Out of the Archives: A Jewish Chaplain in Post-Liberation Dachau
by Rachel C. Miller, Senior Project Archivist, Center for Jewish History

One month after the liberation of Dachau, Army Chaplain Max Braude wrote this spirited letter to his wife, Eunice, recounting his day of relief work with 700 women survivors. Eunice Braude passed her husband’s letter on to Philip S. Bernstein, who was then the Executive Director of the National Jewish Welfare Board’s Committee on Army and Navy Religious Activities.

The letter sits among a rich cache of post-WWII DP camp correspondence and reports in the National Jewish Welfare Board Military Chaplaincy Records, which is housed at the American Jewish Historical Society (I-249, Folder 139). It is currently being processed as part of the Center’s Holocaust Resource Initiative, funded by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, Inc. 

Surrounding the letter is more correspondence on Dachau stationery, written by Chaplain Abraham Klausner to Bernstein. AJHS holds Klausner’s own papers, one letter of which, also on Dachau stationery, is now on display at the Jewish Museum in Munich.

The letter begins: “Darling– Another grand day–though I am quite tired–fought tooth and nail with another 700 Jewesses–wow, what a job they are. Controlling 700 women is bad enough–but attempting to control 700 released tigresses is practically hopeless.”

To read more, click on the first page of the letter (above). To turn the page when you are done reading, click on the image again.

For more information on “The American Jewish Chaplain Experience,” you can read David P. Rosenberg’s post of that title by clicking here.

To conduct your own search of the collections, click here.