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Hans Pinn/GPO/TPS-IL on 24 May, 2026
Facebook Group Becomes Living Archive for Cyprus Camp Survivors’ Descendants
Jerusalem, 24 May, 2026 (TPS-IL) -- Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect corrected study data.
A Facebook group created by descendants of Holocaust survivors who were detained by British authorities in Cyprus after World War II has evolved into an unexpected archive of collective memory, helping reconstruct family histories that in many cases were nearly lost, according to a new Ben-Gurion University of the Negev study.
The research, conducted by doctoral student Ayelet Klein-Cohen under the supervision of Dr. Noam Tirosh and Professor Amit Schechter, examined how descendants of survivors use social media to preserve family stories, documents, and photographs connected to the Cyprus detention camps. These camps, operated by Britain, held over 50,000 Jewish refugees between 1946-1949 as they attempted to reach Mandatory Palestine.
The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Memory, Mind and Media.
Klein-Cohen said the Facebook community, run by the Cyprus Detainees Organization, an Israeli non-profit, demonstrates how digital platforms can help descendants recover fragmented family histories.
“If this causes a group of people anywhere in the world to feel that they too want to explore the history of the past for themselves, then the power of this study is that it may inspire someone to do the same thing in another context,” she said.
She explained that participants in the group have gained a deeper understanding of their personal and family narratives.
“In essence, the study speaks about the way in which descendants of Holocaust survivors seek less familiar stories in order to develop a deeper understanding of themselves and of family stories connected to Cyprus,” she told TPS-IL. “At the same time, it points to the ability of social networks to allow less familiar narratives to surface and become part of public discourse, especially stories connected to traumatic events, the search for personal identity, and the process of dealing with intergenerational trauma.”
According to the research, the online group functions as a collaborative space where descendants share testimonies, search for relatives, and piece together fragments of stories that often remained untold within families for decades.
Klein-Cohen analyzed 687 posts and comments published by group members during 2022. She emphasized that the study was qualitative and not intended to provide statistical representation of all descendants of Cyprus camp survivors.
“For me, what makes this community especially unique is the fact that there is no formal body behind it and no official institution,” she said. “There is no archive behind it. Yet people still gather around it and share stories and memories with one another.”
Asked about the relationship between historical fact and memory, Klein-Cohen said it is an inherent tension in historical research.
“The moment something happens, it is over, and memory takes over, for better and worse. That is the eternal tension between memory and history,” she explained.
British policy during Israel’s pre-state years limited Jewish immigration. The camps were established in August 1946. More than 50,000 Jewish refugees, many of them Holocaust survivors, passed through the camps. An estimated 80 percent were between the ages of 13-35. Conditions included overcrowding, poor sanitation, and a lack of privacy.
Klein-Cohen said the Cyprus camps have received relatively limited public attention compared to other Holocaust and post-Holocaust narratives.
Historian Nahum Bogner, who has extensively researched the Cyprus story, said that “the case of the Cyprus deportation was omitted as if it were by an invisible hand,” and that “in what was published, a clear priority was given to the heroic episodes at sea,” a reference to attempts of illegal immigration.
According to Klein-Cohen, descendants participating in the group are not simply sharing nostalgia but actively reconstructing fragmented family histories across generations.
The study also highlights a broader shift in how Holocaust memory is transmitted across generations.
While traditional commemoration has often centered on museums, ceremonies, and formal archives, Klein-Cohen said digital platforms increasingly allow descendants to shape memory from below through personal testimony and collective participation.
