The children uprooted by the war represented over twenty different nationalities. UNRRA staff interviewed each one thoroughly, collecting information about their age, parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, religion, nationality and wartime fate.
The children’s greatest wish was to find their relatives, to discover if any had survived. Many young people set out on their own in search of surviving family members, but only a few actually succeeded.
The aim of the UNRRA search office was to reunite families. For many teenagers, however, this meant being confronted with the painful truth that they were the only family member to have survived the war.
Once the hunger in their bellies was stilled, they became aware of another hunger, a gnawing pain for parents and for brothers and sisters.
Greta Fischer, UNRRA
1. Interviewing a ward, US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC
UNRRA staff questioned the children about their relatives in great detail. Any information might have proved useful in finding their family.
2. UNRRA Search Office, United Nations Archives and Records Center
3. Abram Warszaw, US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC
4. Roman Weinstock, private archive of Anna Andlauer
5. Herman Weinstock, US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC
6. Halina Bryks, US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC
Abram Warszaw, Roman Weinstock, Herman Weinstock and Halina Bryks were Jewish survivors from Poland who had lost their closest relatives in the Holocaust. At the Jewish Children’s Centre in Indersdorf, their hope was to leave Germany and start a new life.