Three years after the end of World War II, thousands of people remained stranded in European displaced-persons camps. Some sought and gained asylum in the United States, where they hoped to start a new life. Having recently taken a beginners’ class in photography, Clemens Kalischer was drawn to the New York City waterfront to record the arrival of the displaced persons. The scene was reminiscent of his own life six years earlier.
In 1942, wearing rags and weighing only ninety pounds, Kalischer had landed in the U.S. after three years in the forced-labor camps of Vichy, France. His family and others had been rescued by Eleanor Roosevelt, who arranged for a few emergency visas just before the Nazis’ total takeover of France. Those Jews who remained behind were shipped to the death camps in Poland.
