Life and Death of the DP Camps 1945-1952

School children at Schauenstein DP camp in 1946

        In all, 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. After the Holocaust tens of thousands were uprooted by the war and those refugees had no were else to go. The Allied forces, who were the Americans, the British, the Soviet Union and the French. They  planned to rehabilitate, liberate, and help return people to the country of their birth.
 
       In Late 1945 many Jews, eastern Europeans, and the Soviet Union streamed into the occupied countries of Germany and Austria. They were looking for emigration assistance, relatives, and anti-Semitism (or hatred of the Jews)
 
       The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Association (UNRRA) were in charge of building the DP camps (Displaced Persons camps). Eventually in 1947 they backed down because they did not have enough supplies for 1 million people. they had 7-9 million people to take care of, so they gave the job to the International Refugee Organization (IRO). They  took care of about 6 million displaced persons (DP) and retreated or helped to return people to the country of their birth. From May to September.
 
        In 1946, people began to settle. People started getting married and started families. Their were record births recorded, because of that the Society for Rehabilitation and Training (ORT), they noticed  that, Oh yeah, there is kids in this camp. So they started schools, sports, and cultural clubs. Later on they were overlooked by Dr. Oleiki, a former concentration camp prisoner from Lithuania . He set up class rooms and work shops. After that Dr. Oleiki became the prime mover for Israel's system of  vocational education, or education for apprenticeship.
 

 

Kids at a DP school in 1946

        In 1946, people began to settle. People started getting married and started families. Their were record births recorded, because of that the Society for Rehabilitation and Training (ORT), they noticed  that, Oh yeah, there is kids in this camp. So they started schools, sports, and cultural clubs. Later on they were overlooked by Dr. Oleiki, a former concentration camp prisoner from Lithuania . He set up class rooms and work shops. After that Dr. Oleiki became the prime mover for Israel's system of  vocational education, or education for apprenticeship.
 
         Jews of the DP camps started their own way of life on their own too. They had 70 newspapers published, and even started theaters and orchestras.
 
         In 1947 DPs waited years to emigrate to countries like Palestine, Canada, and the United States . One problem with moving to Palestine is that Britain owned Palestine and it is not like they are going to let every DP who wanted to go, in. If the DPs went in they would considered illegal immigrants. But still immigration was common.
       Seventy-thousand Lithuanians at the end of World War 2 made their way west to Germany and Austria. A large number of Lithuanian DPs have had jobs like physicians, engineers, jurists, teachers, artists, and public officials. All those people would have been targeted by the Soviet Occupational regime if they stayed or returned to Lithuania (which was now occupied by the soviet Union).

        About 10, 195 0 published a newspaper "Suddeuteutsche" On there Zeitung said, "On order of the General McCloy, all DPs (or displaced persons) must  clear the barracks for the American troops." Their supposed date was November 1,1950. At that date even 1,096 DPs were still in there. In the camp people started moving out by 1952.100 inmates on October 1

 
 
         In 1952, almost all of the DP camps were closed and destroyed. Finally in 1958 the last of the DP camps were closed.
 

         The DP camps have helped people settle for a moment and think about where they were going to go next. After the Holocaust they did not have have a place to go. The Holocaust was sad, brutal, and unneeded. Thanks to the Allied forces, the IRO, DP camps, and other countries there weren't lots of homeless people roaming around

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