DP Publications: Liberated But Not Yet Free
Displaced Persons (“DPs”) is the term coined by the Allies to describe the millions uprooted in the wake of the Second World War. Among World War II’s DPs were 250,000 Jewish survivors of the Nazi Holocaust, unable, unwilling or unwelcome to return to their former homes. Allied authorities and the United Nations Relief & Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) established a network of Jewish DP Camps across Germany, Austria and Italy, the last of which did not close until 1957.
Even as they languished in the camps waiting for news of family members at home and relaxed immigration restrictions abroad, Jewish DPs did not wait to envision, rebuild, and create new lives. The material on display offers a unique and intimate window on the lives of survivors liberated, if not yet free.
“Undzer Shtime” (“Our Voice”): Daily life in the D.P. Camps
“Nahpesah ve-nahkorah”: (“Search and Research”)
In the immediate aftermath of the war, survivors raced to establish historical commissions and publish reports and documentation of the Nazi Holocaust.
“In Gang” (“In Transit”): Flight & Exile, Immigration & Return.
“Zakhor”: The Obligation to Remember
Yizkor (memorial) books document the history of Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust. Often privately published and compiled through the collective efforts of survivors and/or former community residents, they describe daily life through essays and photographs, and memorialize murdered residents. More than 650 Yizkor books are currently available online. While most are in Yiddish or Hebrew, the number of English translations continues to grow.
