Sally Wideroff – JDC Relief Worker
Sally Wideroff (born Sally Bendremer), a JDC (JOINT DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE) relief worker, spent thirteen months in the British Zone of Germany where she worked first in the Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp and later at the Warburg children’s home in Hamburg-Blankenese.
While in Bergen-Belsen, Sally served as the liaison between representatives of the JDC, UNRRA and the DP camp’s Central Jewish Committee. She also worked to establish educational, recreational and cultural programs for the DPs, including a camp library and film program. Sally was instrumental in opening the Warburg children’s home, where she served as the JDC’s child welfare specialist. In April 1946 she escorted a group of 105 orphans from the home to Marseilles, on the first leg of their journey to Palestine. In Marseilles the Warburg home orphans joined another group of children to form the first postwar Youth Aliyah transport.
The photograph was given to Hadassah Rosensaft by Sally Bendremer. The English caption on the back reads: ‘To Hadasa, with fond remembrances, and best wishes for an early, safe and tremendous aliyah. Sally von Joint.’
Credit, photo & text. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Hadassah Bimko Rosensaft
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Belsen Online Archive
This archive has been established after my own relative, Reg Price, took part in the liberation and subsequent humanitarian effort of Bergen Belsen in April 1945. Reg produced this famous sign at Belsen. As part of the 113th DLI, Reg and his comrades were at Belsen for 5 weeks and left when the last hut was empty and ceremonially burnt down. This archive compiles all available resources to build a lasting tribute to all the men and women who helped - any unit, any nationality. If you have a relative, or any info, on the relief effort at Belsen, we’d love you to please get in touch. Email us: liberator@belsen.co.uk – Thank you Nick Price Creatives • Facebook • Twitter •
