March 1946, Members of the “Kibbutz Buchenwald” Pioneer Training Group in Antwerp, Belgium

Members of  “Kibbutz Buchenwald” in Antwerp, Belgium before their immigration to Eretz Israel.

In early June 1945, less than a month after the war’s end, a pioneer training Kibbutz was established by survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp.  This was the first pioneer training group organized in Germany after liberation.  Some of the youngsters were ambivalent about the merit of operating a pioneer training scheme on German soil, but eventually, pragmatism won out.  In September 1945, some 80 members of the group immigrated to Eretz Israel legally, armed with “certificates” (entrance permits to Mandatory Palestine).  Later, some of the members moved to Antwerp where they stayed in two homes for immigrants, until they sailed to Eretz Israel on 17 March 1946 from a port in France on the Maapilim boat the “Tel-Chai”.