The UNRRA carers ensured that the children and young people made meaningful use of their time at the centre. They all had the opportunity to participate in general education, vocational preparation courses and organised recreational activities in an effort to help them return to normal life.
The UNRRA team made schooling five hours a day compulsory for all children between the ages of five and sixteen. As many survivors had been out of school for years, age-differentiated classes were created based on their level of knowledge. The children who had not attended school during the war were expected to acquire basic reading, writing and numeracy skills.
For the kibbutz groups from the Jewish Children’s Centre, training in agriculture was particularly important to prepare them for life on the kibbutz in Eretz Israel.
The UNRRA team also organised free time, theatre and sports activities for the children and young people. It also made a library available to them to help counteract destructive impulses, sometimes with astonishing results.
It was good that there was an educational programme at the centre at all; it allowed the children to experience some normality.
Greta Fischer, UNRRA
1. Reading from a notebook, US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC.
Jakob Bulwa, a Jewish survivor from Poland and former prisoner of Auschwitz and Flossenbürg Concentration Camp, lost his parents and siblings in the Holocaust and missed out on education for five years. At the Indersdorf centre, he quickly caught up, above all in learning English, so that he could emigrate to his relatives living in the USA.
2. In the classroom, US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
Sofia and Janusz Karpuk, along with other children from Poland, attended Polish language classes. Janusz learned to write with a fountain pen.
3. Class at the Kloster Indersdorf Jewish Children’s Centre, Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum.
Jewish survivor Nahum Bogner (front) in a classroom at the Jewish Children’s Centre. He was the only one of his family to survive the war.
4. Leisure time, sport, photo donated by Khan Porat (Israel), private archive of Anna Andlauer.
An Estonian sports teacher organised football matches, athletics and gymnastics competitions and motivated the youngsters to incredible achievements. There was a rumour that he had previously participated in the Olympic Games.
5. Work in the garden, photo provided by Masha Goren (Israel), private archive of Anna Andlauer.
Working in the monastery garden was to prepare the Jewish youth for life on the kibbutz in Eretz Israel.