Photograph Album – Convalescence Camp for She'erit Hapletah Children – Strobl, Austria, 1947

Photograph Album – Convalescence Camp for She'erit Hapletah Children – Strobl, Austria, 1947
Photo-album from a convalescence camp for She'erit Hapletah children in Strobl, Austria. Strobl, 1947.
67 photographs, in an album, documenting the operation of the camp for She'erit Hapletah children in Strobl, Austria. The camp was initiated by the central committee of Jews in Austria and the Jewish Agency and was supported by the Joint.
The photographs portray children bathing in the bath tub and in the lake, eating, studying, staging plays, travelling and exercising. Some photographs show members of the staff as well as representatives of different organizations (culture department of the central committee of Jews in Austria, the Jewish Agency, and more). The photographs are titled on the album's leaves.
Two dedications to Menachem Zaharoni – director of the culture and education bureau of She'erit Hapletah in Austria – appear in the album. One is an official dedication: "Souvenir from the children's lives in Strobl camp, 1947, where some 500 children rested and healed their starved bodies". This dedication is signed by S. Shvadron, secretary of the culture department of the central committee of Austrian Jews and is dated – "Salzburg, September 1947". The second dedication is personal, and is addressed to "My childhood friend Mendel [Menachem Zaharoni], when we met again after so many years, far from the town where we were born – raised – Krynki, formerly lovely, presently destroyed and abandoned […], yours, Shmuel".
Menachem Zaharoni (1912-1979) - one of the founders of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and author of dozens of articles, books and guides on the subject of the geography of Israel. Zaharoni was born as Menachem Jaroszweski in Krynki, Poland. At the age of 15 he started his studies in the Hebrew Seminary "Tarbut" in Grodno, and when he graduated at the age of 19, he served as a teacher in Kosiv and as the JNF representative in the town. Zaharoni immigrated to Palestine in 1934, worked as a substitute-teacher in a school in Nesher and in orange groves. In 1947 he went on a mission to establish schools in Displaced Persons Camps in Austria, and in the summer of 1948 returned to Israel. In the years that followed he was engaged in study and education and in guiding tours, courses and continuing education programs.
Photographs: 8.5X6 cm – 12X9 cm. Album: 31X20 cm. Photographs in good-fair condition. Minor stains and blemishes. The leaves of the album are in poor condition. Fragile leaves, falling apart, torn at margins and entirely detached from album. Stains and blemishes to binding.