Death Marches, Liberation, and Beginning Again (1944-1948)

The end of the war is also a beginning. The Allies defeated the Germans; mass murder operations came to a close. Survivors began the process of personal and collective rebuilding.

As Soviet soldiers approached Auschwitz, the Nazis force-marched most remaining prisoners into Germany, as they did with prisoners from additional camps until the war’s end. At concentration camps in Germany, Allied soldiers encountered survivors, many barely alive, for the first time. Survivors became “displaced persons” and began rebuilding and mourning. The world confronted the atrocities; some Nazis were brought to justice. Large numbers of survivors immigrated to the United States and the emerging State of Israel.