Displaced Persons (DP) Camp (post-1945)

In 1946/1947, a camp for around 100 Jewish survivors (displaced persons) was set up in Maßbach Castle - where a Nazi teachers' association training camp had been located during the Nazi era. Kibbutz Lanegew" (engl. 'Auf in den Negev'), the Jewish camp residents were taught basic agricultural skills in preparation for their emigration to Palestine.

In 1937 a small residential estate of some 200 houses, called the “Reichskleinsiedlung Kaltherberge,” was built for working-class families in need. At the end of 1945 it was seized by the U.S. military government. All German residents had to move out of their homes—leaving all their furniture behind— to provide accommodation for about 2,000 Jewish DPs. In addition, a school, a synagogue, a sports club, and a kindergarten were built there. From 1949 onwards, the former residents were able to return to their homes. The last DPs moved out in May 1950.

After the end of World War II, Polish DPs were accommodated in the military quarters in Freimann originally built as barracks for the SS. From spring 1948 onward, the barracks site served as a DP transit and resettlement center — with a high percentage of Jewish DPs waiting to emigrate. After the closure of the transit camp, the U.S. Army took over the military housing in 1950 and re-named it Warner Barracks.

Military accommodation was used to accommodate displaced persons and as a transit center, probably from January 1946 onward. DPs were registered here when they first arrived and distributed among different camps. They were also given advice related to their forthcoming emigration. The transit camp was always overcrowded; although it had a maximum capacity of 600 persons, up to 1,800 were sometimes taken in. In 1948, the transit section was moved to the former SS barracks in Freimann. In spring 1950 the barracks in the Funkkaserne were closed completely.

The initial reception center was open to all politically or racially persecuted persons and existed until February 1947. The international relief organisation UNRRA — the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration — saw ist central task in the registration, care, and repatriation of persons who had been displaced or deported. This included concentration camp prisoners, forced labourers, and those recognised as Displaced Persons (DPs). UNRRA published the weekly newspaper D.P. Express for this circle of people, with articles in Yiddish, Russian, Polish, French, and German.

In the autumn of 1945, the British-Jewish aid organization Jewish Relief Unit (JRU) was looking for a convalescent home for boys and girls who had escaped the Nazi genocide. The choice fell on Lüneburg, as a small post-war Jewish community had already established itself there, which could be involved in the care of the children.

Administrative headquarters of the Jewish community of Lüneburg in Haus Treubund v.1848. Today: parking garage

The Kosher Restaurant and the club of the Jüdische DP community were housed in the former Café Rauno at Großen Bäckerstraße 13.

From 1946 to 1950, the Traunstein barracks was a temporary home for thousands of Jewish displaced persons.