After American , British and Soviet armed forces liberated the camps , survivors suffered from disease , severe malnutrition and depression . Many were displaced persons who were unable to return to their homes from before the war . In some areas the survivors continued to face antisemitic violence ; during the 1946 Kielce pogrom in Poland 42 survivors were killed when their communal home was attacked by a mob . For many of the survivors , Europe had become " a vast cemetery of the Jewish people " and " they wanted to start life over and build a new national Jewish homeland in Eretz Yisrael . " The movement of Jewish refugees from the Displaced Persons camp in which they were held ( one million persons classified as " not repatriable " remained in Germany and Austria ) to Palestine was illegal on both sides , as Jews were not officially allowed to leave the countries of Central and Eastern Europe by the Soviet Union and its allies , nor were they permitted to settle in Palestine by the British
Kielce pogrom
Kielce pogrom
Bricha