Sh'erit ha-Pletah

Sh'erit ha-Pletah (Hebrew: שארית הפליטה, romanized: Sh'erit ha-Pletah, meaning surviving remnant, and is a term from the Book of Ezra and 1 Chronicles (see Ezra 9:14; 1 Chr 4:43) is a Hebrew term for the more than 250,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors living in Displaced Persons (DP) camps after the end of the Holocaust and Second World War, and the organisations they created to act on their behalf with the Allied authorities. These were active between 27 May 1945 and 1950–51, when the last DP camps closed.^[1]^[2]

A total of more than 250,000 Jewish survivors spent several years following their liberation in DP camps or communities in Germany, Austria, and Italy, since they could not, or would not, be repatriated to their countries of origin. For many of the survivors, Europe had become "a vast cemetery of the Jewish people" and "they wanted to start life over and build a new national Jewish homeland in Eretz Yisrael".^[3]^[4] Some of those who returned to their countries of origin, especially Poland, were murdered in pogroms upon arrival, such as the 1946 Kielce pogrom in which 42 Jewish Holocaust survivors were murdered upon return to their home towns, an event which accelerated Jewish migration to Palestine. The United States imposed stricter immigration quotas in order to prevent them immigrating, while Britain continued to try to prevent them migrating to Palestine, sending more than 50,000 Jewish refugees to DP camps on Cyprus, such as the SS Exodus in 1947.

In time, the refugees became socially and politically organized, advocating at first for their political and human rights in the camps, and then for the right to emigrate to the countries of their choice, preferably British-ruled Mandatory Palestine, the USA and Canada. Organised groups such as Bricha were formed by Jews in Palestine in order to facilitate the emigration of European Jews from Displaced Persons camps to Palestine.

With the exception of 10,000–15,000 who chose to make their homes in Germany after the war (see Central Council of Jews in Germany), by 1952 the vast majority of the Jewish DPs ultimately left the camps and settled elsewhere. About 136,000 settled in Israel with the assistance of organised underground efforts by Jewish groups such as the Bricha, 80,000 in the United States, and another 20,000 in other nations, including Canada and South Africa.^[5]

^ "She'arit Hapleta (the Surviving Remnant)" (PDF). Center for Holocaust Education. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem. Retrieved 2019-08-27.
^ Königseder, Angelika; Wetzel, Juliane (2001). Waiting for Hope: Jewish Displaced Persons in Post-World War II Germany. Translated by Broadwin, John A. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press. pp. 80–82, 90, 93–94. ISBN 978-0-8101-1477-7. Retrieved 2019-01-06.
^ "The Bericha - Education & E-Learning - Yad Vashem". Archived from the original on 2018-04-18. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
^ Steinlauf, Michael C. (1997). Bondage to the Dead: Poland and the Memory of the Holocaust. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-2729-6.
^ Cite error: The named reference USHMM-DPs was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[YV-odot-1] "She'arit Hapleta (the Surviving Remnant)" (PDF). Center for Holocaust Education. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem. Retrieved 2019-08-27.

[Königseder-2] Königseder, Angelika; Wetzel, Juliane (2001). Waiting for Hope: Jewish Displaced Persons in Post-World War II Germany. Translated by Broadwin, John A. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press. pp. 80–82, 90, 93–94. ISBN 978-0-8101-1477-7. Retrieved 2019-01-06.

[ishs-3] "The Bericha - Education & E-Learning - Yad Vashem". Archived from the original on 2018-04-18. Retrieved 2018-04-17.

[4] Steinlauf, Michael C. (1997). Bondage to the Dead: Poland and the Memory of the Holocaust. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-2729-6.

[USHMM-DPs-5] Cite error: The named reference USHMM-DPs was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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