Words Reaching for Life: Yiddish Culture in Displaced Persons Camps (Hebrew)
Ella Florsheim
Published by the Zalman Shazar Center and Yad Vashem Publications, 2020, 344 pp.
My father was among the 250,000 refugees who lived in Jewish displaced persons camps throughout Germany and Austria after World War II. But unlike other 15-year olds, he had arrived in the camp alone, having left his parents in Poland. Suddenly he was free as a bird, with no parental supervision. Although he was technically a detainee in the British and American refugee camps, his stories of those days were filled with a spirit of freedom and joy. He managed to learn a little Hebrew and even a trade; he became a carpenter. He joined the religious Zionist youth movement, Bnei Akiv, played soccer and apparently sowed some wild oats. I’ll probably never hear the juicy details of his escapades because, let’s face it, how can a father talk to his son about that?
Like mushrooms after the rain: The flourishing of Jewish culture in the D P camps forward.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from forward.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.