In 1945, a former convent near Dachau named Kloster Indersdorf became a temporary home for hundreds of displaced children in the immediate aftermath of World War II. To help locate relatives, a photograph was taken of each child to be circulated in search notices. Many of the children had changed markedly during the war, and some had even lost their names. The exhibition displays a selection of the images and their individual stories, conveying the powerful reality faced by these children.
Images of the children from the Museum’s collection came through the gift of Robert Marx to the Yaffa Eliach Collection at the Center for Holocaust Studies. The Center’s collection was merged into the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in 1990. This set of prints survived thanks to André S. Marx, Principal Welfare Officer for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) Relief Team 182 that operated the Children’s Center at Kloster Indersdorf. Contextual images courtesy, United Nations Archives, photographs of Kloster Indersdorf from folder S-1058-0001-01, “Germany Mission – Photographs 1944-1948.”