YIVO and United Nations Mount Joint Exhibition

After the End of the World: Displaced Persons and Displaced Persons Camps

(New York, NY) – The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (YIVO) is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition, After the End of the World: Displaced Persons and Displaced Persons Camps, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The exhibition will run from January 10 – February 23, 2023.

The exhibit was created by the United Nations Department of Global Communications together with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and the United Nations Archives. Professor Debórah Dwork, Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity at the Graduate Center—CUNY, served as the scholar adviser for the exhibition.

An unprecedented humanitarian crisis unfolded after the Second World War. The exhibition examines the responses of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), the first multinational response of its kind, and of Jewish Holocaust survivors in the immediate post-war years.

The exhibition is sourced with artefacts and documents from the archives of YIVO and the United Nations and illuminates the macro history and personal stories of the people living in the camps. Among YIVO’s contributions are posters created by Holocaust survivors in the displaced persons camps that reflect key aspects of their daily life. They include newspapers, announcements for sporting events and political rallies, and lectures presented at the camps. It also includes the toys and ritual and everyday objects created by displaced persons.

Official documentation, including photographs, reports and correspondence from survivors and family members trying desperately to trace one another, are drawn from the United Nations Archives.

The exhibition illuminates how the impact of the Holocaust continued to be felt after the Second World War ended and the courage and resilience of those that survived in their efforts to rebuild their lives despite having lost everything.

“The exhibition illustrates how the displaced persons did not shrink from the task of rebuilding both their own lives and Jewish communal life,” said Jonathan Brent, Chief Executive Officer at YIVO.

“The exhibition reminds us of the importance of a multinational response that is sensitive and responsive to the agency of the survivors and works to support
them as they reconstitute their lives,” said Tracey Petersen, manager of the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme.”

“The exhibition also addresses the challenges survivors faced and the sorrow they carried as they began life anew,” said Holocaust historian Deborah Dwork, scholar advisor to the Program. “We want to believe that survivors’ problems ended with liberation. They didn’t.”

"This outstanding exhibition helps to prevent the total loss of historical memory of an important event, the in gatherings of hundreds of thousands of survivors of the holocaust, from more than a dozen countries, and the millions of stories they in turn preserved. More such exhibitions are needed," said Max Gitter, emeritus director and vice chair of the YIVO board, who spent five years as a child in DP camps in the late 40's."

The exhibition is on view from January 10, 2023, to February 23, 2023, at the United Nations Headquarters, located at 405 E 42nd St, New York, NY 10017
Hours: Monday-Friday | 9:00am-5:00pm.
Entrance to the United Nations Visitor Centre in New York is free, but there are requirements for all visitors. See the United Nations Visitor Centre entry guidelines.

Find out more about the exhibit at yivo.org/Displaced-Persons.

For media inquiries please contact:
Shelly Freeman
Chief of Staff

The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme

The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme was established by United Nations General Assembly resolution 60/7 in 2005 to further education about and remembrance of the Holocaust to help prevent future acts of genocide. Its multifaceted programme includes online and print educational products, seminars, exhibitions, a film series, and the annual worldwide observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, held on 27 January. Learn more at https://www.un.org/en/holocaustremembrance

YIVO

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and culture of East European Jewry worldwide. For nearly a century, YIVO has pioneered new forms of Jewish scholarship, research, education, and cultural expression. Our public programs and exhibitions, as well as online and on-site courses, extend our outreach to a global community. The YIVO Archives contains 24 million unique items and YIVO’s Library has over 400,000 volumes—the single largest resource for the study of East European Jewish life in the world. yivo.org / yivo.org/the-whole-story