On the Difficulties of Daily Life Among the DPs

In the camps the DPs lived unhygienic and hopeless lives. They lived in crowded conditions, usually in large barracks, with no private space or family rooms; their diet was monotonous and scanty; their clothing was shapeless. They usually displayed little initiative and many did not want to work. They felt that it was enough that they had been forced to work in the past - now it was their turn to rest. They tended to be short-tempered and distrustful of strangers, and even regarded their friends and the committees and institutions around them with suspicion. Many threw off all discipline; some sought sexual pleasure and others became involved in profiteering and dealing in foreign currency. A few refugees left the camps and settled down in German towns. Most of the emissaries from Palestine, who went to the camps to meet members of She'arit Hapleta and find out about their mental state, returned with heavy hearts, and described a spiritually damaged human society, which might be beyond any rehabilitation.

Source: Gutman, Israel and Saf, Avital (eds.), She'arit Hapleta 1944-1948, Rehabilitation and the Political Struggle, Proceeding of the Sixth Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem 1990, p. 519.