Historical Background and Interviews
II. The War The War
community contributed $102 million to their cause By 1947, over two thousand doctors, nurses, teachers, and social workers were working with Holocaust survivors in the DP camps, and tons of supplies were donated and distributed. The Bricha organization was helping survivors, from all over Eastern Europe make the journey to the DP camps, often on foot for hundreds of miles, and Aliyah Bet was arranging passage, usually illegally, to Palestine. The rest of the world was relatively indifferent to their condition but the Sh’erit HaPletah (saving remnant, in Hebrew) proved amazingly resilient, embracing life with new schools, new friendships, and new families. 3 Moshe Trosman, originally from a small town in Volhynia called Rokitno, was about fourteen years old when he met Aharon in Bitom. He lived with his brother Issaschar and mother Eita; to support themselves, they sold fabrics Issaschar got in Berlin and milk jugs brought in from the countryside. “Aharon had a warm house then, with an uncle and aunt who took care of him nice- ly,” Trosman recalled. Whenever possible, he and Aharon played games and talked about aliyah to Eretz Yisrael. Both boys wanted to join Dror, a Zionist youth movement that was gathering surviv - ing Jewish orphans from their hidden places, including some who had been sheltered during the war by non-Jewish families, for ali- yah to Israel. Shlichim from Eretz Yisrael took care of the children. Trosman and Aharon visited the Dror orphanage in Bitom, where they saw the children studying and dancing enthusiastically. Aharon was clear that he wanted to be part of the group and im- migrate to Eretz Yisrael. Trosman, on the other hand, stayed with his mother and brother, and embarked on a difficult journey into Germany, where he learned that Aharon and the Dror Bitom group was in nearby Landsberg, and decided to join, too. “It is hard to explain,” he said, “but our only dream was to immigrate to Israel. We didn’t join those who dreamed about America or Canada.” Sisters Behira Zakay and Chana Haklay, Arie Medlinger, and Shmuel Peleg, all of whom joined the Dror group, were found wan - dering around Bitom and elsewhere by Youth Movement members
325
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online