Zeilsheim DP Camp (color)
Creator(s)
- Albin H. White (Camera Operator)
- Museum of Jewish Heritage
Biographical History
Albin White was born Hirsh Chaim Wajcblum in 1914 in Opatów, Poland to Usher and Chava Lipman. His father was a rabbi and worked in the legal field. Albin had two siblings: Efraim and Chana. From 1934 to 1939, Albin was in Warsaw studying at university. He returned to Opatów in 1939 when the war broke out, fled east to Lutsk and then to Zofjówka where he taught math. Albin was given false identification going by the name Albin Ostrowski through the assistance of a Roman Catholic woman named Janina Lubinska. Once the Germans invaded by 1941, Albin no longer taught but worked in a comb factory and tutored Lubinska’s child. Aktions began and Albin dug pits in which Jews were then killed. He fled under his false name into the Russian partisans and eventually was guided by Lubinska to hiding places in the countryside by February 1944. The Russians liberated the area where Albin was hiding by July 1944 and he joined the Polish Army making his way back to Warsaw and then to Berlin and Lublin. His mother and sister were deported to Treblinka and his father to Auschwitz; they did not survive. Albin moved to Zeilsheim in 1946 as a survivor. He describes working in Zeilsheim with UNRRA, ORT, and the American military, building monuments to the murdered Jews, organizing education and training for survivors, and teaching Jewish history. He was elected chairman of the liberated Jews of Germany Hesse-Nassau. In 1947, Albin, who had married another survivor, Judith, went to Palestine with their daughter, Ewa, and Judith’s mother. The family lived in Holon and Albin worked as a cartographer. In Israel, Judith reunited with a childhood sweetheart and left Albin. Albin returned to Germany in 1949 and immigrated to the United States in 1950 where he changed his name to Albin White, remarried and had children.
Scope and Content
Color film of Zeilsheim Displaced Persons camp taken by Jewish survivor Albin H. White [under the false identity Albin Ostrowski] around June 1947, including shots of the assembly center, an office, outdoor performances, children, the monument to murdered Jews, soccer, school, and machine shops. Opening pan over the countryside, street scene with homes, residential area. Sign: “Zeilsheim/Assembly Center/UNRRA Team 1022” with two stars of David. “Achtung" [announcement] poster underneath dated 25 June 1947. Woman and child walking near to an entrance: “UNRRA TEAM…[1022]” Street scenes in what is the camp with low one-story buildings numbered that look like brick barracks.Flagpole with Star of David at top and white flag flying. CU, two men facing the camera and pointing to signage on a brick building: “OFFICE/TEAM/1022” INTs, man seated at a desk with numerous black and white photographs on the wall behind with the phrase (partially legible): “...PATION IS REHABILITATION.” EXT, woman plays piano and the Yiddish theatre star Herman Yablokoff speaks into a microphone. Small children and young men and women, presumably the audience, [most wearing white]. Another performer. Brick and stone monument with a 7-candle menorah or candelabra and the words in Hebrew and German “ZUM GEDENKEN AN UNSERE VOM HITLERISMUS HINGEMORDETEN TEUREN TOTEN” [In Memory of our Dear Dead Murdered by Hitler” Pan to buildings outside leading to the memorial in between the buildings. Sign “Eleanor Roosevelt Square” and panning again. Children play soccer. Buildings with signage [not clear], Pan to building with sign over door that states in Hebrew and English “Hebrew School in the name of/Henrietta Szold/at Zeilsheim” at building 16. Another building with sign over door that states in English “ZEILSHEIM/CHILDRENS CENTER/IRO AREA 1022” at building 14, Baby in carriage. INT, scene of man and [pregnant?] woman teaching students who appear to be pre-teens and teenagers. INTs, men in workshop [repairing/making a violin?], sanding, soldering, locksmith, etc. INTs, dresses/clothing on hangers and women seated working [on patterns?] near sewing machines. Woman sewing on a machine.
Note(s)
See also the USC Shoah Foundation Interview with Albin H. White https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/vha41863 in which he references the memorial at Zeilsheim with the words “ZUM GEDENKEN AN UNSERE VOM HITLERISMUS HINGEMORDETEN TEUREN TOTEN” that he filmed. Original Kodak film box indicates sender as "Melvin G. Aasen". Aasen was the director of the Zeilsheim Displaced Persons camp and a representative of UNRRA. Refer to SSFVA files for a photograph of Aasen and White during the visit of General Clarence Huebner to Zeilsheim where Aasen is pictured in profile at the far right of the photograph, wearing glasses and a suit. You can also view the collection of Herman Yablokoff (seen performing in this film.) It documents his 1947 tour of DP camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy, his visit to Cuba later in the year, and more broadly, the work of the JDC. collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn521337
People
- Yablokoff, Herman, 1903-1981.
Subjects
- DISPLACED PERSONS (DP) CAMPS
- GERMANY
- MACHINERY
- REHABILITATION
- ACTORS
- MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
- ZEILSHEIM
- SIGNS/POSTERS
- WOMEN
- SCHOOLS
- BABIES
- Zeilsheim (Frankfurt am Main, Germany : Refugee camp)
- CHILDREN (JEWISH)
- SURVIVORS (JEWISH)
- FLAGS
- SEWING
- STARS OF DAVID
- DISPLACED PERSONS (DP)
Places
- Zeilsheim, Germany
Genre
- Amateur.
- Film