Collection of photographs of members of Zionist youth movements and residents of DP camps in Europe; presumably, taken by Micha Paz – a Holocaust survivor who escaped from Germany to Palestine, joined the British Army and returned to Europe as a soldier of the Jewish Brigade. Bergen Belsen, Hamburg, Lodz, Lower Silesia and elsewhere, 1946-1947 (one photograph is from 1948).
36 photographs: trainees of a Nocham ("No'ar Chalutzi Meuchad", United Pioneer Youth) seminar dancing the Horah (1946); a trip of the children of the "Children's Home in Blankenese" (Hamburg, 1946); varied pictures from the Bergen Belsen DP camp (the Jewish school, a festive diner, a gym class for girls); the trainees of a seminar in Lodz; and more. One of the photographs depicts members of youth movements at Cyprus internment camps (1948).
Micha Paz was born in Berlin in 1924. In 1940 he escaped via the Austrian border to Yugoslavia, as part of an operation organized by Recha Freier, and eventually reached Palestine through Greece, Turkey and Lebanon. In Palestine, he joined the British Army, was sent to Italy, and fought in the Jewish Brigade. After the war he remained in Europe under an alias, working as a representative of the Haganah to locate Holocaust survivors and prepare them for immigration to Palestine.
Approx. half of the photographs are captioned and dated by hand (Hebrew and English). One photograph is stamped with Micha Paz's stamp.
36 photographs. Size and condition vary. Good overall condition. Stains, creases and blemishes. Small tears to margins. An open tear to the corner of one of the photographs (slightly affecting the picture).
Enclosed: • Yashresh, by Recha Freier (Tel-Aviv: Tamar, [1953?]). Inscribed: "To Micha Paz, with friendship, Recha Freier" (Hebrew). • A personal details form (presumably, for an applicant for the Israeli civil service), filled-in by Paz, with his personal details and résumé.