MEMORIES
Atlas, Jakob: The Jewish School in St. Ottilien (Di hebreisze szul in St. Ottilien), in: St. Ottiliener Sztime 1946, p. 11
Teacher Jakob Atlas (born 1902) tells that many children arrived in St. Ottilien starting from September and October 1945. For this reason a kindergarten was founded directed by Sonia Sobolewicz (born 1920) and a primary school with him and Pera Levinson (born 1900) as teaching staff. At the moment (May 1946) 75 children live in St. Ottilien: 0-4 years 12 children and 4-13 years 63 children (62% girls and 38% boys). Among the older children 23 frequent the kindergarten and 40 the school which has two classes. The first class with 22 and the second class with 18 children. Main challenges are the lack of school benches and books. Many children didn’t have the chance to learn and develop normally.
Aviram, Zvi: Mit dem Mut der Verzweiflung. Mein Widerstand im Berliner Untergrund 1943-1945, Berlin 2015
Memoirs of Zvi Aviram who survives the Nazi time in the underground resistance movement of Berlin. He tells how in summer 1945 he accompanies a group of 22 Jews infected by tuberculosis from the Soviet zone to the Ottilien Hospital. Here Dr. Grinberg helps him to get into contact with the Jewish Committee of Munich (p. 179-181). For the next two years, he helps Displaced Persons to emigrate to Israel and follows them in 1948.
Avnir-Damon, Michaela: A Family Story 1900-1950, Jerusalem 1985
Michaela Avnir (died in 2017) is born in Warsaw in 1925 as Michaela Hildebrand. After the German occupation of Poland, she could escape with her parents to Uzbeskisan. In 1946 the Russian authorities sent the Western refugees back, but they found they were no longer welcome in their former countries. So Michaela decided to emigrate to Israel. Her emigration was helped by the organization „Habricha“ („Escape“) who inserted the refugees into kibbutz groups. Here she met her future husband Israel Steingarten. After many relocations, they finally arrived in Munich where Israel became editor of the movement’s newspaper. For the birth of her first child David Michaela moved to St. Ottilien where she still recuperated for some time after the birth. The chapter on this time in Bavaria was kindly translated from Hebrew and provided by David Avnir: A Family Story, Chapter 10, Michaela
Becker, Sonia Pauline: Symphony on Fire: A Story of Music and and Spiritual Resistance During the Holocaust, New Milford 2007
The daughter of violinist Max Beker and pianist Fania Durmashkin documents the life of her parents as part Lithuanian Orchestras who after the liberation meet as members of the St. Ottilien Orchestra, fall in love, marry and emigrate to the US. The part of their life in St. Ottilien is to be found on pages 125-144. In 1946 the orchestra moves to Fürstenfeldbruck. Confer the website for the book
Beischer, Josef: Memories of the years 1945 to 1948
Josef Beischer lived in St. Ottilien as son of the local innkeeper at the time of the liberation and tells about his memories of this time. See the InterviewBeischer.
Bernstein, Sara Tuvel: The Seamstress, New York 1997 (German version: Sara Tuvel Bernstein. Die Näherin. Erinnerungen einer Überlebenden, München-Wien 1997
Memoirs of a Jewish girl from Hungary who becomes a seamstress when the growing persecutions force her out of school. After her deportation to Ravensbrück, she finally is brought by train to Dachau for extermination. In Schwabhausen, she manages to escape and arrives in the hospital at St. Ottilien where she recovers. Her description provides insights into the everyday life of the hospital including the language problems between the patients: The everyday language was Jiddish which was not mastered by the Jews from Hungary.
Coyle, Elizabeth: St. Ottilien revisited in the 1980ies
Dr. Yair Grinberg, son of Dr. Zalman Grinberg, and his wife Elizabeth Coyle visit St. Ottilien in the 1980ies. They hope to find some traces of appreciation of Dr. Grinberg’s efforts, but a monk tells them that no memory has been preserved and that no one is wanted. See the text: St. Ottilien revisited
Edelbaum, Ben: Growing up in the Holocaust, (Kansas City) 1980
Ben grows up in the Lodz Ghetto and at the end of the war is deported to the Kaufering camps. He survives the train attack in Schwabhausen and after his flight is found and saved by Dr. Grinberg. In St. Ottilien, the Jewish patients discover that among the German soldiers who are treated in the German military hospital are people from the SS. The guarding American soldiers have now not only to guard the German SS men, but to protect them from revenge. He describes the Liberation Concert performed by surviving musicians: „We felt special pride in our hearts. These men, symbolically wearing the concentration camp uniforms represented a new era, a new people, a renewed life.“ (page 258) After his reconvalescence, he is brought to the Munich DP Camp Feldafing.
Fishman, Rabbi Eli: On the Wings of Faith, Gefen Publishing House, Jerusalem 2016
Rabbi Eli Fishman began writing about his experiences in the Shoah over sixty years ago, soon after his liberation. Surviving Auschwitz and the death march and liberated in Dachau he recuperated as a young man in St Ottilien and joined a group of yeshiva students there to continue studying under the guidance of the Chief Rabbi Shmuel Snieg of the American zone in Germany (p. 189-196). Together they prepared the „Survivors‘ Talmud“ for printing which was done in Heidelberg. He was ordained by Rabbi Snieg and served as his assistant until he emigrated to the United States in 1950. His work included the rebuilding of Jewish life in Germany, the republishing of a Talmud, and with the assistance of General Lucius Clay, aiding the „bricha“, the movement of Jews attempting to get to Palestine despite the British blockade. His book has been researched meticulously and contains much unpublished information.
Amazon page
Gold, Volker: The Jewish Tombs of Schwabhausen, 2011
Collection of documents and oral history about the air raids and „Jewish tombs“ at Schwabhausen.
Grinberg, Zalman: Our Liberation from Dachau, St. Ottilien 2024
According to Grinberg’s foreword, his memories were written 1946 in Jerusalem (Original Hebrew version in the archives of Yad Vashem). Grinberg describes how the inhabitants of the Kovno Ghetto arrived at Dachau on July 16, 1944 to serve as slave labor in the 11 Kaufering camps. Several chapters deal with the everyday life in the concentration camp. Although nearly starving and daily threatened by imminent death, Grinberg and several other camp inmates start to plan for the future of the Jewish nation after the liberation. After some time, Grinberg is allowed to install a health station for the workers at the Kaufering construction site. After the German guards also start to come for treatment to Grinberg, he receives a number of privileges. When the Allied Forces come closer, the inmates of the Kaufering camp are put into cattle cars and transported into the direction of Dachau. When aircrafts start bombing the train, a part of the prisoners leaves it and in spite of the threats and random killings by the SS refuses to board it again. After many negotiations with the village authorities of Schwabhausen, some of the most severely wounded former prisoners are taken to the Ottilien Hospital. After heated arguments with the hospital director, Dr. Grinberg is finally himself put in charge of the hospital by the American Captain Raymond. Grinberg finishes his memories with the account of how the first Jewish casualties are buried at the Ottilien cemetery in the enforced presence of several German soldiers and the medical staff.
Grube, Erika: Was ich am Ende des Krieges in St. Ottilien erlebt habe (What I experienced in St. Ottilien at the End of the War), in: Renner, Frumentius: Der fünfarmige Leuchter. Beiträge zum Werden und Wirken der Benediktinerkongregation von St. Ottilien, vol. 3, St. Ottilien 1990, p. 103-111
Memories of nurse Erika Grube, originally an artist, who started in 1944 as rehabilitation therapist in the military hospital of St. Ottilien. She describes how after the air raid at Schwabhausen about 50 wounded Jewish patients are brought to the hospital. After the arrival of American troops, the hospital is cleared from German soldiers and transformed into an all-Jewish hospital. The German personal (nurses and doctors) are in part split about the request to help Jewish patients. In detail, she describes her work and experiences with the deeply traumatized patients. Due to her artistic talent, she produces posters and drawings for the Zionist movement within in the hospital.
German version: Grube_Deutsch. English version: Grube_English.
Gruberová, Eva, Helmut Zeller: Geboren im KZ. Sieben Mütter, sieben Kinder und das Wunder von Kaufering I, München 2011
When the American troops liberate the Kaufering concentration camps, they discover seven Jewish mothers with their babies who have miraculously survived. They spend a rehabilitation time in the hospital of St. Ottilien (pages 165-166).
Heymann, Lucie: Lebensstationen (Life Stations), in: Und das Leben ist weitergegangen (And Life went on), Starnberg 1999, p. 141-143
Memories of a German nurse at the D.P. Hospital of St Ottilien: „The nurses were put into the empty cells of the monks. We were all people who had lost their homes and who were glad to have a roof and to receive every day food. The Americans cared well for the patients who at the beginning couldn’t digest the excellent food and who became even more ill. It took some time until we had reestablished them. We even received something of the special food for the patients. Some of them were very grateful about our nursing and gave us even precious chocolate or even a banana… After some time, all of us, patients, doctors and nurses, were transferred to Bad Wörishofen because the monks should receive again their monastery. In Bad Wörishofen we were lodged in the best hotels, Park-Hotel and Sonnenhof. Some of the patients needed 2-3 years until they had completely recovered. We had quickly become a community of solidarity. It meant receiving and giving. The patients showed us their gratitude in every possible form. For example, a lawyer helped me to get my widow’s rent again. We all were happy about the freedom which we had found again. Life went on. Couples found each other, children were born. I had even the permission to attend a Jewish baptism ritual which was a special expression of trust because this is normally not allowed for non-Jewish people.“ (p. 141-142).
Hilliard, Robert R.: Surviving the Americans. The Continued Struggle of the Jews after Liberation, Seven Stories Press, New York 1997
After attending a liberation concert given by emaciated concentration camp survivors at St. Ottilien, two Jewish-American soldiers wrote a letter about the criminal neglect and anti-Semitism of the American policy in occupied Europe. This letter turned into a crusade which saved untold numbers of lives when President Truman finally reversed US policy. An extraordinary autobiographical account by one of the letter-writers, „Surviving the Americans“ is the first book to present the genocide by neglect suffered by Jews and other camp survivors at the hands of the Americans after the liberation, and the first as well to tell of the campaign that eventually saved many of them.
Hilliard, Robert R.: Holocaust Survivors‘ Torment after Liberation, 2019
Interview with Robert Hilliard about the treatment of Holocaust survivors after Liberation and his involvement with the Ottilien Hospital in AishHaTorah .
Janušauskas, Matas: Letters, in: Whoever Saves One Life… The Efforts to Save Jews in Lithuania between 1941 and 1944, edited by the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania, Vilnius 2006
Letters of Matas Janušauskas, a Lithuanian factory director, about his involvement mit the Ghetto in Kovno and his relations to Dr. Zalman Grinberg. In the factory of Janušauskas, Jews worked as forced labor, among them Dr. Grinberg. Janušauskas arranged with Dr. Grinberg to take over Grinberg’s son Emmanuel who was smuggled out of the Ghetto. In July 1944 Janušauskas fled out of Lithuania, finally arrived in Southern Germany and returned the child to Dr. Grinberg. Grinberg employed him in the administration of the hospital until 1948 when Janušauskas emigrated to Australia. The letters contain some interesting information about the administration of the hospital, p. 143-160. Documents and photographs online on the website of the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania (Search term: Grinberg).
Jewish Review/Jüdische Rundschau 1 (N° 4/5 – May/June 1946), p. 38-39: Pictorial Presentation of the DP Hospital St. Ottilien (JewishReview1946).
Interview with Dr. Hanns Kaiser from the German Military Hospital and the succeeding DP hospital, in: Archives of the Dachau Memorial Site, DVD 195
Dr. Kaiser describes how he worked in the huge military hospital of St. Ottilien where about 2000 wounded German soldiers were treated. After the arrival of American troops all politically suspect medical personnel was brought away. He stayed with the remaining doctors and nurses for the treatment of the arriving Jewish camp prisoners from Dachau which were in an extreme condition. About 70 patients died already in the beginning, mostly from spotted fever and Tuberculosis. Another medical problem was the unused good food, especially butter provisions which the patients received as gifts from the army and which caused heavy diarrhea. His department was headed by Dr. Zalman Berman and Dr. Abraham Goldmann.
Kawwoner, A.: A Jewish Community in a Monastery, in: Unzer Weg 97 (1947), p. 10
Newspaper article about the St. Ottilien Hospital and its work: „Every birth is a joy for everybody in St. Ottilien… The Jewish progeny is growing. The people of Israel will live. More than 350 babies (this shows how they are multiplying) have already been born in St. Ottilien. Many people have found a home in St. Ottilien“.
Interview of Yehuda Bauer with Rabbi Abraham Klausner
Rabbi Klausner, Jewish Army chaplain at the Dachau camp, describes how he met Dr. Zalman Grinberg and how they set up the hospital at St. Ottilien.
Excerpts: Klausner_interview_IFZ
Interview with Peter Kubierschky about his memories from the German Military hospital and the succeeding DP hospital: Interview_Kubierschky
Peter Kubierschky was 15 years old when WW II ended. His father was employed as doctor in the German military hospital of St. Ottilien and afterwards worked for the UNRRA hospital.
Landsberger Lager Cajtung 1945-1948: The Yiddish newspaper of the DP Camp Landsberg occasionally provides information about the St. Ottilien Hospital, the activities of its medical staff and the patients: Excerpts_Lager Cajtung.
Lesser, Ben: Living a Life that Matters: From Nazi Nightmare to American Dream, Bloomington, IN: Abbott Press, 2012
Ben Lesser survived the Holocaust as a „walking skeleton“ of 16 years. From the Dachau concentration camp he was brought to the St. Ottilien hospital. He describes the daily life at the monastery DP camp, a first feast of Purim in July to make up for all the missed ones. In the camp he encounters a group of juvenile Chalutzim, pioneers, who want to settle in Palestine and joins them. Shortly afterwards, he surprisingly meets his sister Lola at the St. Ottilien Hospital who is just about to deliver the first baby of the camp. He decides to stay with her and together they emigrate to the U.S. in September 1947. His final statement: “Our time together in St. Ottilien was very therapeutic – medically and emotionally. For the first time in years, instead of being tortured and murdered, we were being taken care of. There were so many of us in the same situation, that it seemed as if we’d become one big happy family… And in experiencing the goodness of human beings, for the first time in many years, I felt a little hope that life might be worth living. And that there might even be a God.” (p. 147–167).
Levi, Henia: Memories from her time in the DP Hospital St. Ottilien
After a death march to the Ravensbrück camp and transport to Türkheim, Henia Frei (later Levi) managed to escape with several girls and spent about a year in the Ottilien Camp before emigrating to Israel: Witness of Henia Levi
Lieber Schwartz, Lola: A World After This. A Memoir of Loss and Redemption, New York/Jerusalem/London 2010
Memories of the sister (1923-2014) of Ben Lesser. She describes the reunion with her brother in St. Ottilien, the hospital life and how she delivered her baby there: „Not only was Hershel, whom we called Heshi, the first Jewish child born in the area after the war, but we were living in a time when most Jews who survived had thought they were the last Jews on earth. Heshi became everybody’s baby. At St. Ottilien an enormous number of people came to his pidyon, including representatives from Agudath Israel and all the other DPs in the area. And the Jewish American soldiers who attended all had tears in their eyes.“ (p. 241)
Nadich, Rabbi Judah: Eisenhower and the Jews, New York 1953, p. 84-87, 154–157
In these memories Rabbi Judah Nadich describes his visit to the hospital St. Ottilien in August 1945, his encounter with Dr. Grinberg and the work in the hospital.
Olejski, Jakow: Fun Farkechtung cu Ojslejzung (From slavery to selection), in: Landsberger Lager-Cajtung, 16 (1946), p. 4
Olejski, head of the Culture Department at the Landsberg DP camp, describes the life in the Kovno Ghetto and the situation in the Kaufering Lager. As eye witness he recounts the attack on the prisoner train at Schwabhausen. The announced continuation of the article is missing in the following numbers. See Landsberger Lager-Cajtung 16-1946.
Potash, Morley: Mendel’s Story: Hide and Seek – Surviving the Holocaust, 2016
Mendel is just 7 years old when World War II erupts in Europe. He witnesses the complete destruction of his family’s life and home. Incredible luck, intelligence, bravery, humor and the kindness of strangers steer him and his family on a narrow path to surviving the holocaust. After the war, Mendel’s trials continue. He relates hard work, truck rides which lead him with a group of about 70 children to St. Ottilien, a missed boat to Israel, and the final passage to Canada where he could restore his life to the bounty he knew and lost as a young boy.
Rochelson, Meri-Jane: Eli’s Story. A Twentieth-Century Jewish Life, Wayne State University Press, Detroit 2018
Life story of Dr. Eli G. Rochelson (1907-1984) collected from documents, interviews and memories by his children. It includes a well documented part about Jewish life in pre-War Lithuania where Eli Rochelson grew up and a compelling description of the Nazi persecutions and the Kovno Ghetto. After the deportation to Dachau, Rochelson works at the Kaufering construction site (p. 132-139). At the end of the war, he witnesses the train assault in Schwabhausen (p. 141-143). After the liberation Dr. Rochelson set up and headed the hospital at the DP camp Landsberg which had relations to the close-by Ottilien Hospital (p. 143-158). In March 1946, he emigrated to New York.
Volpe, Dovid E., Ikh un mayn welt, Johannesburg 1997
Yiddish Recollections of the time as patient in the DP hospital.
Wachinger, Lorenz, Memories of the years 1947/48
Lorenz Wachinger lived as boy in the boarding school of the monastery already opened again in November 1945 and tells about his experiences in the years 1947/48. See the Memories Wachinger.
Windach, Administration Center, The Year 1945 – End of the War and the Time after the War in Our Village Community, 2020 (= Schriften des Archivs der Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Windach 13), p. 11, 13, 15
This post-war chronicle of the neighboring village of Windach reports that on May 2, 1945, the American occupation forces demanded daily deliveries of food to the DP camp/hospital in St. Ottilien. These daily deliveries included 50 kg meat, 1000 eggs, 50-100 loaves of bred, 300-400 liter of milk, 10 kg butter (it seems, however, doubtful if such quantities really could be delivered).
DOCUMENTARY FILMS
Documentary film of June 1946 about the UNRRA hospital at St. Ottilien (length: 6:22 minutes)
The short documentary film by Zvi Kadushin shows in an opening sequence the arrival of a military jeep at the hospital, the work of the medical staff (Dr. Zalman Berman and Dr. Chaim Ipp), a tour through the hospital and the delivery ward, rehabilitation exercises and the everyday life of the patients. It concludes with the circumcision rite of a new born child. The production was probably after the emigration of Dr. Grinberg in July 1946 because the film doesn’t show him.
Documentary film of the First Conference of Liberated Jews in Munich on January 25-27, 1946 (length: 17:59 minutes)
The documentary film produced and commented by Rabbi Abraham Klausner starts with scenes from different DP camps and shows the first Conference of the Committee of Liberated Jews in Bavaria. The focal point is a rousing speech of Dr. Zalman Grinberg followed by a speech of David Ben-Gurion.
„Long is the Road“, Germany 1949, 77 minutes, Yiddish with English subtitles, Directed by Herbert B. Fredersdorf & Marek Goldstein
A film presenting the Holocaust from a Jewish point of view. The film was shot on location at the Landsberg camp and made by and about Jewish displaced persons. The film follows a Polish Jew (played by Israel Becker) and his family from the thriving Jewish community of Warsaw through the horrors of Auschwitz to the instability of refugee life in a DP camp. It culminates in the hope of rebirth in Israel.
Documentary Film about Dawid Furman, a Holocaust survivor, and his meeting with the first delegation of the Jewish Brigade in June 1945 in St. Ottilien, 1994, 16 minutes. See the Youtube-version, kindly provided by Nachum Pur.
Displaced: Miracle at St. Ottilien, directed by John Michalczyk, 2002, 46 minutes, see: www.cinemaguild.com
Based on the true experiences of U.S. Army privates Edward Herman and Robert Hilliard, who were stationed in Germany at the close of World War II. They discovered the horrendous treatment of displaced persons in St. Ottilien, a displaced persons camp run by the U.S. military. In an effort to alleviate the suffering, the two GIs stole food from their own mess and smuggled it into to the camp. Then the two soldiers started a letter writing campaign, which caught the attention of President Harry Truman, who ordered an investigation that led to the end of the abuse.
Creating Harmony: The Displaced Persons‘ Orchestra from St. Ottilien, 2007, directed by John Michalczyk and Roland A. Marsh, 75 minutes, see: www.etoileproductionsusa.com
The film tells the story of the Jewish orchestra at the St. Ottilien Displaced Persons camp in Bavaria. From 1945 to 1948, the orchestra played in striped concentration camp uniforms, in front of a banner that read “Am Yisroel Chai” (“The People of Israel Live”). After garnering praise for their inspirational performances all over war torn Europe, the orchestra was asked to perform for the International Tribunal during the Nazi trials in Nuremberg and for the first Zionist congress. David BenGurion and Golda Meir were among the orchestra’s fans, and on two occasions the ensemble was joined in Germany by conductor Leonard Bernstein.
Interview with Yetta Marchuck Selengut (2015)
A talk of Yetta Marchuck Selengut about her return to her birth place at St. Ottilien and to Germany after 65 years on the Lowell Gallin Show.
Memorial concert at Delray Beach, Florida, on November 15, 2015
Memorial Concert held in honor of the Ottilien Liberation Concert of May 1945.
Interview with Robert Hilliard (2017)
Robert Hilliard tells about the Liberation Concert and his involvement in changing the situation of Jewish DPs.
„Die Kinder der Stunde Null“ (The children of hour zero) (2018)
Interviews with children born at St. Ottilien: Dr. David Avnir who lives today in Jerusalem and David Stopnitzer who lives in Munich. Their life stories and return trip to the place they were born.
A Force for Freedom: The Robert Hilliard Story (2022)
In this documentary by WGCU, Robert Hilliard tells about his life and his efforts to promote freedom and justice. A special focus lies on his experiences at the St. Ottilien Hospital (27 minutes).
Holocaust Survivors in Post-War Germany (2023)
Documentation of the efforts in Landsberg am Lech to preserve the memory of the Kaufering Concentration Camps (52 minutes).
RESEARCH
Bauer, Yehuda: Out of the Ashes. The Impact of American Jews on Post-Holocaust European Jewry, Oxford 1989
Research on the persons of Rabbi Klausner and Dr. Grinberg (p. 39-40).
Brenner, Michael: Nach dem Holocaust. Juden in Deutschland 1945-1950, München 1995
German study on the situation of Jews in postwar Germany.
Online-version
Brenner, Michael (ed.): Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland von 1945 bis zur Gegenwart, München 2012
Overview in German language which in the first part treats the situation of Holocaust survivors in DP camps.
Dichek, Bernard: A Place of Hope. Visiting two former DP enclaves in Germany provides insights into the past and present, Article in the Jerusalem Report, February 19, 2018
Journalist and film director Bernard Dichek follows the traces of his parents who prepared their emigration to Israel in post-war Germany. In his article he documents his visits to the remnants of former DP camps in Bad Reichenhall, Bad Aibling and St. Ottilien.
PDF-File: JRep – February 19 34-37 dichek
Eder, Angelika: Flüchtige Heimat. Jüdische Displaced Persons in Landsberg am Lech (1945-1960), München 1998
This doctoral thesis documents the history of Displaced Persons in the district of Landsberg am Lech. Some pages are dedicated to the St. Ottilien Hospital which was later integrated into the DP-Camp administration of Landsberg (p. 103-108).
Eder, Angelika: Kunst, Bildung und „Zerstreuung“. Über das kulturelle Leben im Landsberger DP-Lager, in: Themenhefte Landsberger Zeitgeschichte 6 (1996), p. 30-33
German article about the cultural life of the nearby DP camp Landsberg. Online version
Fischer, Sonia: Eine Schach-Olympiade in Landsberg am Lech, in: Landsberger Geschichtsblätter 118 (2020), p. 119-120
Notice about the acquisition of a trophy cup for the city Museum of Landsberg which was used for the Jewish Chess Olympics of September 1946. 36 chess players from 16 DP camps took part in the tournament which was won by Nicolai or Rostislaw Aleksandrow from the DP camp St. Ottilien. See: Fischer-Schach-Olympiade
Grossmann, Atina: Jews, Germans, and Allies, Princeton 2007
Study on the situation of about 250.000 Jewish survivors as „Displaced Persons“ in post-war Germany, their complex relation to their defeated oppressors and to the Allied occupation forces.
Hintermann, Susanne: Das Kloster St. Ottilien als Hospital und Lager für jüdische Displaced Persons. Neuanfänge jüdischer Kultur und Politik in Bayern, München 2007
Unpublished thesis for the History Faculty of the University of Munich about the Ottilien DP hospital.
PDF-File: Hintermann_Ottilien_2007
Honigmann, Peter: Talmuddrucke im Nachkriegsdeutschland, in: Fritz Bauer Institut (Hg.), Überlebt und unterwegs. Jüdische Displaced Persons im Nachkriegsdeutschland (Jahrbuch 1997), Frankfurt a.M. 1997, p. 249–266
Research on the Talmud edition prepared by the Rabbis Snieg and Rose.
Onlineversion
Hyman, Abraham S., The Undefeated. Jerusalem 1993
Research on the person of Dr. Grinberg and the beginning of political organization of Jews in Bavaria (pages 47-48, 80).
Kleinjung, Tilmann: Das DP-Krankenhaus St. Ottilien, St. Ottilien 1990
Unpublished paper of a student of the high school at St. Ottilien including interviews with survivors and rare documents.
PDF-file: Kleinjung_Ottilien_1990
Königseder, Angelika and Juliane Wetzel: Waiting for Hope. Jewish Displaced Persons in Post-World War II Germany, Evanston/Illinois (Northwestern University Press) 2001 (German edition: Lebensmut im Wartesaal. Die jüdischen DPs (Displaced Persons) im Nachkriegsdeutschland, Frankfurt a.M., 1. ed. 1994, 2. ed. 2004)
Documentation of the life in the Jewish DP camps which developed their own administration, courts, schools, theatre groups, orchestras, newspapers until the closure of the last camp in 1957
Konrad, Paul Alfons: Die Entbindungsstation des D.P. Hospitals St. Ottilien und deren Bedeutung für die Beziehung von Kloster zu D.P. Hospital, Historical Seminary of the Munich University, Department for Jewish History and Culture, December 2016
Unpublished Bachelor thesis with many helpful insights into the history of the delivery station at the hospital.
PDF-file: BA-Thesis–Paul Konrad_StOttilien
Korman, Gerd: Survivors’ Talmud and the U.S. Army, in: American Jewish History 73 (1983), 1, p. 252–285
Research on the Talmud edition prepared by the Rabbis Snieg and Rose.
KZ-Friedhöfe und Gedenkstätten in Bayern, ed. by the Bayerische Verwaltung der stattlichen Schlösser, Gärten und Seen, Regensburg 2011
Documentation of the KZ cemetery of Schwabhausen (p. 87-89) and of St. Ottilien (p. 83-86).
Levin, Elizabeth: Damned if You Do, in: Segula. The Jewish History Magazine
Resumé of the correspondence of Rabbi Abraham Klausner (1915-2007) at the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (Jerusalem). Rabbi Klausner was together with Dr. Grinberg instrumental in setting up the Ottilien Hospital. The documents shows that in spite of his efficiency Rabbi Klausner didn’t act very diplomatically. As a consequence, both UNRRA and the American Jewish Conference arranged his withdrawal as army chaplain from Germany.
Matthé, Eva: The Jewish Cemetery in Sankt Ottilien, St. Ottilien 2003, revised edition 2013
Documentation of the history and tombs of the Jewish cemetery at St. Ottilien. Digital version: Jewish Cemetery.
Mankowitz, Ze’ev: The Formation of She’erit Hapleita, Yad Vashem Studies, vol. 20 (1990), p. 337–370
The article describes the role of Dr. Zalman Grinberg within the repatriation project of DPs to Israel.
Piorun, Carolin: Displaced Children. Kinderfürsorge im DP-Hospital St. Ottilien 1945-1948 zwischen osteuropäisch-jüdischen Traditionen und Zukunftsträumen von Eretz Israel, Master’s Thesis, Munich 2018
The thesis explains the origin and destination of the numerous children who lived in the DP camp including the children Kibbuz „Atid“. See: CarolinPiorun_DisplacedChildren.
Renner, Frumentius: Der fünfarmige Leuchter. Beiträge zum Werden und Wirken der Benediktinerkongregation von St. Ottilien, vol. 3, St. Ottilien 1990
Short outline of the history of the DP hospital from the perspective of the returning monks (p. 97-102), impressive documentation of the everyday life in the hospital by the German nurse Erika Grube (p. 103-111).
Rolatschek, Gerhard: Der Zugangriff in Schwabhausen am 27. April 1945
Documentation on the train bombing at Schwabhausen and proof that it was executed by the French squadron „Navarre“. See: Rolatschek1 and Rolatschek2
Rolatschek, Gerhard: Der KZ-Friedhof von St. Ottilien, in: Landsberger Geschichtsblätter 118 (2020), p. 103-114
History of the Hospital cemetery in St. Ottilien which shows that from May 1945 until August 1948 76 patients were buried at the cemetery (today after exhumations still 73). The article reconstructs the biographies of the single patients as far as it is known and can prove that the graves have not been touched. Only the tombstones are now moved to the outer wall of the cemetery. Instead of the two patients who were exhumed (Chaim Gutfraind and Ephraim Weinberg) and brought to New York, the tombstones are now buried in the former graves. See Rolatschek-KZ-cemetery
Rolatschek, Gerhard: Evakuierungstransporte und -märsche des KZ-Außenlagerkomplexes Kaufering, in: Landsberger Geschichtsblätter 122 (2024), p. 102-117
Detailed and well researched documentation of the „death marches“ at the end of WW II when thousands of KZ prisoners from the Kaufering/Landsberg subcamps and other camps were forced to march on foot towards Dachau. The reports on this death marches are often contradictory, but thanks to a precise reconstruction of the routes and times of the marches and numbers of prisoners many open questions can be solved by the author.
Schäfer, Cyrill: „Wir hatten noch nie so viele Geburten!“ Kloster St. Ottilien 1945–1948 am Schnittpunkt von Orts- und Weltgeschichte, in: Sabine Wüst (ed.), Schätze der Welt in landeshistorischer Perspektive. Festschrift zum 65. Geburtstag von Wolfgang Wüst, St. Ottilien 2018, p. 577-588
Outline of the Hospital History and the available sources. Digital version: FS_Wüst_Schäfer
Schein, Ada: A Leader of His Time: Zalman Grinberg and the She’Erit Hapleta in Germany, 1945-1946, in: Search and Research. Lectures and Paper 35, Yad Vashem 2022
Biographical notes on Zalman Grinberg and his leadership as first president of the Central Committee of Liberated Jews.
Schwarz, Leo W.: The Redeemers. A Saga of the Years 1945-1952, New York 1953, p.3-9
Leo W. Schwarz (1906-1967) directed the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) in the German U.S. Zone. His classical documentation of the Jewish Displaced Persons describes lively in its first chapter the Liberation Concert of May 27, 1945, and the main protagonists. Digital version: Schwarz_RedeemersChap1
Wetzel, Juliane: Jüdisches Leben in München 1945-1951. Durchgangsstation oder Wiederaufbau?, in: Miscellanea Bavarica Monacensia. Dissertationen zur Bayerischen Landes- und Münchner Stadtgeschichte, vol. 135, München 1987.
Doctoral thesis in German language on the organization and culture life of Jewish survivors in Munich and surroundings. The Ottilien hospital is treated on pages 232-233.
Whitehouse, Rosie: The People on the Beach. Journeys to Freedom After the Holocaust, London 2020.
Documentation of the post-war efforts of liberated Jews to escape a hostile Europe and to find a new home in the „Promised Land“. Chapter 8 (p. 107-118) is dedicated to the St. Ottilien Hospital and includes much information on people and events, especially Rabbi Klausner and Dr. Zalman Grinberg.
ARCHIVES
The documents including photographs, memories, letters, films on the Ottilien DP hospital are spread world wide in several archives whose material is in part online available:
– JDC Archives, New York and Jerusalem
Archives of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee with documents and photographs about the St. Ottilien DP Hospital.
– United Nations Archives and Records, New York
Records of the UNNRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) about the DP Hospital St. Ottilien.
– Archives Nationales, Paris
Documents of the IRO (International Refugee Organization) about the St. Ottilien DP Hospital: Reports beginning from 1947 through to 1948 about the situation of the monastery and documentation of its close-down and transfer to Hotel Sonnenhof in Bad Woerishofen (AJ/43/814).
– Archives of the International Tracing Service, Bad Arolsen
Lists of patients, personnel and births in the DP Hospital St. Ottilien from 1945 up to spring 1948. The single patient’s files have to be searched under the name of the patient (data received from UNRRA, the International Red Cross and the World Jewish Congress New York).
– YIVO Archives for Jewish Research, New York
Documentation of Leo W. Schwarz, Director of JDC from 1946-1947.
– Archives of the Institut für Zeitgeschichte (IFZ), München
Fi01 (personal collection of DP documents by Wolfgang Jacobmeyer): vol. 80: Report of UNRRA officer Eli Rock to the Anglo-American Commission for Palestine which contains notes about the hospital St. Ottilien as one of the „brightest“ chapter of Jews in Bavaria. Vol. 108: Extensive interview with Rabbi Abraham Klausner who describes how he met Dr. Grinberg and how they managed to transform the military hospital into an all-Jewish facility.
– Archives of the Archabbey of St. Ottilien, St. Ottilien
A 11.13.4. Letters of the monastery administration, documentation of the KZ cemetery, documents.
– Archives of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, Dachau
A 196 (documents related to Dr Grinberg), A 3047 (documents about the burials at the DP hospital and the cemetery), A 10.203 (death cases in the D.P. hospital St. Ottilien until May 25, 1946), A 43.222 (list of buried persons at the Jewish cemetery St. Ottilien-Eresing from November 5, 1948), R 216 (Interview with Elias Kleiner), DVD 195 (Interview with Hanns Kaiser, German doctor at the DP Hospital in 1945-46).
– Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (Jerusalem)
Correspondance from and about Rabbi Abraham Klausner and his efforts in post-war Germany.
– Ghetto Fighters‘ House Museum, Kibbuz Lochamej haGeta’ot
Memories in Hebrew and photographs.
– United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC
Memories and photographs.
– Yad Vashem Archives, Jerusalem
Memories and photographs.
– The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot
Zvi Kadushin Collection: Photographs from the DP Hospital from 1946 by the Lithuanian photographer Zvi Kadushin.