The Jewish Vocational School Masada in Darmstadt was established and run by Samuel Milek Battalion between 1947 and 1948. The aim of the school was to give the young Holocaust survivors an education, a new will to live and to prepare themselves for a possible life in Israel. The school trained about 45 to 60 students, but was slowly closed after the establishment of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948. Most of the students emigrated to Israel and were recruited to the new established Israel Defense Forces. Although the school only existed for ten months, it nevertheless represents an important aspect of the post-war history of Hesse and a manifestation of the re-emergence and establishment of Jewish life in post-war Germany.