The Hachsharot for Jewish DPs in Italy, 1945-48

After the war, some thousands Jewish Displaced Persons (DPs) who had survived the Shoah passed trough Italy on their way to British Palestine and other countries, mainly the United States, and remained in the peninsula for a period of time ranging from a few weeks to several months. Most of them were hosted in almost 100 hachsharot, which were created all over the peninsula. Several actors contributed to the hachsharot creation and functioning, all of them playing a specific role: the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (AJJDC, also known as Joint), and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) - later substituted by the International Refugee Organization (IRO), running the various activities together; the Jewish DPs, the majority of whom was represented by the Irgun ha-plitim, i.e. the Organization of the Jewish Refugees in Italy (OJRI), and in particular the so-called Merkaz he-chalutz [Centre of the Pioneer Movement]; associations such as the Organization for Rehabilitation through Training (ORT) and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), who were willing to help the Jewish DPs; the Italian Jewry; and the Italian government, which got back full sovereignty on the Italian peninsula starting from 1945.