Cherries on the Elbe

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The Jewish children's home at the Warburg estate in Hamburg-Blankenese, established in January 1946, welcomed its first group of children from Bergen-Belsen. However, my arrival in late 1945 revealed a vibrant community of Jewish teenagers and adults who had survived the horrors of ghettos and concentration camps. Despite the idyllic setting and support from the American Joint Distribution Committee and British Jewish Relief Unit, no one viewed the estate as a final destination. The survivors longed to leave Germany for their ancestral homeland, a sentiment reinforced by the educators who taught Hebrew and shared the rich history of the Jewish people. Cultural activities flourished, including candle lighting for the Sabbath, Hebrew songs, and folk dancing. Publishing this work in English now sheds light on the experiences of orphaned Jewish children liberated from the atrocities inflicted by Germans and their collaborators. It highlights the collaboration between the Warburg family, the American Joint, the British Jewish Relief Unit, and the Jewish Brigade in their efforts to rehabilitate children whose childhoods had been destroyed. This narrative, largely unknown, contributes to Holocaust studies and counters denial by providing eyewitness accounts and scholarly insights. The translation's timeliness addresses the need to confront those who dismiss the Holocaust as fiction, ensuring the survivors' stories reach a global au