'Fate Unknown: The Search for the Missing after the Holocaust'
By 1945, Europe was in chaos and millions were displaced by war and genocide. For many Holocaust survivors, the possibility of finding loved ones was a primal need and took precedence over everything else. As a result, a number of charities including the British Red Cross Society and the Jewish Relief Unit, came together in what became known as the International Tracing Service (ITS) in an attempt to help find missing people and reunite families.
Leah Sidebotham, the Wiener Library
from which they were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Although only fourteen, Leslie claimed he was older and as a result was selected for work.
After surviving several camps, Kleinman was found by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) after the war and placed in the Kloster Indersdorf children’s home before being taken to England in 1946. As part of the 'Fate Unknown' exhibition series, The Wiener Library will welcome Mr Kleinman for a lunchtime talk about his experiences during the Holocaust and his story of survival.
Co-curator Professor Dan Stone (Royal Holloway, University of London) commented, “What the ITS as an institution did after the war was quite extraordinary. And the vast number of documents it collected in the course of its work now constitute one of the most important bodies of sources for grappling with the history of the Holocaust and its aftermath.”
A new exhibition at The Wiener Library - Britain’s largest archive of material on the Nazi era - hopes to bring the remarkable history of ITS to much greater public attention by recounting instances of discovery and reunion, as well as cases that remain unresolved to this day.
Leslie Kleinman
One of the remarkable stories highlighted in the exhibition is that of Lázár Kleinman who was born 29 May 1929 in Ambud, Romania, into an Orthodox Jewish family of eight children. After Hungary occupied northern Transylvania in 1940, his family’s life was brutally upended. In 1944, his father was deported and he and his family were put into a ghetto from which they were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Although only fourteen, Leslie claimed he was older and as a result was selected for work.
After surviving several camps, Kleinman was found by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) after the war and placed in the Kloster Indersdorf children’s home before being taken to England in 1946. As part of the Fate Unknown exhibition series, The Wiener Library will welcome Mr Kleinman for a lunchtime talk about his experiences during the Holocaust and his story of survival.