ORT, the Second World War and the Rehabilitation of Holocaust Survivors

This book centres on the role played by ORT in the rehabilitation of Holocaust survivors inside the Displaced Persons (DP) camps after the Second World War. A brief history of the ORT organisation is followed by the author highlighting ORT''s work during the 1920s and 1930s, using Berlin as a case study. The important and often life-saving work carried out by ORT workers inside the ghettos of Eastern Europe, primarily in Warsaw and Kovno, is then examined. The book then focuses on the liberation of the concentration camps, the set-up of the post-war allied zones of occupation, the establishment of the DP camps, and ORT''s arrival within them. The mature period of ORT''s work in the DP camps is then covered, looking at Belsen in the British zone of occupation and Landsberg in the American zone. The book also explores ORT''s work in Austria and Italy. The final chapter highlights the closure of the DP camps, the subsequent immigration of the DPs, and the creation of the State of Israel.