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Hachsharot in Greece, 1945-1949: Camps or vocational centers?

Publication at Faculty of Social Sciences |
2022

Abstract

Drawing on rich and eloquent sources, both institutional and personal, this article outlines how internal documents of the American Joint Distribution Committee, press reports, and personal testimonies present vocational training in the hachsharot for Jewish survivors of the Holocaust in Greece. How do these sources communicate with each other, and what problems are they silent about? Through their close examination, I seek to paint a more accurate picture beyond the Zionist idea of aliyah and to interconnect Holocaust survivors' attempts to move from Greece to Palestine with the Greek Civil War, the Cold War, and the situation in the Middle East.

To this end, I analyze the attitudes of local and transnational actors as well as personal recollections of the multifold postwar experience of these vocational training centers in Greece.