Breadcrumb
- Video Witnessing Antisemitic Violence
- Video Changes at School under the Nazis
- Video From Democracy to Dictatorship
- Video Preparing for the Kindertransport
- Video Friendship and Betrayal
- Video Marched to the Ghetto
- Video Life or Death in the Netherlands
- Video Joining the Resistance
- Video Finding Safety in Italy
- Video Resistances in Auschwitz
- Video Turned Away on the M.S. St. Louis
- Video Warning the World
- Video Witness to a Massacre
- Video Eyewitness to Buchenwald
- Video Antisemitism after Liberation
- Video Reconciling Identities after the War
- Video 1 The Red Army Enters Majdanek
Caring for Survivors
Video Length
04:35Subject
- History
Language
English — USUpdated
Caring for Survivors
![](/sites/default/files/brightcove/videos/images/posters/image_536.jpg)
There were one or two Jews originally from Germany who managed to survive and were still in the camp. And I wrote to the authorities and said, what is the future of these people? If they go back to their native towns, how will they be treated? And the answer I got shook me too.
They said, as long as they are in the camp, they'll be treated like survivors. Once they go back to their native cities in Germany, they will be treated like Germans. Irrespective of what they'd been through, the fact that they had been victims of Nazi Germany. And this was brought home to me very, very, very vividly.
I had the opportunity to go to Berlin. It was part of my area, because-- the British zone of occupied Berlin. I arrived there, and I looked for Jews. The synagogues had been destroyed, of course, in the Kristallnacht of November '38, '37. For what? I found that on a Saturday morning, Jews were having a service in the hall attached to one of these synagogues that had been destroyed. And I was deeply moved the fact that they had been survivors.. Many of them had been in Theresienstadt and had come back to Germany, Berlin.
And I said to them, look, I'm only here for a day or so. If you want to communicate with anybody anywhere in the world to tell them you're alive, I will collect your letters tomorrow morning and I will distribute them. I collected them on the Sunday morning. And when I got back to my office, I separated them into-- according to countries.
To Palestine, it was easy. South Africa, to England. There was a sort of a-- there was a unit that was responsible for tracing people. And I sent them off in batches. I heard no more. Until one bright day I was hauled up before my local chief chaplain who said to me, you have been breaking the law. What have I done?
Apparently, somebody who received such a letter wrote to a relative in Switzerland to say that they had heard so and so was still alive in Berlin and if you want to communicate with them, send me the letter, and I will send it off. So I was accused by military intel-- this was intercepted by military intelligence. And I was duly reprimanded. I was breaking the laws of censorship and whatnot. Acting as a sort of unofficial postman.
So I said to my chief, who was my superior in rank, do you mind if I speak to you as a clergyman to clergymen or must I speak to you as a major to a colonel? Of course, I'm a clergyman first. I said, do you know what these people wrote? I am alive, I have survived. No military intelligence involved. A purely humanitarian gesture.
And all he could say to me was, the trouble with you, Levy, is you're too much of a Jewish nationalist. What has nationalism got to do with it, I don't know. But this was the sort of attitude. Again, an example of how they didn't understand the situation.
Caring for Survivors
You might also be interested in…
Americans and the Holocaust: The Refugee Crisis
![A crowd of American men and women hold signs protesting Nazi Germany's actions.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/AP_3811161102_Medium_res.jpg?h=00d1719e&itok=OsmUgwd2)
Dismantling Democracy (UK)
![Germans look on as the Reichstag building burns on February 27, 1933.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Holocaust_1933_ReichstagFire_%20FH229429.jpg?h=40d6a7d7&itok=PBcAxqXk)
Jewish History and Memory: Why Study the Past?
![Students sit in a classroom.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-01/San_Francisco_Classroom_2017_FH152836_0.jpeg?h=56d0ca2e&itok=WDArBFmq)
The Holocaust - Bearing Witness (UK)
![A crowd of women and children, some with Stars of David patches on their clothing.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Ch09_Image02.jpg?h=991b0af6&itok=WRPl5J8e)
The Holocaust - The Range of Responses (UK)
![Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, and Christoph Probst in June 1942.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Holocaust_2016_WhiteRoseResistanceGroup_FH229473.jpg?h=dfc3751c&itok=BjXT-amv)
How Should We Remember? (UK)
![In Kassel, Germany, artist Horst Hoheisel created a “counter-memorial” marking the site where a majestic fountain built by a Jewish citizen once stood; it had been destroyed by Nazis in 1939.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Ch11_image15_Medium_res.jpg?h=c6d0d1c4&itok=Gb3MH30L)
Justice and Judgement after the Holocaust (UK)
![Criminal proceedings before the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg from 20.11.1945 to 1.10.1946 against leading persons prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against the peace and against the humanity.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-V01057-3%2C_NuI%CC%80%CB%86rnberger_Prozess%2C_Angeklagte_Medium_res.jpg?h=eb24755d&itok=BXfLmrsX)
Kristallnacht (UK)
![Image showing the destruction resulting from Kristallnacht.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Test223817_Original_Medium_res.jpg?h=c8d479ee&itok=g317b1wn)
Jewish Identity and the Complexities of Dual or Multiple Belongings
![Students sit in a classroom.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-01/San_Francisco_Classroom_2017_FH152836_0.jpeg?h=56d0ca2e&itok=WDArBFmq)
Race and Space (UK)
![Hitler Youth and League of German Girls in Tianjin, China](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Bundesarchiv_Bild_137-040965%2C_China%2C_Tientsin%2C_HJ_und_BDM_Vereidigung_Medium_res.jpg?h=7fb2964e&itok=f7n1FWQ6)
The Rise of the Nazi Party (UK)
![The Parade of the Political Administrators in Nuremberg, Germany.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Holocaust_1933_GermanPartyDay_%20FH229691.jpg?h=193b5c49&itok=QZdPclXH)
The Roots and Impact of Antisemitism (UK)
![Woodcut of a group of men in a pit being set on fire.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Ch02_Image01_Medium_res.jpg?h=a61f7ba7&itok=xDw1MDcG)