By May 1945 six million European Jews had been murdered by the Nazis and their allies. Much of Europe lay in ruins. Allied soldiers confronting the concentration camps for the first time found - amidst the scattered mounds of corpses and ash - “survivors” suffering from disease and starvation, many of whom would perish in the forthcoming days and months. Homeless and unable - or unwilling - to be repatriated to their countries of origin, many were housed in Displaced Persons camps throughout the Allied zones of occupation. These DP camps, often former military or even concentration camps, were themselves overcrowded, and just as often the Jews had to share space with their very persecutors. Many Jews attempted to emigrate to Palestine despite stringent quotas on immigration imposed by the British government attempting to mollify the Arabs. As a consequence, many emigrated “illegally” with the assistance of the Jewish Brigade and Haganah, through the underground Bricha Movement. A 1947 United Nations resolution to partition Palestine between Jews and Arabs was to be rejected by the Arabs. Britain would end its mandate and withdraw from Palestine in May 1948. Israel established its provisional government in the same month, giving Jews their own homeland and unrestricted immigration. President Truman himself loosened restrictions on quotas of displaced persons, and approximately 28,000 Jews were able to immigrate to the US. The Nuremberg trials were a consequence of Allied efforts to take legal action against Germany as a criminal state. The first tribunal consisted of eight judges, drawn from each of the Allied countries. Twenty-one former Nazi leaders stood trial. The Tribunal enshrined for the first time in jurisprudence and international law the concept of “genocide,” as well as a typology of war crimes to be utilized by the United Nations. In the ensuing years many courts - both international and domestic - would conduct trials of accused war criminals.
Browse the Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection
-
Jewish Orphan Refugee Girls Learning a Trade
2022.1.6
Front: Black and white photograph of several females seated at sewing machines. Back: “These Jewish orphan refugee girls are learning useful trades for a future life in Israel at a Youth Center established near Rome by the Joint Distribution Committee” and “Official AMERICAN JOINT DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE photo by Al Taylor.”
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Real photo postcard of Jewish orphan refugee young ladies learning to be seamstresses or tailors in a youth center near Rome, Italy. Verso, the description states that the photo is from the “Joint,” the American Joint Distribution Committee, which helped establish these centers to help refugees learn trades for a future life in Israel. Al Taylor was the photographer.
-
British Mandatory Government of Palestine Identity Document For Jewish Man, Itzhak Slutzki
2022.1.7
Exterior: Government of Palestine Identity Card with purple hand stamp. Interior: Identification information and stapled photograph with purple “DISTRICT OFFICES” handstamp.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Stamped on front of card that “Possession does not constitute evidence of legal residence in Palestine.” The card lists Mr. Slutzki’s residence as Tel Aviv.
-
Postcard from German Prisoner of War Imprisoned in Former Concentration Camp, Dachau, to his Daughter
2019.2.249
Postcard addressed to “Frau Maria Sauter” written in blue ink, “WAR CRIMES CENSOR – 13” stamped in red ink on left side. Back includes eight lines of writing and dated “26.9.47” in top left corner.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
After Dachau was liberated by American soldiers in 1945, the former concentration camp became an internment camp for Nazi war criminals, SS men, and camp guards. This postcard has U.S. censor markings.
Otto Sauter, civilian internee with prisoner number 272271, writes his daughter in Ichenhausen, thanking her for her package and letter. He reports that x-rays show multiple stomach ulcers and that he may be transported to a hospital, but not to worry.
-
Office of Chief of Counsel for War Crimes Affidavit
2012.1.528ab
Tan page with typewritten information regarding SS-Officers Otto Ohlendorf and Heinz Hermann Schubert. Titled, "Office of Chief of Counsel for War Crimes."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Affidavit by Heinz Schubert, adjutant of Otto Ohlendorf, in charge of Einsatzgruppe D, regarding execution of Russians and Jews near Simferopol between October 1941 and June 1942. Schubert was "to see that the execution place was hidden," valuables collected discretely, etc.
-
Post-War Dachau Death Certificate and Letter for Abraham Keizer with Envelope
2023.1.5a-c
Certificate: Statue of Liberty in silhouette at center with typed information on both sides, three round handstamps. Envelope: Red Cross near top left with small handwriting underneath “NEDERLANDSCHE ROODE KRUIS”. Typed letter with red cross in top left; completed on 31 Maart 1947.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Mr. Abraham Keizer, born March 12, 1904, was a merchant selling lamps and bicycle parts in Lindengracht, a large market in Amsterdam. He was taken to Dachau concentration camp on October 10, 1944, where he perished January 5, 1945, several months before the end of the war. He was registered as prisoner number 115140. His death certificate from the “International Information Office for the Former Concentration Camp Dachau” was issued only for victims of Dachau.
The signed letter from the Netherlands Red Cross National Tracing Bureau was sent to a surviving relative in Amsterdam on March 31, 1947.
It is also known from Dutch Jewish archives that Mr. Keizer’s entire family was deported to Auschwitz where his wife Estella Catherina Keizer-Rodrigues (age 38), sons Robert (age 13) and Alfred (age 4), and daughter Marianne (age 11) perished (gassed) together on October 14, 1944.
-
Correspondence from Holocaust Survivor to United Nations
2015.2.187ab
Envelope front: Green envelope with address written in blue cursive ink. Upper lefthand corner has blue stamp with white letters, and a black circular hand stamp over it.Envelope back: Return address written on flap in blue cursive ink.Letter: Typewritten and copied letter on brown paper. Blanks filled in with blue cursive ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Moving letter and cover from Holocaust survivor, Moses Goldstein, sent to Trygve Lie, Secretary General of the United Nations, asking for help with emigration to Palestine.
-
Correspondence from Holocaust Survivor to United Nations
2015.2.188ab
Envelope front: Green envelope with address written in blue cursive ink. Upper lefthand corner has blue stamp with white letters, and a black circular hand stamp.Envelope back: Return address written on flap in blue cursive ink.Letter: Typewritten and copied letter on brown paper. Blanks filled in with blue cursive ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Moving letter with cover to Trygve Lie, Secretary General of the United Nations, from Holocaust survivor Chana Feinstejn, asking for help with emigration to Palestine.
-
Letter with Envelope from Holocaust Survivor, Fajga Burstyn, to Trygve Lie Pleading for Transit to Palestine
2019.2.243ab
a: envelope addressed “Mr. Trygve Lie Secretary General of the United Nations,” blue postage stamp in upper right corner. b: printed letter, three dashed lines filled in with writing near top, “To Mr. Trygve Lie, Secretary General of the United Nations, Lake Success,” printed in upper left corner, signed “Burstyn Fajga” in bottom right corner.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:Letter from Holocaust survivor Fajga Burstyn, living in Displaced Persons Camp 538 in Germany, sent to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Trygve Lie beseeching for assistance with emigration to Palestine. The anguish of Holocaust survivors did not end with liberation from the concentration camps: most survivors lost families, possessions, their homes and businesses. Living in Displaced Persons camps throughout Europe, often with their very oppressors, they were encouraged to write the United Nations by the She'erit ha-Pletah organization for help getting passage to Palestine. Form letters were provided with that purpose in mind. This one was signed by Fajga Burstyn. Describing her suffering in the concentration camps, where the “Nazis killed before my eyes all of my dearest and nearest” she continues to be in a German camp “among the murderers of my family.” She importunes Mr. Lie to “take me away… and let me join my brothers and sisters in Palestine, give me the possibility to begin a normal life in my own country.” The B’richa which followed brought 250,000 Jews to Palestine. On May 14, 1948, the provisional government of Israel recognized statehood for Israel, and from that moment Jewish immigration was unrestricted.
-
Saturday Evening Post Advertisement for the United Jewish Appeal
2012.1.366
Full page ad with photograph of two children in dark clothes huddled together. Titled, "Could you refuse them if they stood before you?"
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
The United Jewish Appeal had been a philanthropic umbrella organization formed in 1939, supporting the work of other agencies to help Jews with medical care and rehabilitation efforts in Europe, in the DP camps, and in Palestine. They assisted as well in emigration efforts.
-
Office of Chief of Counsel for War Crimes Document
2012.1.527a-c
Tan documents with typewritten information regarding German camps in Russia. Titled, "Office of Chief of Counsel for War Crimes."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Documents relating to Einsatzgruppen and their respective Einsatzkommandos regarding singling out Soviet Russians from prisoner camps in the General Government; specifically, protocols for executions being discrete and not arousing suspicion; how inmates are to be separated into those considered "suspicious" and those who may be useful for labor. "Undesirables" who are to be executed include: Communist Party Functionaries, Jews, Political Commissars, and members of the intelligentsia.
-
Marriage Certificate of Jewish Couple Married in DP Camp Bamberg,Germany
2022.1.11
“Heiratsurkunde” across top with rest of form completed by typewriter and handstamp.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Max Lichtenthal and Chaja Waingluck were married in DP Camp Bamberg, Ulanen Kasserne, Lager, Nurnberger Strasse, Bamberg Germany on 12 May 1947. Both had been residing here. Birth certificates were not available, but Max was born in Germany in 1905, Chaja in 1915 in Poland. Signed below by the registrar.
-
Cardinal Pierre-Marie Gerlier of Lyon
2014.1.475
Front: Black and white photograph of Catholic religious authorities, including two nuns and three priests with Cardinal Pierre-Marie Gerlier in the middle.Back: Information written in green ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
A press photograph of Cardinal Pierre-Marie Gerlier of Lyon. The photo was taken in Quebec in 1947, after World War II. Archbishop of Lyon during WWII, Cardinal Gerlier spoke out against Pierre Laval's deportation of Jews to Nazi death camps. He asked Roman Catholic religious institutes to hide Jewish children. Furthermore, he defied the Nazis in the jurisdiction of the monstrous Klaus Barbie. His efforts to save Jews were recognized posthumously by Yad Vashem and Cardinal Gerlier was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations.
-
Press Photo Orphan Immigrant Children Arriving in Haifa, Palestine from Cyprus Detention Camps on Eve of the End of British Mandate
2022.1.2
Black and white photograph of youth on staircase or ramp waiting in line to check in with men in hats reviewing documents on clipboards.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
British soldiers reviewing papers of 485 orphan children - most Holocaust survivors - who will begin their lives in Palestine after having been interned on Cyprus.
-
Envelope from Eschwege Displaced Persons Camp
2012.1.174
Brown envelope with typewritten address to Mrs. Sylvia Levy crossed out in pencil with an additional address written below. Includes typewritten return address on back.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Eschwege was a DP camp in the Frankfort district, Germany, at this time in the American-occupied zone in 1946. There were approximately 3500 Jews at its peak who established a synagogue, theater group and an auditorium, a newspaper, and a sports club. The cover is addressed to a Mrs. Sylvia Levy in Los Angeles and is from Gubieska Rywa at P.C.I.R.O 1025, forerunner of the International Refugee Organization. Eschwege closed in 1949.
-
Final Statement of the Accused Oswald Pohl Stated Before the Military Tribunal
2015.2.171
Typewritten pages with Oswald Pohl's unrepentant final statement.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Oswald Pohl (1892-1951). Pohl was the head of the Economic Office of the SS and ultimate overseer of the concentration camp system. He was responsible for turning his victims' gold teeth, eyeglasses, hair, etc. into cash for the SS, using the "Max Heliger" Swiss accounts. He was captured by British troops in 1946 and sentenced to death by an American military tribunal for crimes against humanity, as well as war crimes, mass murder, and crimes committed in the concentration camps. Despite repeated appeals, he was executed in 1951. This document is from Nuremberg, October 1948, in German, entitled "Final Statement of the Accused Oswald Pohl Stated Before the Military Tribunal..." At the top of the first page he writes in blue ink: "(M)eine (L)ieben... in thankfulness. Nuremberg Justice Prison June 46-October 48." He pens two paragraphs from a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke: "What our spirit of confusion reclaims/Will eventually benefit the living/Even if it is sometimes just our thoughts/They dissolve in that great blood..." Unrepentant, Pohl claims in his statement: "... I studied the essays that Henry Ford had published in the newspaper The Dearborn Independent in the years 1924/26 and as a book entitled The International Jew ... It is this attitude that great practical American who was not an anti-Semite had then impressed upon me and strengthened my belief that racial and the Jewish problem were not only gray theories. On the basis of this knowledge, and given the increasingly obvious phenomena in Germany, I became convinced that the influence of Judaism was disproportionate to its population and therefore, that containment is necessary. I considered such by legislative methods possible and also sufficient... I have therefore never been involved in acts of violence against Jews, nor endorsed this or knowingly promoted them. On the legislative measures of any kind I was also not involved... I am not conscious of having committed a crime..." In another document he traces his ancestry back several generations.
-
: Press Photograph of Cyprus Internment Camp Holocaust Survivors Arriving with Infants in Haifa, Palestine
2022.1.3
Black and white photograph of adults descending a ramp or stairs with infants in arms.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Internment camps on the island of Cyprus were run by the British government to detain Jewish Holocaust survivors, the so-called “Ma’apilim,” who had attempted to immigrate as part of the Aliyah Bet to Mandatory Palestine in violation of British policy and were therefore considered “illegal immigrants.” More than 53,000 people were held on Cyprus in overcrowded camps with poor sanitation after 1946 until they were permitted to immigrate to Palestine or until these camps were finally closed after Israel achieved statehood.
This is a photograph of some of the 1500-2000 children and parents, freed by the British, who arrived in the port of Haifa from Cyprus on the date coinciding with the end of the British Mandate and the United Nations proposal to partition Palestine. They are debarking from what was known as the “babies’ ship,” with soldiers helping the parents carry the children onto the docks.
-
Correspondence from Austrian Displaced Persons Jewish Camp Hallein bei Salzburg
2012.1.166ab
Envelope: three adhered stamps, one circular handstamp. Letter: two sided, written in green ink
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Letter to Mrs. O. Kofsky in Montreal, Canada from Hinola Englarol.
-
Soldiers Defending Jerusalem
2014.1.379
Two men with guns standing in front of archway. Back: red stamp reading 'Photo Braun'.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Israel War of Independence. Soldiers defending Jerusalem. 1948.
-
Letter in Yiddish from Leon Scherer in DP Camp Hallein bei Salzburg in the US zone in Austria sent to Canada after WWII
2012.1.171ab
Envelope: Brown envelope addressed to Chl. Heriuau from Leon Scherer in black ink. Sent from an Austrian Displaced Persons camp following World War II.Letter: Yiddish letter written in black ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Letter is written in Hebrew to Charles Herman (?) in Montreal, possibly a benefactor.
-
Polish Passport of Tajba Tina Spruch with French and British Visas along with the Provisional Government of Israel's First Visa
2019.2.253
Black leather bound Polish passport with the numbers “028260” stamped in red ink on the top left corner of the first page, 40 pages. [page 32-40 blank]
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:The provisional government refers to the temporary cabinet which governed the Yishuv Palestine under the British Mandate, ending in May 15th, 1948, until the first government of the State of Israel was formed in March, 1949.
-
Post-WWII Missing Relative Document Issued by Le Ministere des Anciens Combattants et Victimes de Guerre
2019.2.235
Document titled “ACTE DE DISPARITION,” date “24 JAN 198” stamped in purple in top right corner.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: This document, a response to an inquiry, states that a Jewish woman of Polish background, Pola Eckhauz, born in Vilna in 1901, a married seamstress living in Paris, France, had been interned at Drancy transit center in Paris on July 16, 1942, from which she was deported to Auschwitz on July 29, 1942. On this transport- the twelfth from Drancy- five people survived of the 1,001 deportees. Yad Vashem database confirms that Ms. Eckhauz was murdered in Auschwitz.
-
Correspondence from Austrian Displaced Persons Jewish Camp Hallein bei Salzburg
2012.1.167ab
Envelope: Letter addressed to L. Hendler from Hinola Englarol in blue ink. Sent from an Austrian displaced persons camp after World War II.Letter:: Written in Yiddish in blue ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Letter to Mr. L. Hendler in Montreal, Canada from Hinola Englarol.
-
Correspondence from a German Displaced Persons Camp
2012.1.172ab
Envelope: Brown envelope addressed to Mr. M. Blank with address crossed out. Back includes written return address, sent from a displaced persons camp in Germany.Letter: Message written in blue ink on blue paper.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Letter possibly in Hungarian to Montreal, Canada from Neustadt-Holstein DP camp.
-
Envelope from a German Displaced Persons Camp
2012.1.176
Green envelope addressed to "Mis. Scheina Turman" in blue ink with return address on back.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Post-war DP cover from Ludendorf Center in Neu Ulm, Germany in the US. Zone, PCIRO 1062 to Ms. Sheina Turman of Montreal, Canada.
-
Photograph Of Camp Caraolos, One of Three Internment Camps on the Island of Cyprus Housing “Illegal Aliens”, Stateless Survivors of the Holocaust Who had Attempted to Reach Palestine Without Visas
2022.1.8
Front: black and white photograph of youth with pails gathered around a water tap; tents in the background. Back: Associated Press typed description of image.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
[verso]: “Water Tap at Cyprus Detention Camp. Jewish Immigrants at Caraolos Internment Camp On the Island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea, gather at a water tap in the camp. The camp accommodates half of the 24,000 Jewish Immigrants who have been detained by the British after trying to reach Palestine without Visas. The camp, one of three on Cyprus, is dotted with tents and Quonset huts. The huts are communal kitchens. Hospital care for internees may be obtained in the British military hospital in Famagusta. Refugee doctors and nurses operate the camp infirmary and laboratory. Most of the Caraolos internees are from eastern Europe. They have their own camp director, and daily conferences are held with the British authorities to discuss camp problems.”