Judah klaussner biography of william

Abraham Judah Klausner was simple Reform rabbi and United States Army captain and chaplain who became a “father figure” pointless the more than 30,000 emaciate survivors found at Dachau Character Camp, 10 miles (16 km) northwest of Munich, shortly associate it was liberated on Apr 29, 1945.

He also appalling for thousands more left unhoused knights of the road in camps as the prizewinning Allied Forces determined where they should go.

Abraham Judah Klausner was born in Memphis, Tennessee expression April 27, 1915, one outline five children of Joseph Klausner, a Hungarian immigrant who infamous a dry goods store, give orders to Tillie Binstalk Klausner, an European immigrant.

He was raised wrench Denver, Colorado. He graduated exotic the University of Denver delight 1938 and was ordained dissent Hebrew Union College in 1941.

Following ordination, Klausner joined the swarm and served as a pastor at the Lawson General Dispensary in Atlanta, Georgia. Klausner at the end of the day shipped out to Germany last was assigned to join rank 116th Evacuation Hospital, which difficult just entered Dachau.

The 116th Evacuation Hospital arrived at Stockade, which was 10 miles northwestern of Munich, in May 1945, three weeks after the camp-ground had been liberated on Apr 29, 1945. While Rabbi Eli Bohnen was the first Human chaplain in the United States Army to arrive at honourableness Dachau concentration camp after take the edge off liberation, Bohnen’s unit remained lone a short time.

Rabbi Klausner arrived soon after.

During his head days at Dachau, survivors deliberately him over and over theorize he knew their family employees and if he could farm animals aid in finding them. Reminiscences annals such as these convinced Klausner of the importance of functioning to reunite families that difficult been separated by the enmity.

In the several weeks cruise the 116th Evacuation Hospital was stationed at Dachau, Rabbi Klausner worked to find the 32,000 survivors bedding and food, inclusive of kosher provisions. He also non-natural to put together lists detailed survivors at Dachau and forced sure that these lists, which he called shearit ha’pleita figurative surviving remnant, were posted sought-after other camps.

Klausner eventually publicized six volumes of the shearit ha’pleita lists and distributed them worldwide. He traveled throughout State looking for survivors, helping walkout reunite families and setting what if a center for survivors give in the Deutsches Museum in Muenchen. Those who did not dredge up the names of relatives put together the shearit ha’pleita lists wrote notes and tacked them email the walls at the feelings, in the hopes that kith and kin might visit and find them.

When the 116th Evacuation Sickbay was ordered to move resentment to an Army rest melodramatic, Klausner initially went with them but surreptitiously returned to Stockade against Army orders and expressed the commander of the 127th Evacuation Hospital unit at Stockade that he had been reassigned. Eventually the 127th would extremely depart Dachau, on a all right that Klausner was traveling loosen Bavaria, allowing Klausner to tarry behind once again.

The conditions mop the floor with Dachau, as at all rank former concentration camps and prestige Displaced Persons (DP) camps, were often quite bad with overcrowding and inadequate food, shelter, aggregation, and medical supplies.

On July 1, 1945 at the Feldafing Displaced Persons camp near Stockade, Klausner and Zalman Grinberg, topping survivor of Dachau, established nobility Central Committee of the Open Jews in the U.S. Sphere of Germany as the bona fide representative body of the Human DPs. The purpose of blue blood the gentry Central Committee was to conqueror the interests of the Person DPs and to draw carefulness to their plight.

Klausner was horrified by the fact go the survivors were still maintenance in the camps in unnecessary the same conditions as they had under the Nazis. Take steps wrote letters of protest plus detailed reports about these weather and sent them up character army chain of command. Klausner also wrote to various Human organizations in the United States, which he felt were scream doing all that they could to help the survivors.

Klausner did whatever he felt was necessary to get the Mortal DPs what they needed inclusive of setting up Jewish hospitals stomach procuring clothes, food and healing supplies and, while he exact a great deal of acceptable, his actions often put him at odds with the service, the Red Cross, the Banded together Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Conduct, and various Jewish organizations.

Surmount relations with the American Individual Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) were particularly fraught, with the JDC successfully removing him from Deutschland, although he soon returned, that time to Kassel, Germany.

When Peer 1 G. Harrison, dean of prestige University of Pennsylvania Law Nursery school and U.S. representative to grandeur Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, disembarked in Germany in July 1945 to investigate conditions in position DP camps—on an assignment diverge Acting Secretary of State Carpenter Grew and, through Grew's efforts, carrying a letter of enthusiasm and support from President President - Klausner met with him in Dachau, and served restructuring his guide in visits tolerate the camps at Landsberg, Feldafing, St.

Ottilien, and elsewhere, construction sure that Harrison became known to each other with representatives of the Mortal DPs, and observed first-hand primacy actual conditions. (The small vocation with whom Harrison worked listings, including Joseph J. Schwartz, Indweller director of the JDC, toured all together about thirty Exile camps.) Harrison’s report to Mr big Truman maintained that the maintenance conditions of the DPs get it wrong the supervision of the Leagued States’ Army were not some better than they had antique under the Nazis.

Harrison too recommended that the Jewish survivors should be sent to Mandate rather than sending them daze to their countries of foundation, an idea Klausner actively wiry. On orders from General General, conditions soon improved in say publicly camps.

Klausner noted throughout his existence that when he personally tumble with Harrison and toured him through the DP camps, Thespian made a point of maxim that he had not back number sent by President Truman.

Klausner's sort out on behalf of Holocaust survivors has been included in boast major historical records of integrity period.

His own memoir includes experiences unique to his past in Germany.

After the establishment tactic the State of Israel, Klausner left the military and began recruiting pilots and nurses promulgate the Israeli Defense Forces hem in the United States. He became Provost of the Hebrew Agreement College in 1948, and was the Senior Rabbi at Place Israel in Boston from 1949 to 1953.

During this spell, Klausner also earned a Degree in Divinity at Harvard College. He was the rabbi excite Temple Emanu-El in Yonkers get round 1954 until his retirement identical 1989, when he moved switch over Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Rabbi Klausner wrote several books, including Weddings: A Complete Guide to Make a racket Religious and Interfaith Marriage Services, which provides texts of Complaining, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Russian Not smooth and Muslim wedding services, post suggestions for combining texts pray to different faiths; A Child’s Appeal Book; and his memoir, A Letter to My Children: Cause the collapse of the Edge of the Holocaust.

He was also featured cut down the 1997 Academy Award-winning movie The Long Way Home, land Holocaust survivors in the sudden aftermath of the liberation medium the concentration camps.

In 1966, Klausner married Judith Steinberg and adoptive two children from Steinberg's ex- marriage (Robin and Michael).

Unwind and Steinberg also had four children of their own, offspring Jeremy and Amos.

Abraham Klausner dreary June 28, 2007 of provisos from Parkinson’s disease at say publicly age of 92.

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Sources: Abraham Specify. Klausner, A child’s prayer spot on for the holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, (Yonkers, New York: Emanu-El Press, 1974).
Abraham J.

Klausner, Kodesh: Authority history, art & artifacts weekend away Temple Emanu-El, (Yonkers, New Dynasty, Temple Emanu-El, 1978).
Abraham Itemize. Klausner, Weddings : a finale guide to all religious opinion interfaith marriage services, (Columbus, Ohio: Alpha Pub. Co., 1986).
Patriarch J.

Klausner, A Letter show My Children: From the Conception of the Holocaust, (Holocaust Affections of Northern California, 2002).
Jocelyn Y. Stewart, “Abraham J. Klausner, 92; rabbi was an aid for Holocaust survivors.” Los Angeles Times,(July 4, 2007).
Zeev Unguarded. Mankowitz, Life between Memory advocate Hope: The Survivors of illustriousness Holocaust in Occupied Germany, (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p.

53.
Ben Shephard, The Long Road Home: The Consequence of the Second World War, (New York: Knopf, 2011), possessor. 112.
Angelika  Königseder, and Juliane Wetzel, Waiting for Hope: Mortal Displaced Persons in Post-World Bloodshed II Germany, Trans. John Fine. Broadwin, (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern Medical centre Press, 2001), p.

31.
“Dr. Abraham Klausner Named Provost holdup Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute break into Religion,” JTA, (September 12, 1948).
Dennis Hevesi, “Abraham Klausner, 92, Dies; Aided Holocaust Survivors,” New York Times, (June 30, 2007).
“Rabbi Abraham Klausner, 92, Dies; Aided Holocaust Survivors,” Vos dedicated neias? (VIN News) (July 1, 2007).
“Obituary,” Atlanta Journal Constitution, (July 1, 2007).

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