World ORT and the DP Camps
"One of the most remarkable efforts of reconstruction is the movement known as ORT"[1]
Following the collapse of the Third Reich, there were approximately 12,000,000 DPs of all nationalities residing in the enlarged territory of Nazi Germany and other countries. ORT's post-war work played a critical role in the rehabilitation of thousands of Holocaust survivors. ORT’s work started well before the end of the Second World War, and indeed ORT had spent the 1930’s rallying to continue to keep its work going, during the most tumultuous of times. ORT’s role during the war in assisting fleeing refugees eventually moved to the ghettos, where having an ORT identification card was protection against deportation. Whilst survival was never guaranteed in the ghetto, on multiple occasions ORT pupils who had been rounded up on the streets of the ghetto were released.
ORT's first school inside the Landsberg Displaced Persons camp opened on 1st October 1945 by Jacob Oleski. Oleski was a prominent figure in ORT in Lithuania in the 1930’s and was totally dedicated to the founding principles and ideologies behind ORT. Eventually, ORT was operating in DP camps all across Europe, some 80,000 Jews passed through ORT training projects from young Jews to older artisans. ORT's recognition of not just the necessity for survivors to find focus on work, those who had endured concentration camps and slave labour needed to have instilled in them (again) an interest in learning and work, arguably this was more important than any technical training ORT provided. By the end of 1947, ORT had established a network of over 700 courses located in the DP camps.
[1] Wiener Library, London, UK Bulletin, ‘Reconstruction – the Work of ORT’, Vol.3 No.2 (March 1949), p.13.
ORT's Work During the War
The outbreak of the Second World War did not stop the work of ORT and other relief organizations and their social and educational programmes relating to Jews in Europe. Despite the atrocities of the war, the work continued. It was aimed firstly at Jewish refugees, who sought asylum in countries not yet taken over by the war. Secondly, it was conducted in the ghettos of Eastern Europe-closed parts of towns and cities, mainly in Eastern Europe, in which Germans concentrated the Jewish population, before either killing them in the vicinity of the ghetto or deporting them to death, concentration of forced-labour camps. [Read More]
Survivors in Post-War Europe
On 9 May 1945, the unconditional surrender of Germany signified the end of the Second World War in Europe. The Jewish community in Europe was all but destroyed. One of the greatest challenges for the international community was the fate of 9 million forced labourers and 80,000 concentration camp inmates who at the end of the war were abandoned in Germany. The Allied forces had started preparing for this problem during the war and in November 1944 it was decided on creation of assembly centres for displaced persons, the so called DP camps, which for many thousands of Holocaust survivors were to be the first step to building a new life. [Read More]
ORT and Rehabilitation
The end of the Second World War presented ORT and other relief organizations with an immense set of challenges. Those few who survived- whether waiting for immigration in the DP camps or returning to the former countries, had to be provided with immediate help. As many as 80,000 Jews passed through ORT training projects immediately after the war- ranging from young Jews who had been deprived of any education during the war and older artisans who needed skills to build their lives in the new countries.
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