Simon Bloomberg

Simon Bloomberg (1894–1981) CBE, was a Jewish humanitarian known for his work to resettle the displaced persons of Europe after World War II. He was the UNRRA Director of the Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp after World War II and European Director of the Jewish Relief Fund.

Bloomberg was born in England on 11 September 1894 and fought in the British Army in World War I, enlisting on 1 December 1915. He served in France and Flanders (Belgium). After the war he joined HM Colonial Service where he worked in East Africa and Jamaica. He retired from the Colonial Service at age 50 to join the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA).

Bloomberg joined UNRRA in May 1945 just after the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. During his first year he worked as Director of Polish Ukrainian Camps in Germany, where he helped to resettle refugees from all over Europe. In June 1946 his focus turned towards helping Jewish survivors of the Holocaust when he became Director of Bergen-Belsen, (Hohne) - the first Jewish person in this position. It was considered that his appointment would help foster better relations between UNRRA and the 11,000 Jewish refugees in the camp.

Bloomberg brought about changes at the camp including increased distribution of food and clothing amongst the 11,000 strong community of Holocaust survivors. He fought for the right of Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe to be allowed to enter Bergen-Belsen and resigned in protest when UNRRA ruled they did not consider them to be displaced persons or entitled to receive rations.

However Bloomberg stayed at Bergen-Belsen, but joined the Jewish Committee For Relief Abroad. In his new position as European Director of the Jewish Relief Fund, he was able to continue assisting the people of the camp until 1948 when the State of Israel was founded and the camp's DP population started moving slowly to what they considered to be their homeland.

"Those who are left wait for the day when they can shake the bloodstained dust of Germany from their feet and start a new life in a free land, far away from this land of dreadful memories, please God that it may be soon," Bloomberg wrote in his diary at the time.

German historians, Angelika Konigseder and Juliane Wetzel wrote about Bloomberg's humanitarian efforts in their book Waiting for Hope: Jewish Displaced Persons in Post-World War II Germany. "Bloomberg had been an officer in the British Colonial Service. He knew the official mind and could talk on equal terms with the military and civil authorities. There was soon a different atmosphere at Belsen. The newly appointed supply officer was soon a very popular person with camp residents."

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