Hachsharot and Kibbutzim

Hachsharot (agricultural training farms) and kibbutzim (Zionist communes) proliferated the areas surrounding DP camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy. The farms and communes served as an important means of instilling Zionist ideology in young Jewish DPs. The labor and activities at the hachsharot and kibbutzim, many of which were sponsored by political groups in Palestine, prepared survivors for the pioneering lives they could expect to lead in Palestine. In addition, the network of countryside farms became an integral part of Bricha's attempts at clandestine immigration to Palestine.