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A Child Sleeping Between Train Cars on the Return Journey from Buchenwald to Hungary
Yad Vashem Archives, 6839/5
From the Testimony of Yosef Zalman Kleinman:
“There was an enormous train, with two large locomotives pulling it, that started moving southwards. [..] The journey took several days, and was cramped [..] Italians were returning from all over Europe. [..] At every train station, Italians would alight from the train, returning to homes they hadn’t seen in years. All the townspeople waited for this train with refreshments, here and there even a welcoming orchestra. Every station, people would get off, but for us Jews – no one was waiting for us… For me, it was twinge in my heart… For me.. it was a clear picture that we had no one.”
(Yad Vashem Archives, O.3 V.T/131)
From the Testimony of Shmuel Shulman Shilo:
“Suddenly I’m standing in the middle of the city [..] and I ask myself, “So what? Home – gone, family – gone, children – gone, my friends are gone, Jews – gone. Here and there would be a Jew a hardly knew. This is what I fought for? This is what I stayed alive for? Suddenly I realized that my whole struggle had been pointless, and I didn’t feel like living.”
(Yad Vashem Archives, 0.3, V.T/135)
In the photograph we see a boy returning to Hungary from the Buchenwald concentration camp. The boy is sleeping between two train cars, on an improvised bed of hay. Many children returned home alone, passing through cities and countries in a state of chaos. Yosef Kleinman describes the sense of loneliness upon returning home. What were the difficulties that survivors faced upon reaching their hometowns?