Non­fic­tion

The Lib­er­a­tion of the Camps: The End of the Holo­caust and Its Aftermath

Dan Stone
  • Review
By – June 5, 2015

Dan Stone, a pro­fes­sor of mod­ern his­to­ry at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Lon­don and the author of fif­teen books on the Holo­caust, has writ­ten a com­pre­hen­sive book on the plight of Jew­ish sur­vivors fol­low­ing their lib­er­a­tion” from the numer­ous con­cen­tra­tion and death camps after the Nazi defeat that end­ed World War II in Europe. Stone argues that fol­low­ing the deliv­er­ance of the Jews from the hands of the Nazis, there was lit­tle joy or relief among the freed pris­on­ers. Bare­ly alive from ill­ness and star­va­tion, still taunt­ed by anti-Semi­tism, and with no pos­si­bil­i­ty to return to their for­mer homes, Jews — unlike Ger­man, Pol­ish, Ukran­ian and oth­er vic­tims of the Nazis — could not be repa­tri­at­ed. Only Pales­tine and the Unit­ed States were seen as pos­si­bil­i­ties for a new life. Thus, for those who sur­vived the forced march­es, star­va­tion, tuber­cu­lo­sis, and typhus, the road back to nor­mal­i­ty was a slow and bit­ter journey.

Divid­ing the book between accounts of the Sovi­et lib­er­a­tion of the death and con­cen­tra­tion camps and of those res­cued by the West­ern Allies, Stone describes the mal­treat­ment of Jews in dis­placed per­sons camps by both the Sovi­ets and the Allied Forces as the Unit­ed States pre­pared for the Cold War. Stone notes that as the Cold War com­menced, it was part­ly at the expense of Jew­ish sur­vivors of the Shoah. Nazi pris­on­ers were treat­ed bet­ter than the Jew­ish DPs, and in the British camps there was not only hos­til­i­ty toward the Jews but a pol­i­cy to pre­vent Jews from emi­grat­ing to Pales­tine. It was not until the Har­ri­son Report of 1947 that Pres­i­dent Tru­man pres­sured the British to allow 100,000 Jews to enter the Yishuv. Stone notes, how­ev­er, that Truman’s action was not entire­ly altru­is­tic: urg­ing 100,000 Jews to enter Pales­tine” was designed to appease both the Jew­ish and anti-immi­gra­tion vote in the U.S. At the same time, many Amer­i­can Jews, though moved by the plight of the Euro­pean Jews[…] were wor­ried that admit­ting Jews to the U.S in large num­bers would pro­voke anti-Semi­tism.” This impor­tant book adds to our under­stand­ing of the trag­ic after­math that affect­ed the Jew­ish sur­vivors of the Holocaust.

Relat­ed Content:

Jack Fis­chel is pro­fes­sor emer­i­tus of his­to­ry at Millersville Uni­ver­si­ty, Millersville, PA and author of The Holo­caust (Green­wood Press) and His­tor­i­cal Dic­tio­nary of the Holo­caust (Row­man and Littlefield).

Discussion Questions