Embedded Files
Only 10% of the Jews of Korets (about 600-700) survived the Holocaust. After the war, they made their way west to Displaced Persons (DP) Camps in Europe, mostly to Austria and Germany, hoping to emigrate to Canada, Israel or the United States. Many spent several years in the camps, awaiting visas to their new homelands.
Displaced Persons Camps in Austria
Displaced Persons Camps in Austria
(Includes Bad Gastein, Linz, Bindermichl, Salzburg and Vienna)
(Includes Bad Gastein, Linz, Bindermichl, Salzburg and Vienna)
The Jewish DP Camps in the Austrian Zone of Occupation (JewishGen)
Bad Gastein Displaced Persons Camp:
Description and History (US Holocaust Memorial Museum)
Overview, History and Photo (Yad Vashem)
Organization for Rehabilitation and Training (ORT) Programs - established vocational training programs in the DP camps to help Holocaust survivors and other DPs learn new skills.
Bindermichl Displaced Persons Camp:
Photos, oral history and papers (US Holocaust Memorial Museum)
List of Jewish Survivors (Arolsen Archives)
1946-1948 (Center for Jewish History)
Linz Displaced Persons Camp:
Organization for Rehabilitation and Training (ORT) Programs
Salzburg Displaced Persons Camp:
History and Overview (US Holocaust Memorial Museum)
Organization for Rehabilitation and Training (ORT) Programs
Vienna Displaced Persons Camps:
Organization for Rehabilitation and Training (ORT) Programs
Vienna's Rothschild Hospital (US Holocaust Memorial Museum)
Boruch (Buzia) Balaj and Manya Waskobujnik Balaj
Boruch (Buzia) Balaj and Manya Waskobujnik Balaj
Manya Waskobujnik Balaj and Boruch (Buzia) Balaj, Chelyabinsk, USSR, 1945 shortly after they were married.
The 70th Anniversary article marks the 70th anniversary of their arrival to the United States, including their journey from Chelyabinsk, USSR to the United States, with stays in DP camps in Salzburg, Austria and Wetzlar and Wasseralfingen, Germany along the way. They also stayed for a brief time at the the Rothschild Palace in Vienna, which had been opened to Jewish refugees. The Rothschild Hospital in Vienna also housed Jewish refugees, including the frail and the sick.
Rothschild Hospital (from Wikipedia)
Rothschild Hospital, Vienna, Austria
Rothschild Hospital, Vienna, Austria
The Rothschild Hospital, founded by Baron Anselm von Rothschild in 1873, became a displaced persons hospital in the Vienna district in the American occupied zone of Austria, where many Jewish refugees were also temporarily housed
Rothschild Hospital (US Holocaust Memorial Museum)
Founding of the hospital by Baron Anselm von Rothschild in 1873 (Wikipedia)
Fania Hellman Wedro
Fania Hellman Wedro
Fania Hellman survived the Holocaust by hiding in the forest for 18 months following the mass killings in Korets in 1941-42. She was liberated by the Russians in 1944 and made her way west, eventually reaching the Displaced Persons Camp in Bad Gastein/Linz, Austria. Fania spoke excellent Hebrew, having attended the Tarbut in Korets. She became a Hebrew teacher for the children in the DP camp. While there, she met her future husband Leo Wedro, who came from Mezhyrich, a city near Korets, and they were married in the DP camp. They eventually emigrated to Canada, where Leo had an uncle.
Voices of Survival: Fania Wedro
Voices of Survival: Fania Wedro
Fania Wedro (1927-2023) was born in Koretz, Poland, into a loving family. But she had experiences of antisemitism from her earliest days and, after 1933, she witnessed the devastation of her Jewish community during the Holocaust. Fania lost her family to forced labor or mass shootings and then endured ghettos, forced labor, and hiding in the forest for 18 months to survive. Liberated in 1944, she later married and immigrated to Canada, where she and her husband Leo Wedro built their lives and championed Holocaust education.
Fania Hellman posing with her weapon that she used as a Partisan.
Fania Hellman's Teacher Certification Document, Bad Gastein DP Camp, 1947
Fania Hellman with her class, Bad Gastein DP Camp,
Austria, 1947
Fania Hellman Wedro and her husband, Leo Wedro, 1948. They met and married in the DP camp.
Fania Hellman with two of her students, Bad Gastein DP Camp,
Austria, 1947.
Jewish Police Force, Linz DP Camp, Moishe Gershman is sitting (to the left) next to the man with his hands extending to the shoulders of the two men below him.
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