The plight of the Jews did not end in 1945- it continued on.
There were about 300,000 Jews that survived the camps, death marches, and atrocities. Think about what they faced even after the Holocaust ended.
- Health: Most of these people were severely malnourished, extremely sick, and badly traumatized. They had to recoup which could take months or even years. Many died in this process
- Loss: Once the survivors got healthy they had to meet a world where their entire families had been exterminated. Their wives, siblings, parents, and children were likely gone. Many were the sole surviving members of their family
- Wealth: In Eastern Europe, the Nazis had seized Jewish bank accounts, homes, and belongings. These people didn’t have a penny to their name or a shirt on their back.
Jews from Western Europe often returned home. The Jewish communities of the West still existed (though they were diminished) and so many of the survivors from places like France or Belgium were able to return to their homes.
- Note that it was hardly perfect. Many found their homes being lived in by new tenants who took over their property. It was complex and difficult for them to say the least
Jews from Eastern Europe had it tougher. When they tried to return home they often found that their homes were in someone else’s possession or had been looted.
Worse yet the entire Jewish community in Eastern Europe had been eradicated. 90% of the Jews in Poland had been killed and in other Eastern European nations, the Nazis had declared them “Jewish-free”.
These survivors found themselves broke, homeless, and isolated with no community to call on for support. Even worse still many faced continued violence and anti-semitism.
So 250,000 Jewish survivors ended up in allied “displaced person camps”. Ironically these camps were rather primitive at first- though nothing even remotely like the Holocaust.
Sadly these camps were often home to ex-Nazis and even camp guards, meaning these survivors were now living next door to their tormentors. This is where most of the Holocaust survivors lived for years (until the late 1940s).
Eventually, though the displaced survivors found new homes.
- 136,000 immigrated to Israel and began new lives there
- 80,000 immigrated to America
- 30,000 immigrated to various nations like Canada, Mexico, Argentina, parts of Asia, and even parts of Europe
For these 250,000 traumatized survivors they had to start their lives from scratch with the memories and scars of what had happened to them always fresh in their minds. I cannot imagine the pain or the difficulty they faced.