In War's WakeEurope's Displaced Persons in the Postwar Order

Abstract

Abstract The end of the Second World War in Europe gave way to a gigantic refugee crisis. Thoroughly prepared by Allied military planners, the swift repatriation of millions of former forced laborers, concentration camp inmates and prisoners of war nearly put an end to this dramatic episode. Yet in September 1945, the number of displaced persons placed under the guardianship of Allied armies and relief agencies in occupied Germany amounted to 1.5 million. A costly burden for the occupying powers, the Jewish, Polish, Ukrainian, Yugoslav and Baltic DPs unwilling to return to their countries of origin presented a thorny international problem. Initially thought of as temporary displaced persons, the DPs awaiting emigration in a myriad of camps stretched from Northern Germany to Sicily had become long-term refugees and asylum seekers. Based on the records of the International Refugee Organization, this book describes how reactions to the European DP crisis crucially impinged on the shape of the postwar order. The DP question directly affected the outbreak of the Cold War; the transformation of the "West" into a new geopolitical entity; the conduct of political purges and retribution; the ideology and methods of modern humanitarian interventions; the appearance of international agencies and non-governmental organizations; the emergence of an international human rights system; migration movements and the redistribution of "surplus populations"; Jewish nationhood; and postwar categorizations of political and humanitarian refugees.

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