Repair the World: Group Work in the Deggendorf Displaced Persons Center, 1945-1946

Abstract

This paper explores the formation of a transitory community in the UNRRA Displaced Persons Center in Deggendorf, Germany, where Jewish Holocaust survivors used social group work to preserve their past, to restore humane values, and to prepare for new lives. Social activism through task groups and activity groups affirmed individual and community self-determination while promoting recovery from trauma. The experience of the She’erith Hapleitah or “surviving remnant,” as they called themselves, though historically specific, has implications for group work with migrants today.