The condition of Halucaust survivor after the war and the search for relatives
“That day […] was the saddest day of my life. I wanted to cry, not out of joy, but out of sorrow. The kissing crewmen of the tanks, the flowers being thrown at them, the jubilation of the masses, the feeling of freedom and deliverance, and we – Zvia, I and the dog – are standing among the crowd, alone, orphaned, the last ones left and knowing all too well that the Jewish people are no more. What sort of happiness could this possibly be? It’s not easy being the last of the Mohicans.”
– Yitzhak Zuckerman
After the Darkness
For many Holocaust survivors, the joy over the end of the war and the liberation from the camps soon turned into uncertainty. Their lives revolved around concerns about the future, anxiety, a sense of emptiness and profound sadness. The Allies housed Jewish refugees in displaced persons camps and attempted to meet their needs. But the Holocaust survivors had another overwhelming need: to look for and find their family members and acquaintances. The Jewish Agency tried to address that need and, in 1945, initiated the Bureau of Missing Persons radio program that broadcast names of survivors, regards that people sent, and information about the Surviving Remnant of the Jewish people in Europe.