CHOOSING A HEIM: SURVIVORS OF THE HOLOCAUST AND POST-WAR IMMIGRATION

Over the past decade, the question of where Holocaust survivors chose to rebuild their lives after the war has been the focus of much debate. This discussion is arguably a response to a post-Zionist discourse which claims that many survivors, when choosing where to immigrate after the war, were manipulated by the Zionist movement into making aliya. Through the examination of survivor testimony, this article will consider survivors' personal deliberations and considerations regarding their post-war immigration. It explores the factors that influenced their decision-making process, asking specifically whether survivors immigrated to the country that offered them the first chance of leaving Europe, by 'instinctive' or 'intuitive' Zionism, or if they were motivated by other concerns. This study is based on over eighty survivor testimonies, collected in Israel, Australia and the United States over the last twenty years.