'My Name Is... The Lost Children of Kloster Indersorf' Opens Today at the Museum of Jewish Heritage

Children and teenagers who had managed to survive concentration camps, forced labor, life in hiding, and the devastating loss of family members during World War II faced great uncertainty after liberation. Some of these "lost" children found refuge and relatives through a United Nations-sponsored relief center in a former convent named Kloster Indersdorf. These children are the subject of a new exhibition, titled My Name Is... The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. The exhibition is on view January 18, 2017 through April 30, 2017.

The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) secured an abandoned convent in the American zone of post-war Germany-not far from the Dachau concentration camp. Here at Kloster Indersdorf, an international children's center was established to shelter and assist unaccompanied children as they searched for family members and new homes. The children's center cared for hundreds of Jewish and non-Jewish children, representing more than 20 nationalities.

To help locate relatives, a photograph was taken of each child at Kloster Indersdorf by photographer Charles Haacker in October of 1945. Many of the children had changed markedly during the war. The exhibition displays a selection of the images and their individual stories, conveying the powerful reality faced by these children caught between the worlds of war and home.

"This exhibition tells an incredibly moving and important story about the effects of the Holocaust and World War II on children," said Museum President & CEO Michael S. Glickman. "The photographs and biographies reveal how vulnerable and resilient children are and their powerful yearnings to find family."

The exhibition's curator, Melissa Martens Yaverbaum, said, "Behind each photograph is a fascinating story of survival. It's difficult to imagine how anyone could survive such challenges of war; particularly children who had to fend for themselves and find new lives after devastating loss."

The exhibition features 26 stories of children who survived the war and came to Kloster Indersdorf. The name, image, and story of each child are displayed on fabric banners hanging throughout the Museum's light-filled Overlook Gallery. A digital display projected on a gallery wall shows additional images of Kloster Indersdorf and other children who found refuge there. Some of these children are only known by their name, and the Museum is happy to receive additional information.

Credits

Images of the children from the Museum's collection came through the gift of Robert Marx to the Yaffa Eliach Collection at the Center for Holocaust Studies. The Center's collection was merged into the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in 1990. This set of prints survived thanks to André S. Marx, Principal Welfare Officer for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) Relief Team 182 that operated the Children's Center at Kloster Indersdorf.

The exhibition draws on the research of Anna Andlauer, author of The Rage to Live: The International D.P. Children's Center Kloster Indersdorf 1945-46. The project also builds upon stories conveyed in the Remember Mewebsite of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Thank you to the United Nations Archives for the use of photographs from its collection.

Background Information

In July of 1945, 11 international volunteers with United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) Relief Team 182 began their work at Kloster Indersdorf to assist non-German children found in the American zone of Germany. Beyond the services of shelter, nourishment, clothing, and medical care, Kloster Indersdorf offered education, recreation, and a therapeutic environment. The youngest to arrive were often those born to forced laborers. Many of the older children were forced laborers themselves, and had survived the horrors of the concentration camps.

All residents at the children's center needed the attention of the caring volunteers, and the kinship of others who had gone through similar experiences. The sheer number of children and the services needed kept the Team working around the clock. They enlisted the help of nuns who had previously worked at the building, and also the help of adult displaced persons who could teach the children in their own language.

Each child arriving at Kloster Indersdorf was interviewed for tracing purposes and to promote healing. Some were simply too young to be able to report full or accurate information about themselves. All the children were desperate to locate surviving family members or more distant relatives in safe countries. Many children had changed markedly during the war; others arrived without clear identifying information.

In mid-October of 1945, an American photographer, Charles Haacker, was brought to Kloster Indersdorf to photograph each child with the hopes the images might be published to find living relatives. A bed sheet hanging on the wall provided a neutral background, and a teen resident at Indersdorf, named Salek Benedikt, artistically wrote each name on the nameplates. Some of the photographs were used as passport pictures as the children departed for new homes.

Kloster Indersdorf also became known as a place where adult displaced persons could look for their children, and the center received eager parents at its doors, also searching.

A main function of the center was to repatriate the children or find them new homes-in accordance with the wishes of each child. Many of the Jewish teens initially hoped family members had made it home after the war; they were restless to return and investigate. The center staff allowed them to go search, equipped with backpacks, food, and paperwork. While some reunions took place, many were bitterly disappointed.

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The Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust has thrived for nearly two decades along the waterfront of New York Harbor, and was created as a living memorial to those who perished, as well as those who survived, 75 years ago. Established as a place of learning and reflection, a repository for artifacts and information, and a catalyst for dialogue across all age groups about vital lessons of Jewish history, the Museum serves both local and global communities and creates opportunities for diverse audiences to engage with history and to consider its relevance to the present.

Since 1997, the Museum of Jewish Heritage has welcomed more than two million visitors; it maintains a collection of 30,000 artifacts, photographs, documentary films, and survivor testimonies and contains classrooms, a 400-seat theater (Edmond J. Safra Hall), special exhibition galleries, a resource center for educators, and a memorial art installation, Garden of Stones, designed by internationally acclaimed sculptor Andy Goldsworthy.

The Museum receives general operating support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts.

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