JDC: Relief efforts for Jewish DPs

JDC: Relief efforts for Jewish DPs 

JDC: Relief efforts for Jewish DPs 

Notes from NCJF documentation:"This is the story of 2,500,000 Jews in Europe and Moslem lands on the road to survival""Against the background of authentic footage showing rescue missions from Europe, Cyprus, Aden, the film shows the importance of aid to the new immigrants. The dramatic effect of the poor living conditions in contrast with the hopefulness of their new life in Israel serves as a powerful message to the audience" Trains with Jewish DPs leaving Germany for Israel (reference to trains leading to concentration camps). People saying goodbye (but many are still left behind after May 1948 and creation of the State of Israel). Sign: THIS IS THE SITE OF THE INFAMOUS BELSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP. Concentration camp crematoria. Human ashes "Suited perfectly for fertilizing vegetable plots") People boarding trains from Munich. Flag with menorah symbol (after creation of the State of Israel). People in food line. Reference to Hitler having returned to Munich from World War I in November 1918 to start his"Mein Kamp". Trains leaving Munich (with emigrants) for Marseilles with Israel as final destination. Cyprus, where 50,000 Jewish prisoners were interned over a two year period, people behind barbed wire fences (footage at Liberation of Cyprus dates to February 10, 1949). Terrible living conditions (mud ground, tents, extremes of temperature with no adequate provisions, crowded, dirty camp grounds). Ritual circumcision ceremony in a camp in Cyprus. Classrooms within camp at Cyprus. February 10, 1949. Last detained prisoners pass through the gates of Cyprus camp. Prison gates at Cyprus locked for the last time. Sign on ship:"GALILAH/HAIFA" Plane "Magic Carpe" airlift at Aden dates between 1947-48) Yemenites on foot, holding possessions they could carry, traveling through the desert. Rabbi carrying a Torah aboard plane."Hatikva" music in the BG as plane takes off and lands in Israel. Footage of"Operation Magic Carpe". Old man picking up earth as he lands in Israel. Children exercising in Israel. Raising Israeli flag, May 14, 1948 (possibly at United Nations). New government elected. JDC personnel giving out basic supplies. Sign on train:"EXODUS" Medical care and vocational training by JDC workers. Sign:"LICHTSPIEL" (movies). Bergen Belsen meeting at DP camp. Survivors on Liberation Day. Meeting and children at Otwock, Poland near Warsaw. Sign on ship:"ATZMAUT" Edward M.M. Warburg, JDC Chairman, speaking at the closing dinner of an International Conference on Jewish Relief and Rehabilitation. Vienna, Joint Distribution Center. Vocational training, man has tattoo on his left arm #126543. Passover ritual. Refugees arriving in Marseilles. People boarding trucks, to get to trains to eventually board ship to Israel. Arabic Jews in a"world on the edge of a volcan", January 1948 - pogrom in Crater City, Aden. In Casablanca children in streets, victims of TB, typhoid fever, malnutrition. Faces of immigrants on ship:"KEDMAH-Haifa" people boarding buses leading to trains and ships. Healthy babies, children cared for in nursery school, classrooms, playing soccer and ping pong. Film ends with children running freely as a symbol of hope for future generations.