Holocaust Memorial Day: “Liberated but not Free”

Following the Allies’ victory over Nazi Germany in May 1945, the term “She’arit Hapleta” (The Surviving Remnant) emerged to describe the Jewish survivors and refugees who refused to rebuild their lives in a Holocaust-devastated Europe, particularly in eastern Europe, plagued by anti-Semitism. They gathered in DP camps, seeking the right to immigrate, primarily to Israel.

At the war’s end, approximately 200,000 Jews survived the concentration camps, death camps, and death marches, with thousands of them succumbing to illness, disease, and the trauma or shock of the liberation. Those who endured searched for loved ones, often in vain, venturing from camps and forests to their pre-war homes, only to face hostility and violence from their neighbors. Around 1,000 survivors fell victim to anti-Semitic and Nazi gangs in the initial post-liberation months.

Fleeing this hostility, most survivors converged in DP camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy, where by late 1946, approximately 250,000 resided. Despite harsh conditions, they fostered vibrant Jewish life, nurturing education, culture, religion, and political engagement.

“Liberated But Not Free”; the countries beyond the sea restricted Jewish immigration and the gates of Mandatory Israel were locked, due to the refusal of Mandate authorities to implement a new policy to the restrictive 1939 “White Book”, even after the Holocaust horrors. Between 1945 and 1948, roughly 70,000 survivors made their way to Israel aboard dilapidated ships, only to face British deportation to Cyprus and internment in detention camps. Around 52,000 found themselves once more confined behind wire fences.

On November 29, 1947, the United Nations voted to end the British mandate and establish a Jewish state alongside an Arab state in Israel. The next day, battles broke out, Holocaust survivors played a central role in these battles as well as in the War of Independence in May 1948. About half of Israel’s fighting force after the IDF’s establishment were Holocaust survivors, and about a third of all those killed in combat were survivors of the Holocaust horrors.

We will remember the Holocaust horrors forever, even when the world seems to forget! We pray for the return of all hostages, men, women, and soldiers held in Gaza, and the safe return of all the IDF soldiers still fighting to defend us.