The Initial Organization of the Holocaust Survivors in Bavaria
In the summer of 2005, the Central Committee of Liberated Jews in Bavaria was formed at the St. Ottilien Conference. It represented 15,000 to 18,000 Jewish survivors of Dachau, Kaufering, Allach, and other concentration camps. By the latter half of 1946, some 175,000 were represented and the committee, directed by emissaries from Palestine, significantly influenced the events of 1947/48. Its activities were based on Zionist ideals. The attitude of the US Army was ambivalent and largely depended on the initiative of the Jews themselves. All in all, the Jewish survivors, immediately after the war ended, played an important part in the establishment of the State of Israel.