“The people must be forced to go to Palestine”: Rabbi Abraham Klausner and the She’erit Hapletah in Germany

American rabbi Abraham Klausner played a vital role in rebuilding Jewish communal life in Germany during the first few years after World War II, advocating on behalf of survivors before U.S. military authorities, securing much-needed supplies, publishing lists of survivors, and establishing the Central Committee of the Liberated Jews as the official representative body of the Jewish displaced persons. The survivors lauded Klausner as their most trusted advocate, yet his zealous Zionism seemed increasingly to outpace that of much of the survivor population. In his May 2, 1948 confidential report to world Jewish leaders, Klausner suggested that after three years in the DP camps, perhaps only thirty percent of the survivors would choose to go to Palestine, and he proposed radical solutions to this perceived problem. Observing the DP situation from Klausner’s unique perspective, the author of this article examines the contingent nature of DP Zionism.