Top Row, from right: Unknown, Shmuel Elster, Shmuel Steiner, Unknown
Bottom Row: Unknown, Piniya Hochgraf (lawyer), Sonia Elster (nee Binstock)
 
The Achdut Kibbutz in Chelm was established in 1946. Chelm was the first Polish city that Jews would pass through after Russia on their way back to Poland. The Jews of Chelm, using Donitz's home and store, ran the kibbutz, hosting and helping the survivors. Funds came from Warsaw. Sonia cooked for the guests. At the end of 1946, people from the Bricha movement arrived and moved the Kibbutz staff to a town in the Carpathian Mountains. Then, overnight, they moved on to Czechoslovakia.