Unzer Weg (Our Way) [publication of the Jewish Displaced Persons Camps of Bavaria]. Nos. 1-50 (October 12, 1945-September 25, 1946). * With: Duplicates of Issue No. 46 (complete) and Extra Ausgabe of July 1, 1946 (incomplete)

(HOLOCAUST).

for the Committee of the Liberated Jews in Bavaria

Munich

1945-1946

Yiddish and smattering of Hebrew; special supplements in English; search lists in German. Replete with black-and-white photos. On front fly, heartfelt Yiddish inscription to Rabbi Abraham J. Klausner from the Editor, Levi Salitan.

Despite primitive conditions, Unzer Weg had a circulation of some 20,000, the largest Yiddish weeky in post-war Germany. The direction of the newspaper was decidedly Zionist; the editors were of the firm belief that the only solution for European Jewry was Aliyah to Eretz Israel. (See Klausner's article "Time to Go Home" in the English supplement to No. 32.) Among dramatic local news reported by Unzer Weg: The murder of Shmuel Danziger, a concentration camp survivor, by German police in Stuttgart, and the subsequent mass protest demonstrations by Jews (April 2, 1946, et al) and the prosecution of 20 young Jewish males of the camp at Landsberg accused of assaulting German citizens (May 17, 1946). The headlines of many issues publicize visits to the DP camps by VIPs: US General Eisenhower (English supplement to No. 1); Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion (No. 3 of October 26, 1946); Chief Rabbi of Eretz Israel, Isaac Halevi Herzog (No. 36 of June 7, 1946). A recurring theme are the Nuremberg Trials of the Nazi leadership. There are also many reports and photographs of Jewish life in the DP camps, e.g. the children of the elementary school in Feldafing (No. 10, p. 5), and yeshiva students studying Talmud (No. 48, p. 4). Appended to some issues are Search Lists ("Suchdienst Liste") of missing persons, printed in German. According to the website of ICON (International Coalition of Newspapers), Unzer Weg appeared on a regular basis from Oct. 12, 1945 through Jan. 4, 1947, and on an irregular basis from Dec. 31, 1947 through Dec. 28, 1950. However, historian Alex Grobman writes that Unzer Weg ceased publication on April 1, 1949 (Rekindling the Flame: American Chaplains and the Survivors of European Jewry, 1944-1948, pp. 121-22). Provenance: Estate of US Army Chaplain Abraham J. Klausner (1915-2007). Of all the American Jewish chaplains active in post-war Germany, Abraham Klausner stands out as exceptional in his intense contributions to the cause of Europe’s liberated Jews.