A considerable number of the tens of thousands of Jews who were liberated from camps on German soil did not join the wave of returnees. They loathed Germany, its people, and its language, and sought shelter in the barracks of the abandoned camps rather than return home. They knew that only agonizing memories, desolation and estrangement awaited them in the towns and villages where they and their families had lived for generations. The British and American liberating armies regarded them as a moral incubus and a hindrance to the order they sought to establish, and tried in vain to persuade them to go home.

The survivors who returned to Poland were joined by approximately 200,000 others who had survived as refugees in the heart of the Soviet Union and had been repatriated after the war. However, hopes of reestablishing a Jewish community in Poland proved illusory. Many Poles and citizens of neighboring states feared that the Jews would demand the return of their stolen property, whilst others blamed the Jews for their own miserable plight - the chains of Soviet oppression having replaced the cruelty of the Nazi occupation. Age-old anti-Semitism and the postwar feeling that life was cheap led to the slaughter of some 1,000 Jewish survivors in Poland, culminating in the Kielce blood libel and pogrom of July 1946. A combination of all these factors led the survivors to a decisive change of direction.

During the liberation of eastern Europe, small groups of survivors, including former members of Zionist youth movements, ghetto fighters and partisans, had begun to organize underground routes to Eretz Israel. Their endeavors subsequently triggered a mass movement, known as Bricha, which, by the end of 1946, numbered some 140,000 people from Poland. The loyal core group which established the DP settlements in Germany and Austria was transformed into a social and political movement with hundreds of thousands of members fighting determinedly for their right to immigrate, and struggling to rebuild their lives.

Over the years, conflicting accounts have been given of the history of the She'erit Hapleita (lit., "remnant which escaped"). Some postulated that these were active Zionists, who realized their dreams and beliefs through aliya. Others claimed that the mass immigration of the She'erit Hapleita was a calculated political move orchestrated by emissaries from Eretz Israel.

In fact, the meeting of the survivors with the emissaries and members of the Jewish Brigade was a moving and joyful experience which helped bring closer two sections of the Jewish nation that shared the same origins and a common goal.

The Zionist ideology of the She'erit Hapleita crystallized at the height of the horrors in the ghettos and camps, in a world that spurned Jews and had abandoned them to their fate. The survivors learned from bitter experience that Jews should not be an unwanted minority, dependent on the fickle charity of others. Only in a country of their own, among their own people, could their wounds heal.

The Zionism of the She'erit Hapleita gave it the strength to persevere in the misery of the DP camps; to insist to the world upon its right to immigrate to Eretz Israel; to sail in overcrowded, dilapidated boats to a forbidden haven; to be imprisoned in camps in Cyprus, and to make its way clandestinely to a country in the throes of war. From 1946-1949, approximately a quarter of a million Holocaust survivors made aliya to Israel.

Three years separate the conclusion of World War II and the establishment of the State of Israel. The disclosure of the dimensions of the Holocaust and the murderous methods employed by the Nazis sent shock waves throughout the world which could not be ignored by world leaders. At the same time, the tragedy unified the various factions of the Jewish people as they faced the trials of the declaration of the State and the war which would inevitably follow. Thus, the horrors of the Holocaust, which had destroyed the Jewish communities of the Europe, brought forth an hour of reprieve in which the independence movement gained new impetus.

The immigration of the She'erit Hapleita, who constituted approximately half of Israel's Jewish population, marked the beginning of the ingathering of exiles to the state, and was followed by a massive aliya from the East. The survivors arrived at the height of the struggle for independence, and were given no time to relax and adjust to their new surroundings. Instead, they were immediately recruited to the ranks of the Palmach and the army at the front. Organized groups of survivors established kibbutzim and moshavim on the borders and in the interior of the country, and were active in numerous branches of industry and culture.

Yishuv veterans were uninterested in the survivors' stories and their emotional burdens, and most of the new arrivals enclosed themselves within a wall of silence. There were fears that the physically and emotionally scarred She'erit Hapleita would be a burden on the young state, but there was never any question that it was Israel's duty to take all Jews under her wing.

The conditions prevailing in the emergent state, which was forced to recruit all its citizens to defend and build up the country, undoubtedly made daily life difficult, but on the other hand, these same hardships helped the She'erit Hapleita to integrate quickly and to acquire a sense of identity and belonging.

In the course of time, the survivors became an integral part of the local population. They rebuilt their lives, founded families, and played a major role in the formation of Israeli society. They were the first to awaken the memory of the Holocaust. Today, as Israel celebrates her 50th anniversary, Holocaust survivors - who lived through the worst tragedy in history - are actively involved in a variety of fields, including economics, defense, industry, academe, science and technology, art, and sociopolitical affairs.

The State of Israel, which was established in the wake of the Holocaust, became a home and homeland to Holocaust survivors and persecuted Jews the world over.