Holocaust Survivors Returning to their Hometowns in the Polish-Belarusian-Ukrainian Borderlands, 1944–1948

This article looks at the initial return of Holocaust survivors to six shtetls: Izbica and Biłgoraj in eastern Poland; Iŭje Mir western Belarus; Berezne Brody Ukraine. Focusing on period between liberation 1944 end this phase first returns 1948, we investigate strategies that returning adopted keep safe, reclaim their property, confront implicated neighbors. Based oral testimonies survivors, as well archival materials, yizkor bikher (memorial books), our own history interviews, offers a comparative perspective predicament immediate aftermath World War II, identifying life choices were common both sides Polish–Soviet border, national specifics uniquely shaped experience Jewish returnees postwar Poland, Belarus,