Föhrenwald: A Temporary Home
After the end of the Second World War, around 11 million displaced persons (DPs) lived in Germany, including around 250,000 to 300,000 Jewish survivors who were housed in DP camps after the Holocaust – many of them in the US occupation zone. Abraham Ben, who now lives in Frankfurt, spent some of the formative years of his childhood in the Föhrenwald camp in Bavaria.
“80 cm tall, 14 kg, blond hair, blue eyes, born in 1947 — Nationality: Polish Jew, Name: Abram Ben.” These details are listed on Abraham Ben’s IRO Identity Card, a type of identity document that was issued to DPs 75 years ago. Today, the card is held by the Arolsen Archives. It is March 2025, and Abraham Ben is sitting in the cafeteria of the Arolsen Archives – accompanied by his sister Bascha and her husband. Now a retired businessman, Abraham Ben is an active member of Frankfurt’s Jewish community and gives guided tours of Föhrenwald, which was a camp for Jewish DPs. In conversation with Charlotte Meiwes, an employee of the Arolsen Archives, he reflects on his unusual childhood: Growing up in the Föhrenwald camp, he was part of a tight-knit Jewish community that had been thrown together by fate. Those early experiences have shaped his life to this day.
Mr. Ben, how did your family come to Föhrenwald?
My father and mother both came from Poland. After surviving the Holocaust in Russia, they returned to Poland, their original homeland, after the war. But the situation there was catastrophic for Jews, who were subjected to attacks and violence. So they fled again – this time through Czechoslovakia to Austria and finally to Germany. I was born in Bamberg in 1947, before we came to Föhrenwald.
What was it like for you as a child in the DP camp?
Föhrenwald was a paradise for us children. We played freely, well cared for and protected, in our own little world where no one would ever have dared to harm us! For us children it was paradise, for our parents it was hell.
For us children it was paradise, for our parents it was hell.
Abraham Ben, describing his childhood in the Föhrenwald DP camp
It is often said that Föhrenwald was Germany’s last shtetl. What made the place so special?
Föhrenwald was a Jewish enclave in the middle of Germany. It had a synagogue, schools, a theater – even a mikveh. Jewish holidays were celebrated – like Hanukkah, when we children received gifts from Jewish organizations in America. Most of the people in the camp spoke Yiddish, and there was a Jewish police force to provide security. We also enjoyed a rich cultural life with plays and concerts. We even had our own soccer team, and in 1947, we won the Southern Germany Camp Championship.
What were the hopes and dreams of the adults in the camp?
People helped each other, and there was a strong sense of community. Everyone stuck together. But don’t get me wrong: The adults lived in constant fear of what the future might bring. Many had lost their families and didn’t know where to go. Their war-time experiences had left deep scars, both physical and psychological. And all the time, they were waiting – hoping for a chance to emigrate. Most of them wanted to leave Germany and make a fresh start elsewhere.
Why did your parents stay?
My father had tuberculosis. The emigration authorities rejected him because of it, as it was difficult to treat and patients took a long time to recover. Many Jews only stayed in Germany because they were ill and no other country would accept them.
What was it like for you to leave Föhrenwald?
Again, the children had a very different perspective than the adults: For the adults Föhrenwald was a just a staging post, but for us children it was home. When the camp was dissolved in the mid-1950s, the Jewish families had to leave. Many moved to Munich or Frankfurt, but they didn’t find the same close-knit community there. Föhrenwald was a place of hope – and of waiting. It was hard to say goodbye because we weren’t just moving away, we were saying goodbye to a whole way of life. Later in life, I met several others who had spent their childhoods in Föhrenwald. These encounters were always incredibly moving, a reminder of how profoundly the experience of growing up in the Jewish enclave had shaped each one of us.
We weren’t criminals, we weren’t cast-aways – we were people who had no place in the world that would have us.
Abraham Ben, describing the situation of Jewish DPs after 1945
What life lessons did you learn from this very special childhood?
I learned that sticking together is everything. There was poverty in Föhrenwald, but there was also an unshakeable sense of community – everyone helped each other. That spirit of solidarity still guides me today. And I learned that you always have to keep going – whatever life throws at you.
Do you have another message you would like to pass on to us here?
Yes, and it’s a very important one: “Don’t fall for the pied pipers!”
Credits photo “Denkmal am Prälat-Maier-Platz, geschaffen von Ernst Grünwald 1998”:
User: Mattes, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
