Hope, Courage and Voice: Cultural Activities in the Displaced Persons’ Camps of Allied-Occupied Germany

Abstract

Jews survived the Second World War in Europe under varied circumstances, and the different ways in which Nazi crimes were shown in the images and texts they produced reflect this diversity. The wide range of cultural activities in the Displaced Persons (DP) camps in the American and British zones of Germany – from visual arts through different forms of literature to theatre and music – attest to the importance of this kind of self-expression for those without a home or homeland. That some Jewish artists were professionals who had gained fame before the war while others were amateurs, and that there was no sharp separation between these groups, demonstrates the democratic and inclusive nature of these exercises. This was all the more significant because for many survivors, liberation did not mean freedom: they remained behind often still-electrified barbed wire, unable to leave, as former concentration camps were turned into DP camps overnight. Under these circumstances, cultural activities helped survivors reconnect with Jewish history, deal with the devastation of the recent past, engage with the present and imagine the future.