanted a place of permanent majority of them wanted to arrive to palestine and many arrived illegally to palestine before the establishment of state
Of israel those who were who arrived illegally and were kept catch by british authorities in israel in former israel eretz israel they were sent to cyprus and we are speaking about approximately 50,000 people who were detained to the camp in cyprus and 28,000 were still
Imprisoned when israel declared independence and the conditions were really difficult there of course it’s very subjective but I found testimony and interview of one of the survivors who told that the conditions for her personally were much more difficult even in comparison to
Auschwitz because she already had a baby and she had responsibility for the baby and conditions were very difficult but of course it’s very subjective it’s from her words it wasn’t concentration camp it was internment camp but still it was [unintelligible] and rather difficult so let’s move to the happy event
Marriages happened in very big amounts so we can find evidence that the displaced persons married within several weeks of meeting each other they were former neighbors sometimes distant relatives they were people from the same small place who met each other in DP camps it was really a phenomenon
There were several weddings together they were several weddings a day if we speaking about searching for the materials you can see here example from different sources about different kind of records first of all of course we are speaking about Jewish wedding majority of DPS
Wanted to have Jewish wedding continuation of Jewish tradition was really important for them even if the family wasn’t religious but it was kind of Renaissance of Jewish tradition you can see here from the left side a ketubah a Jewish marriage certificate from Bergen Belsen camp and you can see it
Was really big camp and they even invented their own form it’s written in Hebrew in Yiddish bergen belsen and it was form you fill out in the middle you can see also a ketubah but it’s handwritten from the
Both documents are from yadvashem archives and from the right side you can see records from arolsen archives and this is a marriage certificate which is civil registration from which was recorded in in their local office so I have to mention not about each couple who marriage we can trace such
Documents but anyway such documents exist and it’s worth trying to search now you can see here the photograph from Mittenwald is kind of one of the examples how it looked like of course you can see here that all the participants are of the ceremony are rather young people they
Were no old people there unfortunately one of the difficulties of such marriages was that young couple didn’t have parents in majority of cases and it was very difficult for them so I want to bring one of the quotation from the interview actually I need to mention that
The topic that I’m presenting is a topic of my PhD dissertation and I made research about former DP babies who live in Israel because uh from my point of view the context of the Holocaust memory in Israel is very important for present day activity of these former babies and this
Quotation that I want to read is from the interview which was given to the Israeli Association which was called [unintelligible] next Generation which really was very active doing different events for former DP babies so if we are speaking about the marriage and the ceremony
I’m [unintelligible] shortly after they met they got married two people without a family no mother under chupa no father no brothers and no sisters friends who might have been called that people who met just before that there were no wedding dress no veil everything was improvised the girlfriends took a
Tablecloth and cut it into a veil took some flowers and cut them into a bucket and on their hand and a hat for my dad and there was a wedding and my mom said this wedding was happy
And sad but that’s what it was so this is an interview of one of the former babies and as I mentioned majority of participants were their friends their neighbors and sometimes whoever received cloth for wedding from the “joint” sometimes as as you can see here in this
Account they sometimes made themselves so I think it’s very touching to imagine how it was so let’s continue and as I told it was very important to have Jewish traditional wedding in order to reconstruct Jewish tradition and Jewish way of life for Holocaust survivors it was not
Really appropriate for couple to live together without marrying so we need to mention the fact that because of very past [unintelligible] we can trace after that when the family emigrated that not always was there good relationships in these families there were divorces there were some pragmatic
Families who lived together because of economical situation financial situation and at the same time there were really happy couples who fall in love and who lived very happy time together after their marriages so we cannot say that it was the same in each family but we have
To take into account this very fast marriages one more important topic is maternal behavior so after the war majority of survivors really wanted to have family and one of the reason was not to be alone many of them really were alone everybody were killed
And they wanted some close person next to them but we can see evidences of testimonies of men and women who wanted to have family and wanted to give birth at the same time there were women who were really afraid to give birth because of their traumas because of
Their traumatic event that they went through in the camps during the war and there were also many cases when it was very difficult to be pregnant a majority of those survivors who were in the camps lost weight significantly and many of them didn’t have a monthly cycle
Women cycle and they thought they received something in the camps in their food not to be pregnant but with the rehabilitation I’m speaking about physical rehabilitation with also better food they started to recover and many really many women gave birth we also
Need to take into account maternal identity which according to psychologists is shaped by mother and by examples of patterns of behavior by her mother or grandmother and what the young woman sees around her these young women who were about 20 years old after the war actually was too
Young in the beginning of war when they lost their families and they didn’t have this example next to them being pregnant and they didn’t have their mothers to help them when they gave birth so it was rather difficult for example in Germany those who
Helped young mothers were employees of “joint” or volunteers from [unintelligible] from Israel as I mentioned there were doctors and nurses who were Germans because of the very high level of birth and it was rather traumatic together with that in Italy it was very interestingly
Those who were helping were nuns from Monastery and this is of very of course unique situation because they didn’t have their own children so they also didn’t have any patterns how to behave being a mother together with that we also need to mention the that giving birth it’s
Really unique feminine experience and it was the body as I told was rather weak after the Holocaust it was sometimes difficult experience but if we are speaking about gender role in the DP Camp it was very much tradition so maternal Behavior actually was sometimes complicated but it
Was rather traditional still now let’s speak about baby boom so first of all the birth rate was really really high it was the highest in the world that time in Jewish dp camps we’re speaking about approximately if we’re taking statistics from Bavaria for example in 1947 their birth rate
Was about 50 babies per thousand people it’s very very high rate and there were sometimes we can see evidences sometimes in one dp camp were about 200 women pregnant at the same time so it’s also we have to say it’s created not only the help to give birth I mean medical
Help but also we are speaking about the whole you can say industry in the DP camps surrounding the babies. kindergartens after that education and all this help to women and food for small babies everything was surrounding this process of baby boom so
I’m presenting you here several examples of materials if we speaking about searching for the evidences of giving birth I’m meeting many former DP babies especially those who were born in Israel and many cases people say they never saw their original date of birth arriving to Israel
Sometimes was recorded just a year for example or something like that so of course it depends on their place of birth in different camps the records were survived better or less survived but for example in Bergen-Belsen dp camp there is amazing you can see here registration book for
Maternity wing from the hospital so the original materials are in Arolsen archives but you can find digital copies in all the archives which are official copy holders of Arolsen for example Yad Vashem
There are also records online and I’ll present it to you in a while how to see it look here on this page
You can see exact information about the baby who is the baby when he was born exact hour 21:15. 9:15 in the evening the name of mother date of birth of mother from where she is name of Father his details this is I think amazing genealogical information so those who were born
In Bergen-Belsen DP camp really are recommended to search it this is birth certificate which is from civil registration office and such certificates exist also in Arolsen Archives but not everything
If you don’t find it in Arolsen you need to know in which camp the family was and to apply to civil registration office in Germany in this place so it should be found there I want also to
Mention the fact as many cases I asked if those who were born in Germany in DP camps these babies can receive German citizenship and the answer is no because they were displaced persons and they actually were born not in Germany but in occupation zone of United States or Great Britain
So this is only once more an example of marriage certificate that I mention already such things also are searchable or in Arolsen or if you don’t find in civil registration office in Germany. this is DP card and such cards you can find about adults about all the ages but also
About babies you can see here the baby who is born in the Pocking camp in 1946 this is also from Arolsen archives interesting fact here desired destination in many cases this was written palestine and in a moment I’ll explain why and interesting to check after that when actually the family
Arrived to Israel or immigrated to other countries so this is immigration records and you can see here the whole family together who migrated majority of these records are ship lists who immigrated to the United States it is not ship manifest that you can find in
United States this list are made still in Europe so it’s interesting documents also and you also can find address in the United States I still don’t know if it’s exact address where family after that arrived or just it was some address that somebody told them to write
In order to just to fill the form now I want to present very short footage it’s about a minute from Bergen-Belsen dp camp the film was made made by “joint” actually for the reasons of fundraising to collect money to help peace this is really very short fragment to present
Babies in DP Camp the original film is in Yad Vashem archives so you can see here they care about babies okay very small segment now I think this topic is really really touching we need to remember how difficult was time during the war and how bright and emotional
Are these portraits just after the war you can see really phenomenon of baby boom look at these photos I just took several of them to present you it was really really many photographs made there in dp camps which now can be found in Yad Vashem
Archives now I told that i dp camp the dp cards the destination was written as palestine so let’s speak about Zionism you can see by the way here the photograph where you can see the event connected to state of Israel but still as it’s kind
Of symbol of rebirth is a stroller with a baby so Zionism ideology was very very strong in dp camp because of that majority of DPs recorded they want to arrive to eretz Israel Palestine not because they were really Zionist Before the War of course there were many
People who were Zionist especially young people who were in different Zionist organization youth organizations before the war and dreamed about arriving to Israel of course but at the same time there were many people who were religious for example and non Zionist but at the same
Time if we are speaking about pragmatic reasons it was very difficult to receive visas to other countries and they saw the only possibility to leave Europe is actually to arrive to palestine at the same time the rehabilitation was dependent on formation of new society
And I’m speaking now in the words of Chagit Lasky who really researched displaced person’s Camp especially Bergen-Belsen and she wrote that struggle for its National existence while fighting for rehabilitation it was very important moment and because of that Zionism was so important the
Life of DPs so we have to take into account as I mentioned that they wanted their own home they wanted something stable because of that they saw Zionist idea that could organize and could help the to implement this idea in life now I want to present some sources where you
Can find really many materials about the dp camps not only lists or cards but also different materials that can be launched and searched and it can be relevant for historical context also not only
For genealogical purposes so Yad Vashem archives in Jerusalem has extensive collections about dp camps original collections so Yad Vashem is historical archives and not all the materials are original sometime there are copies from different archives but I’m speaking now about
Original Collections and record group N1 is the first collection of Yad Vashem which was received very early Yad Vashem was established in 1953 and very early it was received we are speaking about huge collection of 7,737 files of central committee of liberated Jews which was established in 45
In Munich so there were sub committees in different DP camps in Bavaria in American occupation Zone and this collection contains thousands of documents and photographs and many many testimonies majority in yiddish by the way and questionnaires and even they understood the value of testimonies very early and in this collection we even can
Find a collection of Music in Yiddish songs from ghettos from Lithuania for example in addition very important part of this collection of questionnaires of 423 children survivors who were in foehrenwald dp Camp in Bavaria so this is amazing material partly online partly not
We need to to know languages to understand but for example questionnaires of children from Bergen-Belsen in English because social workers were English speaking personnel of “joint” now I want to show just really very briefly several record groups from Yad Vashem sharit haplitah is Hebrew equivalent
Of survival remnants so very big collection which has different personal documents of and lists of Holocaust Survivors so there are very extensive collection from Bergen Belsen DP camp donated by the family of Josef and Hadassah Rosensaft who were leaders in displaced person Camp
Bergen Belsen and they were very important personalities there there are personal collections of rabbis and different leaders of the DP camps which were after that donated to Yad Vashem there’s also a Simon Wiesenthal collection I really advise to search if you are interested
In this study so Arolsen Archive this is one of the most important sources for the search of names of materials about people in DP camps Arolsen Archives of course it’s there is a separate lecture about that but this is for my International tracing service which
Is in Arolsen but Arolsen in Germany and they have many many materials from the aftermath period especially from the American occupation Zone the project mutual project of Arolsen and Yad Vashem is their website it was built by Yad Vashem IT Department majority of the materials
Are available online already and can be searched by the name the search is very simple with one line like in Google I just search for example you can see here Abramovich Felix who was born in 1948 you can find here his DP card very very simple and really really recommended
To let’s move to our host Center for Jewish History which is one of the colleagues there is YIVO Institute for Jewish research which has extensive collection about DP camps unfortunately materials majority of the materials are not online I just found for example for you here the
Picture from DP Camp in Salzburg in Austria but anyway you can see there are very interesting material there so “joint” distribution committee jdc archives it’s very important Source it’s online I brought for example this photograph which is really everybody had the same luggage for example because they received help from “joint”
And all these photographs and materials has actually reports of “joint” about work they did that means that there are less documents here about persons who were in the DP Camps but more documents about specific activities how many supplement DP Camp received
Which kind of help was received that mean that for jdc staff was important to report about their work and it wasn’t important for them to whom they donated this cloth it was important how many cloth
Was donated and we have to take into account from the other side you can see here there is a children in DP camp in Linton Austria so they are also searchable online and I really advise you to
Try it now let’s speak about present day time there are only two museums which exist in Europe of DP camps one in Germany and one in Italy so Museum which called badehaus in the place waldram it was former DP Camp Foehrenwald was one of the biggest camps in Bavaria in
American occupation Zone the building that you see here is former sauna in DP Camp the local Association of local people who are not Jewish Germans opened this Museum in 2018 and you can see this nice building museum is amazing I have to say those who
Were born there I really really recommend to keep in touch and to visit in Israel we have a big group of former babies who were born there they called themselves Foehrenwalders and they really cooperate with the museum staff and participated in the exhibition
And opening the museum so worth keeping in touch with them I think it’s very interesting phenomenon when local it was initiative of local people to open the museum for them the importance of the museum is actually not because of Jews but because of their local history they
Want to commemorate all the people who were strangers and who were in this different times at their local place and to show that history was there in their place which is very small town they commemorated their former forced laborers who were displaced because foehrenwald during the war was
A camp for forced laborers non-jewish forced laborers after that it was DP for Jewish DP and non-jewish in the beginning from the end of 45 it was Jewish DP camp and it was the camp which existed the longest time till 1952 since 52 till 57 it was DP camp for Refugee German Catholic
Refugees who arrived from the territories who were taken to from Germany to Poland after the war and they are also presented in the museum and there was also an exhibition about present day refugees in Germany from Muslim countries so for local population the topic of refugees is
Very much actual now so you can imagine that maybe it’s one of the reason of opening this Museum the second K that I wanted to present you Museum in the south of Italy in the place It’s called Santa Maria Al Bagno this is very small place it’s Italian Village this museum
Called Museum of memory and hospitality and we are speaking about Hospitality of Italian people towards jewish survivors museum was opened in the place in the Villa where we can find murals this is original murals made by Jewish Romanian holocaust survivor [unintelligible] Miller and you can see
This drawing and please pay attention how many Zionist symbols you can find here it’s written here eretz Israel we can find Mogen david and sun and Jewish Soldier and Jewish flag menorah walls of old city in Jerusalem and so on So speaking about zionist ideas these people
Really were dreaming about eretz Israel in this place there are no Jews present time at all and local population really use it for educational proposal there are many Israelis who arrive there and also American tourists whose families once moved through this
Place I really really recommend the film it’s called shores of Lights Salento 45-47 it’s a Israel film it’s called in Hebrew or baktzeh hamagav this film was made and presented for the first time in 2015 there are three women which you can see here in the photo who were
Born there in the south Italy as Esther Rivka and Shuni and they are traveling there to find the place of their birth I really really recommend today the very good big group of Form D.P. babies in Israel who were born then the south of Italy they really communicate and
It’s amazing to see how much things how many details they could Trace during their research I want also to mention a very interesting phenomenon of present day activities in Israel for the first time the Congress of former D.P. children was in Tel Aviv University
In 2015 and there were 1,200 participants there you can see here the picture from this Congress and it was the first time when this topic of being born in D.P. camp was devised and from that time the really the activities of the associations and all these groups only enlarging all the time former
Babies are traveling to their place of birth in groups communicate cooperate there are conferences meetings it’s amazing topic I really hope to finish my dissertation just in a couple of months and and after that I really hope to publish it this is an example of
My so-call former DP babies these are two cousins who were born in the south of Italy and the both of them were called by the name after the name of their grandmother who was killed during the Holocaust the mothers are twins Holocaust Survivors and they gave birth with
The difference of two days or three days between their birth so it’s amazing story and you can see the photo in D.P. Camp and in their celebration of 70 years in their place of birth
It was a delegation a group of former babies who visited their place of birth at the age of 70 very important topic of their activities are memory transmission you can see here the quotation of one of the former babies who was born in fohrenwald in Bavaria where the
Children who are named after relatives and who were murdered are actually Memorial candles so we need to take into account that majority of these babies were really called according to Jewish tradition after their dead relatives and in the case of the Holocaust killed relatives
And they took this duties as Memorial candle through their life and today they speak a lot about this one of the reasons of my research was because I started to several years ago to pay attention that these former babies are really doing family history research
Searching for their Roots because of family memory transmission one of the important reason of and meaning of family transmission is to preserve Holocaust memory to transmit it to the Future generations and to tell the story of those who who did not tell their
Story because many of Holocaust survivers didn’t want to tell their story it was traumatic and difficult so in general I presented what I want to present I suppose there are a lot of questions and maybe some stories in the chat I’ll be happy if we speak and communicate yes
Absolutely there are a lot of questions and a lot of stories and it’s been very nice to see people connecting with others who are from the same who were born in the same camps one second okay I’m going to start with the questions and then we can share some of the
Stories okay so I’m just going to read these in order okay so Margarita Lako says that her aunt was Hungarian and and in Cerveteri Italy and she gave birth to her daughter there in 1946 do you have any specific recommendations for her how to search the birth yeah actually
The bth records of those who born in Italy are in Italy it’s not in the archives online people need to apply to local registration office okay so please try to find the film that I mentioned they really speak about they all these babies received birth certificate there when they
Arrived okay Jerry Birenz said when you you mentioned that the British Zone was more strict than the American Zone how what do you mean by that Americans had open door policy in the D.P. camps it actually was just open all the time they could exit and enter when they
Wanted and in British Zone it was much more strict I I don’t know to explain exactly but I know it was much more difficult conditions and and also we we have to take into account that really those who were in Bergen-Belsen and it was the major camp in Bridges Zone there were
Several thousands of Holocaust Survivors who were liberated there they were in very bad condition from after the Concentration Camp Bergen-Belsen so it was it was difficult situation Nomi wochsburg asks do we have records or names of those Jews who left the USSR after the
War this is another topic actually there is a lecture about polish jews yeah the Soviet Union yeah of course this is part of the the story and these people after that arrived to D.P. camps there are no complete lists but there are many different sources and I
Really my lecture is online right Moriah yes it’s online so the lecture that saraphima is referring to is a lecture that she gave for the Center for Jewish history earlier this year you can find it by either going to our the center for Jewish history’s YouTube channel or by going
To our past programs website which you can get to by at CJH going to cjh.org and then on the menu clicking past program videos so I think what do you remember exactly what the title was something about polish jews in this USSR during the Holocaust something like that yeah yeah
Okay okay one Anonymous attendee said I was born in the DP Camp fohrenwald near Munich in 1946 when my mother went into labor prematurely she was admitted to a hospital in Munich she told me that an orderly came close to smothering smothering her in her bed but
Was chased away at the last minute do you know of any other incidents of I guess violence against pregnant Jewish women I as I told because of a big number of births the Personnel was many times German it was not enough doctors in who were who arrived
Majority from the United States was joined so violence against women I I’m not I’m not sure that I remember but I know there were cases in Pocking D.P. Camp when several babies were killed by German nurses oh wow yeah Nancy segal writes were there any
Twins or triplets born in DP camps oh and if so are any of them still alive today first of all I cannot know if somebody’s still alive these are people who live all over the world I didn’t find any I don’t have interviews who who were twins this is very interesting case
That I presented when mothers were Twins and it was funny case that they describe actually that that when first sister arrived to give birth to the hospital and after two or three days second sister arrived and nurses told her but you gave birth already what are you doing
Here so and as I mentioned the birth babies were called after their grandmother and it’s very very touch okay Etty zilber asks where can we find birth certificates of DP babies and is there some sort of document that charts the babies born I don’t I’m not quite not quite
Sure I understand that question once more as I mentioned it’s it depends on the place where the baby was born sometime the right certificates in Arolsen but in majority of cases you need to apply to local registration office in the in this country where the baby was was born if you don’t
Know where the baby was born it’s firstly maybe to search in Arolsen anyway and to find the documents of the parents and to see in which DP camp they were yes that’s definitely important part
Okay let’s see okay okay so daria Stola writes I understand do you know who that is Mr stola hello I understand the causes of why there were no children among Camp survivors and those who survived in hiding
But why were there very few children amongst the repatriots from the USSR no no I did not tell them a few opposite I told children started to arrive small children started to arrive together with full families because for the first time the full family survived including small
Children and old people also there were no elderly survivors only those who ride from Poland got it hyman wulansky says I think it was remarkable that so many women had babies after everything that they had been through during the war were there many women who did not want to have babies
Because of their wartime experiences so I I also mentioned there are evidences and testimonies when women told I don’t want to have baby I’m afraid to have baby I also afraid if that baby could be not normal after what I went through yeah there were many
Cases like that I can imagine we cannot know exact statistics about it but there are many evidences oh somebody asks more personal question do you know my cousin erez Rockman who worked who worked at yad vashem no
Sorry okay oh this is a good one were babies born in the US occupied Zone automatically US citizens no they were stateless they were stateless they didn’t have any citizenship right as I mentioned they cannot apply today for German citizenship but that time they were
Stateless are you aware of Sweden taking in people from Bergen-belsen of course they were so-called white buses of Red Cross who took holocaust survivors to Sweden of course I also want to mention what we call D.P. camps it’s actually it it’s kind of official
Name of this camps because there were many for example transitional camps in different places like Marseille in France they were also like refugees and DPS there but they stayed there for a short time and it is not considered as DP camps I also heard about DP camps in Greece
In Morocco even but it’s not kind of it’s not part of these specific stories of eastern European Jews who arrive to American and British zone of occupation okay a great suggestion from Francis bartkovsky she says attendees might be interested to know about a current exhibit
At the Munich Jewish Museum about DP DPS and the DP camps in Munich I know in Frankfurt there was such an exhibition some time ago okay maybe yeah okay thank you yeah I I have to say that at present time it’s really really a lot of activities surrounding this topic and it seems
To me very much up to date really maybe one of the reason because of former babies are retired and they’re interested in these topics there are films and exhibitions and research and really many activities Achuva Chaimson says what is the actual term for the so-called
Memorial candle children is it ner tamid? it’s actually the term invented by Dina researcher Dina Wardi I really recommend her book it’s called Memorial candle this is the child who received some we can say family duties to be a kind of Memorial candle for those who are killed
Oh okay this is another question how can I find the names of DP camps in Munich like how can you find just yeah like the names and of D.P. camp I really suggest to search by the name of the people not by the name of D.P. camp when you find personal
Document you can see where the person was recorded and it it would be helpful okay by the way I wanted to mention also about munich those who stayed in Germany for example in fohrenwald in Bavaria specifically and could not immigrate there were people who were ill for example and
Could not receive visas for immigration there were people who opened businesses and didn’t want to leave it was small amount but still these people were taken to Munich after 52 and this is the actually nuclear of Jewish community of Munich which was created after the
War that mean this community was consists of eatern European Jews there were no German Jews there I actually have a question before we continue you’re welcome do you know of any you mentioned there there are organizations in Israel or societies of people that that were
That had were born in or had spent time in a specific DP Camp do you know if there are those kinds of organizations also in the US or other other parts of the world I know that this is actually the continuation I hope this is continuation of my research but I know people
Who were born in DP camp and they live in United States they’re really activist and representative of the second generation after the Holocaust and they do not separate themselves from other representative of from the of the second generation I’m trying to say by my research
That this is very unique and special group inside more General and broader group of the second generation okay thank you for that Holly asks I heard that there were German nannies assigned to help Jewish women with their babies and housework right do you have any suggestions of
Where Holly can research this topic oh unfortunately no I don’t know know how to research that I just can just what’s come up to my mind now I I know for example about fohrenwald that the topic was unspoken in at at local population at all during all last decades and I think this
Year or last year it was published a book but in German unfortunately by the journalist unfortunate I don’t remember his name he’s local journalist who was born in the same place which former DP camp in Waldrum and he he’s speaking about the fact that local population did not speak
About their local history so and he really researched that it’s very interesting why I’m speaking about that I mean if if somebody knows about specific place where the p camp was maybe it’s worth searching at local archives I don’t know to tell but if it’s small place it’s more
Possibilities to find but if it’s big place I’m not sure it’s it’s possible is it ever was it ever spoken about by survivors in in their testimonies I have to mention that actually testimonies of the Holocaust survivors which were given in previous years not really mentioned D.P. camp because
The testimonies were actually given about their wartime experience right and I many times pay attention that they told and we were in D.P. camps and our baby was born and we immigrated to Israel and we spend time in this place and this place and that’s all without any details and it’s
Really really pity it’s rather difficult to find such things unfortune so you mentioned how there was a how how many of the DPS were were interested in in settling in Palestine or then Israel so two questions related to that how how many people how many DPS actually did end
Up immigrating to Israel and what or if if you can’t tell me the number maybe like a percentage or something like that and what determined whether someone was able to go to Palestine or Israel someone could not go excuse me I didn’t understand someone could not go to Israel
No what determined whether someone could go to Israel yeah okay first of all I’m not sure there is exact statistics exist okay but I know if we speak about numbers of DPS as I told in 46 it was 250,000 in general it was several hundreds the majority arrived to Israel I think
Of course not everybody many also immigrated to the United States and there were people who immigrated to Canada to Australia a little bit to South not South Africa South America to uruguay Argentina and so on I think think of course Zionist was important reason but
The problematic thing is Visa those who wanted to Palestine and didn’t want to wait as I told arrived illegally and majority were just taken by British authorities and sent to cyprus those who arrived after 1948 after the establishment of state of Israel already arrived
Legally there were people who arrived legally also before with certificate but it was very small in amount it was very difficult to receive certificate to receive American visa was also very difficult especially for those polish jews who went to the soviet union americans didn’t
Want those who were in soviet union they were afraid of communism so it’s really very much depend on the situation yes and one more reason I want to add one more reason for desire for example to immigrate to united states it’s existence of relatives people wanted
To find at least somebody who who are alive absolutely okay I think I know there are a few more questions that were not answered but I think we should now turn it over to talking about people’s stories there’s so many people in the audience who were uh born in dp camps
Which is amazing so I’m going to start with a few that I had that are not no longer in the main list and then I turn it over to you to read some of the ones from the
Main list of questions thank you okay see shulamit shafer said I was born in the bari dp camp in italy in january 1948 and we came to the US in 1949 other people who mentioned let’s see who mentioned have either themselves or family members spending time in Bari were
Susan blackburn and meca naster naster I’m not sure sorry I don’t know how to say your last name and then there were a bunch from fohrenwald including judy yogev norman berman let’s see this is a good one my parents met had married in fohrenwald
Where I was born in 1948 on the date on the exact day of the establishment of the state of israel this is very symbolic and there was a big celebration at the camp and the family joke was that they were celebrating my birth great yeah okay so that’s all from the
Second list would you like to go through the ones I’ll be glad maybe if I can add that I really hope to continue my research and searching not israelis but americans so if somebody wants to be in touch please apply to center of jewish history and moriah will send me right
I’ll be really happy to talk in nearest future so what I’m going through the more do you see the the questions the open questions yeah yeah okay so feel free to read some selected stories because I don’t think we’ll have time for all all of them but yeah of
Course somebody wrote about Pocking dp camp was the biggest camp in american zone and now as there is a group in israel of those who were born there and last year they traveled to pocking together with one of the holocaust survivors who were there as a child
And they had very beautiful ceremony with local administration and there is a monument there to those who were killed in this place because before it started to be dp camp it was a sub camp of luxemburg concentration came there and in this place happened cases that
I heard several times about killing the babies I think it’s worth researching such a topic very tragic was institution [unintellegible] that’s correct it was it’s written that was institution of the wedding the same dress would be [unintelligible] sorry it ran away from me pass from woman to woman
Taken or let out the need arose this is exactly the sometimes as we saw in the quotation women made with themselves sometime they received dress from joint and because of that they they gave it from one to another and yeah this is very I think also amazing and
We can see actually in the that many people who looks similar I meaning the the clothes yeah so I really recommend searching and applying to archives and this is very short period but I think it’s very important period for Holocaust survivors because of the returning to
Life and rehabilitation physical and emotional and these babies are part of this process of rehabilitation and going back to life because of that it’s also so much important I think so
If there are no more questions let me see if there’s anything else I would like to read sorry excuse me okay I see that somebody frances bartkowski published a novel about the time in landsburg it also was very big camp so if this
Book can be sent to yad vashem library if it’s not yet there it would be great one person wrote I was born in camp duppel in berlin and there’s a plaque the place where the camp was located um I learned that I was in the berlin airlift
In 1948 great yeah berlin actually was divided to different zones of occupation because of that it also was divided after the war yeah let see another person was born in the eichstatt dp camp his brother was three and a half when when the family arrived in eichstatt and his
myuncle and aunt were one of the first weddings in the dp camp right and they actually talked about it in their testimony which is at the us holocaust memorial museum great I think at present time there is really um awareness to speak about this topic it’s the
Understanding of its importance and there are more and more material that could be found oh the individual who asked about what determined whether someone was able to go to palestine or israel also added that as our family story goes my grandfather wanted to go to
Israel but instead went to canada on the tailor’s project his father was also born in a DP Camp yeah I think as I mentioned the reason can be that person received Visa maybe they were relative there that can be a reason and there were also people who who
Were not zionists that also happened and also there were people who did not want to go to the place where the war started in 48 after everything that they went through all kind of reasons yeah this is a good one I was born in a DP Camp outside Bubec (sp?) Germany in
1949 the British Zone I’ve got loads of materials photos and documents regarding our stay we left in August 1949 let’s see it’s clear that they I think he’s referring to his parents were quite free in organizing activities in fact my father was involved in
The black market and made enough to fund friends and extended I maybe defined I’m not sure friends and extended family we in fact flew to the US in one of the first commercial flights and this was written about quite a bit including you know forward
In an article in the forward titled my father’s Leica that’s how it’s spelled that’s great actually Black Market was part of their everyday life I have to say yeah let see oh somebody has a question because you talked about about how to find out
The name of DP Camp madeline Mound writes the US Holocaust Museum and the jdc has the names of my mom’s concentration and labor camps but not the name of the DP camp that she was in is
That yeah I see but is that unusual it’s worth searching I mean it’s it should be somewhere in the documents in DP cards once more it depends where she was it’s very difficult to say generally yeah each should be searched separately and madeline says does the CJ have DP Camp names by person
Unfortunately most we do have several DP Camp collections here but they’re not there are there are some information about individuals but it’s kind of spotty and we certainly don’t have a list of which individuals are mentioned in which collection unfortunately
Not at this time I really suggest to set from Arolsen archives online because DP documents online there and their personal lists and cards and after that for General context and for more extended research the searching are the collections connected to all kind of activities
Because it was really very extended life there they were theaters newspapers they were voting their parties politics and everything that you can find yeah see sad story I have an acquaintance who is not not able to celebrate her
Birthday with any Joy because her birth in a DP Camp was not wanted or celebrated I think each family has its own tradition actually and of course it’s yeah this is one of the thing that can be connected to Memorial candle actually okay
A number of questions about Bari the DP Camp do you know of any testimonies from there and another person asked about if there’s a group in Israel of people who are born at at Bari DP Camp actually there I meet many times people who are speaking about
Bari we we need to take into account that that in in this area of south of Italy many people moved from the Camp to Camp they didn’t stay for a long time in one camp and the group that exists
From the south those who were born there it’s only because In This Place Santa Maria albino there is Museum and all these babies were born in the place called Santa Maria [unintelligible] this is also Village there because the hospital was there so they arrived to this Hospital from
Different places and there is no group specific group of bari but we can find in DP card from Italy that the way that people went through during this aftermath period in which city they were okay before we conclude I’m just going to read off the names of
DP camps that people mentioned that they were born in sorry that I wasn’t able to read all of your comments out loud Eileen was born in Hofgeismar by Kassel Toby Rosenberg
Was born in Veitzheim Sam Koplowitz says he was born in Belsen-Hohne DP camp (near to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp) I don’t know if they were connected Ellen writes that her husband was born in lampertheim Naomi says she her grandparents met at poking Pine and her father and her aunt were born
There Samuel norich says he was born in feldafing and then lived in foehrenwald until 1956 so that’s pretty late Virginia berlando says her uncle was born in Fussen camp and my aunt met and married my uncle in the DP Camp they had
My cousin who was born in Munich then okay let’s see Francis parkowski my parents met and married in landsberg DP camp where I was born in 1948 and she also published a novel set in the landsberg DP Camp ety zilver says she was born in
Landsberg Ellen I think I read this one already a few of them I already mentioned Relly said he was born in eichstadt DP Camp Ester bleitweiss says her family was in wetzlar and Foehrenwald and her brother was born there Mike Levine says my wife’s parents were married in the Gabersee
DP Camp and his wife was born in Munich in 1950 after the camp closed another person writes I was born in Bergen belsen and during the time my parents were living in the ebelsburg DP camp in Austria I was born in the krankenhaus Lind or the lind Hospital krankenhaus is Hospital
In German we are at time but before we say goodbye Sima would you prefer that people email me or would you like to share an email address if they have any questions for you maybe if it’s possible to email you and I’ll be in touch
With everybody okay sounds good I’ll put my email address in the chat box and so I will make sure that all of your questions get to serafima thanks a lot thank you so much my pleasure and thank you all for being such a wonderful guests and making
This a very Lively discussion and I very much hope that people are able to form some new connections through this program so that thank you so much Moriah you’re welcome bye goodbye