With the war over, two survivors from the Netherlands remove the "Yellow Star. CL:NARA |
"We emerged from the camp stripped, robbed, emptied out, disoriented-and it was a long time before we were able even to learn the ordinary language of freedom. Still today, we speak it with discomfort and without real trust in its validity."
Jean Amery, At the Mind's Limits: Contemplations by a Survivor on Auschwitz and it's Realities, 1980 |
Refugees, still in prison uniform, on deck of the
"Henry Gibbins" en route to New York, 1944. CL:Ruth Gruber |
Mass burial for victims of post-war Kielce Pogrom (Poland), 1946. CL:Organization of Kielce Survivors in Israel |
Liberation from camps did not mean liberation from persecution, antisemitism, loneliness, and overwhelming sadness. For many Jews there was nothing left to return to; no homes, no friends, no community. Those who did return to their homes often experienced intense antisemitism and persecution.
Over 35 million people had died in World War II, over half of them civilians One out of every 22 Russians was killed; one out of every 25 Germans; one out of every 150 Italians; one out of every 200 Frenchmen. But in the Nazis' war against the Jews, two out of every three European Jews had been murdered. Any hope for rebirth seemed distant in 1945.
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