Survivors

After the war, more than a quarter-million survivors ended up in Displaced Persons Camps, many of them in the same Concentration Camps they were liberated(Click here for video of the liberation of Buchenwald) from. They attempted to find their families, discovering that most of them were gone. However, new families were formed: there were many weddings and births in the camps, which remained open until 1952.

Few had anywhere to go. Their homes were gone. Returning home could be dangerous. Pogroms broke out, the largest of which was in 1946 in Kielce. When 150 Jews returned, people feared more would come to take back their houses and belongings. The rioting killed 41 people and wounded 50 more. (Click here for video footage of the aftermath of the Kielce Pogrom)