# Holocaust survivors being murdered in post-WW2 years, any information about that? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 7, 2019, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-survivors-being-murdered-in-post-ww2-years-any-information-about-that/835174 "2019-06-07T17:25:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mislav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mislav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mislav)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2019, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-survivors-being-murdered-in-post-ww2-years-any-information-about-that/835174/1 "2019-06-07T17:25:18Z")
I read somewhere that some Holocaust survivors were murdered during the post-war period in Germany (and other countries formerly occupied by the Nazis), usually after they returned to their homes and businesses and found out that other people had taken them over. Some were also hunted down by small, local Neo-Nazi crime groups. Any sources/information confirming that? The closest thing I could find was this, though it is not really the same thing: > **[Kielce pogrom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kielce_pogrom)** > > The Kielce pogrom was an outbreak of violence toward the Jewish community centre's gathering of refugees in the city of Kielce, Poland on 4 July 1946 by Polish soldiers, police officers, and civilians during which 42 Jews were killed and more than 40 were wounded. Polish courts later sentenced nine of the attackers to death in connection with the crimes. > As the deadliest pogrom against Polish Jews after the Second World War, the incident was a significant point in the post-war history of Jews... ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-survivors-being-murdered-in-post-ww2-years-any-information-about-that/835174/2 "2019-06-08T02:45:03Z")
[Moderating] Unless Holocaust survivors being killed is somehow entertainment, I think you put this in the wrong forum. Moving from CS to GQ. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-survivors-being-murdered-in-post-ww2-years-any-information-about-that/835174/3 "2019-06-08T02:56:29Z")
It was mentioned in Volume 2 of the biographical graphic novel [Maus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maus) . The main character is told about a Jew murdered after returning to his farm to find a new occupant who shouts angrily that she though Hitler had killed him. He goes to sleep in the barn and gets hung by locals after that. It was purely anecdotal but was a warning for him not to return to Poland. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-survivors-being-murdered-in-post-ww2-years-any-information-about-that/835174/4 "2019-06-08T04:29:31Z")
> [@Mr.Miskatonic](#): > > It was mentioned in Volume 2 of the biographical graphic novel [Maus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maus) . The main character is told about a Jew murdered after returning to his farm to find a new occupant who shouts angrily that she though Hitler had killed him. He goes to sleep in the barn and gets hung by locals after that. It was purely anecdotal but was a warning for him not to return to Poland. I know the government of Canada thoughtfully disposed of the property of Japanese-Canadian internees, sometimes for pennies on the dollar. (in fact, I read that some were not allowed to return to the west coast until 1949.) I would imagine many of the governments that emerged from WWII must have had means to dispose of the property of those that apparently had died or disappeared during the extreme upheaval of genocide and war. I can also see those who thought they’d hit the jackpot with a cheap (free?) farm not being too happy to lose it. But I haven’t heard of that sort of vigilante action to enforce their windfall. Which brings up the question of what was the process to reclaim land or other property for returning survivors? I gather from the news that even looted art is still a bone of contention today. Add to that the complication of documentation. Between the destruction of war and pernicious racism, it might be difficult to document proof of title - paperwork has a way of disappearing from local archives. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-survivors-being-murdered-in-post-ww2-years-any-information-about-that/835174/5 "2019-06-08T10:46:49Z")
Since I first learned of it, the April 1945 murder of [Leon Feldhendler](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Feldhendler#Death_in_Lublin) in Lublin has upset me. He defied monumental odds when he led and survived the [heroic revolt](https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/remembering-sobibor-uprising) at the [Sobibor death camp](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobibor_extermination_camp) only to be killed by Polish anti-semites in the last days of the war. ---
**Author:** ![abel29a](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@abel29a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abel29a)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-survivors-being-murdered-in-post-ww2-years-any-information-about-that/835174/6 "2019-06-11T10:55:33Z")
There are, unfortunately, many examples of this occuring, particularly as noted up thread in Poland. One very depressing read that both covers this but also many of the other atrocities commited against different groups of people in post-WWII Europe is covered in [Keith Lowe’s Savage Continent](https://www.amazon.com/Savage-Continent-Europe-Aftermath-World/dp/125003356X). In western europe there where few examples of outright murder, but often years of legal battles and general unpleasantness. The exodus to Israel was not solely out of fear of the next Hitler.