After the Liberation

»Deported to their Deaths« – panel 31 – Culture of Remembrance

Liberation from the concentration camps often marked the beginning of years of searching for the fate of relatives and friends. Those who survived were displaced persons in the Diaspora. A salutation in a letter to relatives in 1945 read: “My dear Americans, Africans, and Chinese!”

How did life continue in the aftermath?

“The friendships that had once existed were simply finished then. You didn’t want to anymore.” Helmut Fürst, 2007.

“After the war, people did not want to have a bad conscience. My voice fell on deaf ears, and I became silent.” Hilde Schneider, 2000.

Some Holocaust survivors stayed in Germany.

“I was German, like everybody else, and just had the Jewish religion.” Helmut Fürst, 2007.

Many survivors emigrated.

“My mother did not want to step foot on German soil anymore, and so we ended up in Amsterdam [in 1945] until our emigration to America.” Lore Oppenheimer, née Pels, 2000.

“We don’t want to stay here. Although everybody is now friendly to our faces, the anti-Semitism cannot be eradicated.” Henny Markiewicz-Simon, née Rosenbaum, 1945.

“We still lived at the fringes of society, and there was a high psychological barrier between us and the Germans. Every contact with them caused apprehension.” Marga Griesbach, née Steinhardt, 2008.

Picture credits

1. Private Collection, Helmut Fürst

2. Private Collection, Hilde Schneider

3. Private Collection, Lore Oppenheimer

4. Private Collection, Henny Markiewicz-Simon

5. Private Collection, Marga Griesbach

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Details

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Exhibition:	Deported to their Deaths
Duration:	December 15th, 2011 to January 27th, 2012
Location:	Neues Rathaus Hannover, Bürgersaal
Panel:	31 from 39 – Culture of Remembrance
Size:	650 x 2050 mm
Technique:	Digital print on Alu-Dibond

Additional exhibitions

Jüdische Gemeinde Hannover

»A New Epoch for Jews in Germany«

11.12.2016 – 07.01.2017

State Capital Hannover

»8 Objects – 8 Fates«

11.12.2016 – 07.01.2017

State Capital Hannover

»Room of Names«

15.12.2011 – 27.01.2012