Birth Certificate - Jack Gardner's Son

Many survivors of the Holocaust struggled to comprehend the immensity of their losses. At the same time, they felt a strong yearning to establish families of their own. This produced a marriage and baby boom in the DP camps following liberation. Between 1946 and 1948, the birth rate in the DP camps of Europe was the highest in the world.

Following liberation, Jack Gardner returned to his home in Staryy-Sambor, Poland (now Ukraine). There, he found that his entire family had died in the Holocaust and that nothing remained of the Jewish community. He became a resident of Föhrenwald DP camp where he married Chaja Jachniuk. The couple’s son was born at the DP camp in 1946.