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The story of Rabbi Abraham Klausner, the forgotten hero of the hardest Passover.

On the evenings of 15 and 16 April 1946, 200 survivors and GIs gathered for a Seder night unlike any other, before or since

April 18, 2017 09:21
U.S. army chaplain Rabbi Abraham Klausner speaks at the first post-war Zionist conference in Munich.jpg

ByBen Judah and Rosie Whitehouse, Ben Judah and Rosie Whitehouse

8 min read

When the rabbi stepped into Dachau, he felt worthless. The camp stank, it wailed, swirling with stick-like figures, and had only been liberated for a few days. Surrounded by degradation, he watched an American GI flick a cigarette butt at three survivors in loose, hanging camp garb – who flung themselves darting under a fence like dogs to retrieve it.

The rabbi looked different from the ones survivors knew. He was young, round-faced, and in American military uniform. His name was Abraham Klausner, born in Memphis, Tennessee, and he was the Jewish Chaplain in the US Third Army.

He felt he had no purpose, nothing to give. Yet he did have something to offer, and would in a matter of days find himself the leader and father figure to the some 32,000 liberated Jews in and around Dachau – the Survivors’ Rabbi.

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