Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung FES Israel 150d ago

January 25, 2026 Through testimony, music, archival memory, and personal reflection, this program traces how survivors transformed displacement into community and loss into renewed life - affirming memory as an act of resistance and responsibility. Yigal Cohen, CEO of the Ghetto Fighters’ House, opened the event followed by Judith Stelmach, Project Manager at Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Israel. We are honored to have Doris Baumgartl, Mayor of Landsberg am Lech, who gave the opening remarks, as we reflected on the aftermath of liberation and the struggle to rebuild Jewish life in the shadow of destruction. Karla Schönebeck explored the internal and external challenges Holocaust survivors faced as they sought to create new, free, and self-determined lives in Eretz Israel. Through the remarkable story of a Jewish orchestra formed in postwar Germany—on the very soil of the perpetrators—she examined strategies of survival, cultural persistence, and intellectual resistance. Her talk also addressed the experience of displaced Eastern European Jewish culture, often misunderstood by both American liberators and German Jews outside the DP camps. Ronit Lusky shared moving moments from the Ghetto Fighters’ House delegation to Landsberg am Lech for the “Liberation Concert”, a tribute to the first concert performed by eight Holocaust survivor musicians on May 27, 1945—an act of remembrance, resilience, and renewal. Dr. Hannah Rosenbaum-Erlichman, daughter of Holocaust survivors Fela Zyndorf and Szlamek Rosenbaum, who were married in the Landsberg DP camp on March 27, 1947, shared her personal connection. Through her parents’ story, she will reflect on survival, continuity, and the pride of the second generation. Noam Rachmilevitch presented the story of the Landsberg am Lech DP camp. In 1945, hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees arrived in DP camps in Germany, many alone and without surviving family. Some organized themselves into kibbutz-style collectives rooted in youth movements. One such group in Landsberg am Lech, the largest DP camp in Bavaria, was formed by former members of the Dror (Freiheit) youth movement from Poland. They called themselves “Kibbutz Lohamei HaGetaot” and prepared for immigration to Eretz Israel. After training at Kibbutz Ginosar and in Waldheim, the group immigrated and, in April 1949, helped establish Kibbutz Lohamei HaGetaot. His presentation followed their journey. This program is in partnership with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Israel, the City of Landsberg am Lech, Classrooms Without Borders, and the Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University.