Jewish responses to persecution Volume 5. 1944-1946 / Leah Wolfson ; translators: Ania Drimer [und 10 weitere]

591 Pages·2015·6.042 MB·English

by  Wolfson, Leah

■ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel
Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies
Documenting Life
and Destruction
Holocaust Sources
in Context
SERIES EDITOR
Jürgen Matthäus
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Jan Lambertz
DOCUMENTING LIFE AND DESTRUCTION
HOLOCAUST SOURCES IN CONTEXT
Th is groundbreaking series provides a new perspective on history using fi rst-
hand accounts of the lives of those who suff ered through the Holocaust, those
who perpetrated it, and those who witnessed it as bystanders. Th e United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies
presents a wide range of documents from diff erent archival holdings, expand-
ing knowledge about the lives and fates of Holocaust victims and making these
resources broadly available to the general public and scholarly communities for
the fi rst time.
Books in the Series
1. Jewish Responses to Persecution, Volume I, 1933–1938, Jürgen Matthäus and
Mark Roseman (2010)
2. Children during the Holocaust, Patricia Heberer (2011)
3. Jewish Responses to Persecution, Volume II, 1938–1940, Alexandra Garbarini
with Emil Kerenji, Jan Lambertz, and Avinoam Patt (2011)
4. Th e Diary of Samuel Golfard and the Holocaust in Galicia, Wendy Lower
(2011)
5. Jewish Responses to Persecution, Volume III, 1941–1942, Jürgen Matthäus
with Emil Kerenji, Jan Lambertz, and Leah Wolfson (2013)
6. The Holocaust in Hungary: Evolution of a Genocide, Zoltán Vági, László
Csősz, and Gábor Kádár (2013)
7. War, Pacifi cation, and Mass Murder, 1939: Th e Einsatzgruppen in Poland,
Jürgen Matthäus, Jochen Böhler, and Klaus-Michael Mallmann (2014)
8. Jewish Responses to Persecution, Volume IV, 1942–1943, Emil Kerenji (2014)
9. Jewish Responses to Persecution, Volume V, 1944–1946, Leah Wolfson (2015)
A project of the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Sara J. Bloomfield
Director
Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel
Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies
Paul A. Shapiro
Director
Jürgen Matthäus
Director, Applied Research
under the auspices of the
Academic Committee
of the
United States Holocaust Memorial Council
Peter Hayes, Chair
Doris L. Bergen Sara Horowitz Alvin H. Rosenfeld
Richard Breitman Steven T. Katz Menachem Z. Rosensaft
Christopher R. Browning William S. Levine George D. Schwab
David Engel Deborah E. Lipstadt Michael A. Stein
Zvi Y. Gitelman Wendy Lower Jeff rey Veidlinger
Paul Hanebrink Michael R. Marrus James E. Young
John T. Pawlikowski
Th is publication has been made possible by
support from
Th e William S. and Ina Levine Foundation
and
Th e Blum Family Foundation
Th e authors have worked to provide clear information about the provenance of
each document and illustration included here. In some instances we have been
unable to verify the existence or identity of any present copyright owners. If
notifi ed of any items inadvertently credited wrongly, we will include updated
credit information in reprints of this work.
Documenting Life and Destruction
Holocaust Sources in Context
JEWISH RESPONSES
TO PERSECUTION
Volume V
1944–1946
Leah Wolfson
Advisory Committee:
Christopher R. Browning
David Engel
Sara Horowitz
Steven T. Katz
Alvin H. Rosenfeld
Rowman & Littlefi eld
in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
2015
For USHMM:
Project Manager: Mel Hecker
Researcher: Holly Robertson Huff nagle
Translators: Ania Drimer, Marcel Drimer, Tom Frydel, Yedida Kanfer, Kathleen Luft,
Julius Menn, Abigail Miller, Devin Naar, Sarah Roth, Stephen Scala, Lara Szypszak
Intern: Hannah Lindahl
Index: Lisa Waters
Maps: Jeff Blossom, Center for Geographic Analysis, Harvard University
Published by Rowman & Littlefi eld
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Copyright © 2015 by Rowman & Littlefi eld
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic
or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written
permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available
978-1-4422-4336-1 (cloth : alk. paper)
978-1-4422-4337-8 (electronic)
™
Th e paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
It is impossible to describe the horrors of the KZ [concentration camp] as they
really were, because no mere words can accurately describe the reality of the
hardships and horrors. Surely nobody can believe the SS methods if he did not
feel them on his own skin.
Who can feel with us?
Who can understand us?
—Michal Kraus, age 15, postwar diary, 1945 (see document 10-8)
Th e following documents are reprinted with permission:
Document 1-5 © Central Zionist Archives; Document 1-7 © Central Zionist Archives;
Document 2-5 © Central Zionist Archives; Document 3-4 © Central Zionist Archives;
Document 3-5 © Central Zionist Archives; Document 3-7 © Yad Vashem; Document
4-1 © Central Zionist Archives; Document 4-2 © Central Zionist Archives; Document
4-9 © Association of Jewish Refugees; Document 4-10 © Association of Jewish Refugees;
Document 5-9 © Yad Vashem; Document 6-2 © Yad Vashem; Document 6-3 © American
Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Archives; Document 6-7 © Central Zionist Archives;
Document 6-8 © Central Zionist Archives; Document 7-4 © Central Zionist Archives;
Document 7-5 © Central Zionist Archives; Document 7-7 © Jacob Rader Marcus Center of
the American Jewish Archives; Document 8-6 © Central Zionist Archives; Document 8-7 ©
Central Zionist Archives; Document 9-6 © American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
Archives; Document 9-7 © American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Archives;
Document 11-3 © YIVO Institute for Jewish Research; Document 11-13 © Central Zionist
Archives; Document 12-1 © Yad Vashem; Document 12-2 © Yad Vashem; Document 12-4
© Yad Vashem.
For further provenance information see document headers.
Front cover: (top row, left to right) USHMMA Acc.1996.15, Lt. Col. Alexander H.
Rosenbaum collection; USHMMPA WS# 30857, courtesy of Arlene Chasin Strowman;
USHMMA Acc. 2007.162, Carl Atkin collection; (bottom row, left to right) USHMMPA
WS# 28264, courtesy of Aveda Ayalon; USHMMA Acc. 1996.80, Henry Hanski papers;
USHMMPA WS# 37376, courtesy of Herbert Friedman
Contents
Maps xiii
Readers’ Guide xvii
Abbreviations xxi
Introduction and Series Postscript xxv
PART I:
THE “FINAL SOLUTION” AND THE END OF THE WAR 1
1 The End of the War and the Last Throes of Genocide 3
Resistance, Rescue, and Escape 6
Th e Last Deportations, 1944–1945 19
Th e Final Days of the Concentration Camp System 32
Moving Jews: Death Marches and the End of the War 45
2 Experiencing “Liberation” 53
American Jewish Soldiers Encounter the Holocaust 54
Responding to the Liberators: Liberation from the
Survivor’s Perspective 64
3 Adjusting to Peace, Surviving Survival 81
Emerging from the Holocaust: Finding a “Home”
in Postwar Europe 82
Surviving as Children, Reclaiming Childhood:
Jewish Children after the War 97
ix