Wasilkow, Poland (Pages 120-124 English)

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[Page 120]

SS Commander Hosler at the liberation of Buchenwald

The first hot meal for a Buchenwald survivor. Many died from overeating.

[Page 121]

Jewish bodies found the day Buchenwald was liberated
Pictures which stunned the Western world

[Page 122]

Funeral of the 41 Kielce Pogrom Victims
A medieval blood libel revived

Conditions in Eastern Europe continued to be unbearable in 1946. Pogroms took place in Slovakia and Hungary but the situation of Polish Jewry was especially desperate as the Polish government did not succeed in putting down anti-Semitic outbursts. The attacks were most virulent in the Kielce pogrom in which 41 Jews were killed and scores more wounded. The events were reminiscent of the middle Ages. A nine year old Polish boy claimed he was kidnapped and taken to the Jewish Council house where he saw Christian children killed for ritual purposes. The local police went to the Jewish Council house to investigate. Meanwhile, a crowd gathered having heard the child's hair-raising story several times. Tempers flared and the people armed with clubs and knives broke into the building beating and killing anyone they found inside. The government reacted severely. Nine of the pogrom instigators were sentenced to death but the Jews who saw that the authorities were unable to protect their lives, increased their flight from Poland. During the three months which followed the Kielce Pogrom, (July-September 1946), 95,000 Jews escaped to West Germany. The DP camps of Europe now held 250,000 homeless Jews.

[Page 123]

The Jewish Brigade – morning roll call in the desert

The flag of Israel flying in the war against the Nazis

[Page 124]

Jewish soldiers in the Desert
To fight as a nation

Jewish partisans in the forests of Bialystok

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