There is a great deal about life in the Jewish displaced persons camps after World War II that remains to be told, especially from the point of view of those who lived there. After the Final No of the Holocaust, there slowly came a Yes, as survivors first nourished their bodies and then their souls.  

 

Most accounts of the Holocaust stop at liberation. The story of what happened to the survivors afterward in the DP camps has been told in collective terms, particularly in the narrative leading to the establishment of the State of Israel, including the well-known story of the “Exodus” in 1947. The granular, intimate stories have only been recounted in the individual testimonies and memoirs of the survivors themselves. And many often gloss over the time spent in the displaced persons camps while they waited to gain entry to a new country.  

 

Nevertheless, they left us with shoeboxes, suitcases and albums full of photos documenting their lives in the DP camps. These photos were their version of “selfies.” We see them dancing the hora, studying at school, learning a vocation, tending to children, performing in an orchestra. Brides and more brides wearing the same wedding gown. Babies and more babies in carriages. Men on motorcycles, and tons of bicycles. Snow scenes, summer bathing scenes. These photos tell us a lot. After having lost everything that connected them to their pre-war lives and homes, they went on a spree to affirm every aspect of their renewed lives.  

 

As we began to speak with survivors, it became clear that this period in the DP camps – whether two or three years, or as in the case of DP Camp Foehrenwald, as many as 12 years – was central in their journey toward renewing faith in the future, in community and in family. For their children, born in the camps, this is their origin story.