Lessons on the horrors of the Holocaust often include statistics on the number of deaths and personal narratives of survivors and their hardships. What became of the liberated Jews directly following the Holocaust is often overlooked. Many survivors had no home to return to because approximately 5,000 Jewish communities had been destroyed during WWII. Others were fearful of returning home, as a Jew’s community oftentimes had a hand in aiding that Jew’s deportation to a ghetto or camp. Imre Cartez, a Holocaust survivor, effectively emulates this idea of betrayal in his historical fiction novel, Fatelessness. The main character is returning home from Auschwitz when an excited train passenger asks him if he is excited to go home. The Holocaust survivor thinks and simply replies, “it’ll be another hell” (Cartez, 277). How could he be excited about returning home to the town that had previously sent him over to Auschwitz? Likewise, how could any survivor be fully excited about being liberated when they had no home to return to? Where did a lost Jew go if they felt a sense of statelessness?
In his essay, “Living in Landsberg, Dreaming of Deganiah,” Avinoam Patt describes the creation of the Jewish State, Israel. Following the Holocaust, many survivors and displaced Jews journeyed to Israel to begin their new life. Patt believes that the Zionist beliefs in Israel were appealing to lonely Jews. Because most old and very young Jews that were brought to camps were gassed right away, the majority of survivors were Jews in their 20s to 40s. These young Jews had no parents to follow or children to lead, so if they could not return to where they came from, they were lost in motive (Patt, 116). Zionism rose in popularity among them, not because of what it taught, but because of the, “pragmatic solutions the most pressing needs of young survivors” (Patt, 122). Lonely survivors could group together under Zionism, travel to Israel together to meet more Zionists, and share in a general camaraderie that comes along with being with people who have similar experiences. Patt further explains how this kind of connection could prove very therapeutic to the survivors (Patt, 116). Jews who wanted that same closeness would also choose to travel to Israel and become Zionist.
Even with a new home for Jews to go to, they still needed to deal with the betrayal they felt, especially if they had previously lived in Germany. The European Jewish Question, in which Europe debated how to deal with their Jewish “problem,” transformed into the Question of the Germans. Tom Segev explains this new issue in his article, “The Streets are Paved with Money” by writing, “[…] the debate that would come to preoccupy Israel [is]: What was the proper attitude to take towards the German people?” (Segev, 17). According to this newly posed question, the Germans had voted Hitler into power, and were thus partly responsible for his policies, and therefore the treatment of said Germans was to be contemplated (Segev, 17). Jews may have felt hatred towards Germans, but the problem eventually solved itself when a need to work together to reconstruct Europe became larger than a need for revenge.
The issues the Holocaust survivors faced goes even deeper than dealing with a loss of home or a loss of faith in one’s community. Auschwitz and Buchenwald survivor, Eli Wiesel tells about surviving his Holocaust in his novel, Night. On the very last page, Wiesel writes, “One day when I was able to get up, I decided to look at myself in the mirror on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me” (Wiesel, 115). Wiesel touches upon one of the most haunting issues, the survivors faced: a loss of identity. Not all issues could be solved.
I agree with your shocked sentiments on why would one want to return to a place that is filled with so many horrors. Night was one of my favorite readings in middle school, and I think it correlates with this topic very well! His loss of identity is similar to a lot of Jews’ experience, and I believe that to be a main reason Zionism was able to take off.
I love the quote you included in your blog from Wiesel’s novel because of its poignance. It seems that confusion about identity is a very important concept in post-war Europe, as we have read and talked about it quite often. I agree with you that identity was especially an important issue among the Jewish DPs. Zionism was a movement that was able to bring a sense of identity and purpose to many people who experienced the trauma of the Holocaust. Here is a story of a Holocaust survivor who ended up becoming the administrator of Kibbutz Nili:
As a soldier in the Polish army, Noach Miedzinski (later named Bernard Medine), fought at the outbreak of World War II. Eventually, he was imprisoned in the Warsaw ghetto where he distributed Zionist papers. Noach was shot through the neck and thrown into a mass grave after he was caught distributing these papers. However, he was not killed. After escaping out of the grave, he was arrested again and sent to the Skarzysko Kamienna labor camp. Noach moved to Germany, where he joined Kibbutz Nili.
I just wanted to share this story to help illustrate the kinds of experiences that many Jewish people had. I am so in awe of the strength and determination of these people who continued to live and strive for a better future after seeing such horrible events.
Here is a group portrait of Noach Miedzinski and other people at Kibbutz Nili (below). They smile for a photograph, and it looks almost like a family portrait. I think it illustrates the sense of community and belonging that the kibbutz fostered.
http://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1109615
I am Noach Miedzinski s daughter RUCHANA Nili White. Just saw this article. I have many more photos and documents that need to be shared in an incredible life story of My father And his strength and life skills. I have Three very strong accomplished children, surgeon, lawyer and entrepreneur who have given us 8 grandchildren with my father and mothers great strength passed on and on!!!!
A gift…….
This is a great perspective on the topic. I like how you highlighted the need for Jewish survivors of the Holocaust to deal with the German betrayal positively. Improved relations between the two was the only way that the Jewish people really could ensure future success.
You capture how lost the Jewish people were at the time well. Without a home to return to, surviving the Holocaust left them nothing: no state, no family, and no possessions. That they flocked together with other Jews of the same experience makes full sense, as all they had was each other.