Bücher zum Trauern und zum Leben - Druckerei und Bibliothek im Displaced-Persons-Camp Bergen-Belsen (1945-1950)

Abstract

In 2007 the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library in Hanover acquired two Hebraic reprints of religious Judaic manuscripts written in Poland in the 19th century. These reprints were created - probably in 1947- in the Displaced Persons Camp Bergen-Belsen. Immediately after WW2 it served as a way station primarily for East European Jews and was the largest of its kind in the British Occupation Zone. As a means for mourning and a way to instill hope in the future, these books played a special role in the lives of Holocaust survivors. Books represented a homeland for Jews in the Diaspora and gave expression both to mourning and to the joy of being (still) alive. Consequently, the nearly complete lack of any books in the camp initially posed a considerable problem. In Bergen-Belsen, as in other displaced persons camps, the Jewish Autonomous Administration quickly began to establish libraries and publish their own works - primarily political, religious and historical works for general reading.This article traces the history of the press and the library of the DP Camp Bergen-Belsen and gives recognition to the significance of the Hebrew and Jewish book culture for the Holocaust survivors who had to restart their lives after 1945.