Sharit Ha-Platah, Vols. I-V. Edited by US Army Chaplain Abraham J. Klausner

The very earliest issued lists of names of Jewish survivors of Nazi death-camps. “It is our prayer that in these lists many will find loved ones” (Foreword Vol. I). The survivors are listed by name, place and year of birth. The lists are in alphabetical order and subdivided by country of origin. The editor, US Army Chaplain Abraham J. Klausner performed extraordinary service in the immediate aftermath of the liberation of the camps, commencing with Dachau on April 29th, 1945. An example was the urgent assembly of lists of survivors to be found in the various camps throughout Europe. The Foreword to Volume I, datelined Dachau Concentration Camp, June 26th, 1945, sums up the enormity of the task before Klausner and his staff: "Every effort is being exerted to reunite families and friends. It is anticipated that within the next few weeks complete lists of all Jews in Germany will be ready for distribution. It is difficult to beg of those who have so long and so severey suffered to be patient. Yet we must constantly remind our unfortunate brethren that the tyrants destroyed our world in six years and as much as we would like to, we can not repair it in the space of six weeks." The Forewords to the various volumes here provide insight as to prevailing conditions of the DP Camps. Vol. IV is of especial interest, providing separate lists of Lithuanian and Polish Jewish women in Stockholm, also those survivors “Auf dem Wege nach Palastina” and "Enquirers in Australia." “Your freedom is on its way. Thank God it will be a freedom more of your own making than you may realize.” Provenance: Estate of Rabbi Abraham J. Klausner (1915-2007). For details of Klausner’s exceptional (and appropriately un-orthodox) contributions to the cause of Europe’s liberated Jews, see A. Grobman, Rekindling the Flame: American Jewish Chaplains and the Survivors of European Jewry 1944-1948 (Detroit, 1993)