Prisoners of War and Displaced Persons in Europe post-WWII
Installment 9 of: ‘The Making of the Modern Internment Regime.’
After the Allied victory over Germany in 1945, massive population movements of displaced persons occurred all over Europe. Liberated prisoners of war (POWs) awaited repatriation while others sought to find new homes outside their nations of origin. Between 1944 and 1948, the Allied powers and multiple aid organizations established a series of refugee camps that served to bring order to refugee flows throughout war-torn Europe. However, many challenges would emerge, as different ethnic and national groups were either unable or unwilling to return to their states of origin.
● 1944 (6 June). Invasion of Normandy; first camps are established as Allies sweep across France
● 1945 (4 February). Yalta Conference defines the next three years of repatriation of people from lands claimed by the Soviets
● 1945 (17 July). Potsdam Conference sets policy that all ethnic Germans in Eastern Europe must be resettled in Germany
● 1945- Allied forces begin to put Jews into displaced person camps
● 1948- Major repatriation and internment efforts end
Allied military personnel jointly managed displaced person camps with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). The UNRRA spearheaded repatriation operations and camp management efforts with Allied military personnel to provide camp security and protection. To quickly establish spaces for managing refugee and IDP populations, the UNRRA used old Axis military centers, entire sections of local townships, and even utilized previously functioning Nazi concentration camps (Wyman 1998, 32).
Part of the UNRRA’s mission was to improve conditions for displaced communities within refugee camps; an initiative not taken in early displaced person camps. However, unpleasant conditions persisted, with many people lacking access to necessities such as food, water, and clothing.
“For many, the end of the war meant the beginning of a different kind of hell.” (Spindel)*
Allied officials and the UNRRA agreed to prioritize the immediate repatriation of displaced populations and former prisoners of war. The UNRRA thus began implementing a strict policy of resettlement. However, difficulties would arise. Three groups emerged as exceptional cases that caused the UNRRA and Allied powers to struggle with the policy of post-war repatriation: Jews, Soviet citizens, and displaced Germans and POWs.
The Repatriation of Jews
Following the Holocaust- and upon being freed from the concentration camps- Jews continued to face considerable difficulties. From 1945 to 1952, the UNRRA funneled more than 250,000 displaced Jews into DP camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy (Wall 2002, 31–32). Jews faced a unique problem in that they had been rendered effectively stateless. Most Jewish property throughout Europe had been redistributed to other repatriated nationals, and UNRRA officials feared that repatriation of Jews back into the countries they lived in before WWII could lead to more ethnic persecution. In Kielce, Poland, a mob of Polish soldiers, police officers, and civilians murdered at least 42 Jews and injured over 40 in the worst outburst of post-WWII anti-Jewish violence.
With the successes of the Zionist project in Palestine, many Jews sought passage to Palestine in 1945. From 1944 to 1947, several groups of Holocaust survivors attempted to illegally flee to Palestine, despite Britain’s objections. Finally, the U.N. voted to split Palestine into two regions. One to allow for the formation of a Jewish state that would offer itself as a limited space for the resettlement of only a small amount of surviving Jews, and another for Palestinian Arabs. The majority of the post-war European Jewish population would not be resettled back to their nations of origin, causing most to seek displaced person status in western states. Emigration opportunities began to develop between 1945 and 1952, allowing for many displaced Holocaust survivors to finally claim asylum in countries outside of Europe.
Repatriation to the Soviet Union
Millions of soldiers and civilians from the U.S.S.R. inhabited displaced person centers in Europe following the end of World War II. However, the way in which they were repatriated and managed would contribute to the birth of a new era of refugee policy.
As Western states sought to comply with the agreements they reached with Stalin at the Yalta Conference, the UNRRA resorted to forced repatriation as its standard protocol for managing DP’s from the east. This policy became problematic, as many people did not want to be returned to the Soviet Union or to countries that were effectively annexed by Stalin. As a result, the International Refugee Organization (IRO) was founded in 1946. Largely led by the United States, this new post-war refugee regime sought to locate areas for the resettlement of displaced populations in areas outside of Soviet zones of control. By the end of 1947, the repatriation of Soviet citizens and POWs officially ended as a new chapter in the Cold War began.
German POWs and the Expulsion of Ethnic Germans
At the end of both of the world wars, the prevailing thinking among military and political officials was that multi-ethnic states inevitably caused conflict. As such, post-war resettlement initiatives targeted ethnic German populations who lived in Eastern Europe — some having been there for generations — to resettle them in Germany. 2.2 million ethnic Germans would be displaced from Eastern Europe after World War II (Cohen, 12). Others who were not resettled in Germany were sent to labor camps in the U.S.S.R. In France, de Gaulle’s transitional government and its successors would utilize German POWs and displaced persons to begin large-scale reconstruction efforts across the country.
“They destroyed everything so they should repair it. Have your ruins rebuilt by those who are responsible for them. ” (French Ministry of Work and Social Security)**
“Guarded residence centers,” the official name of camps for displaced persons in France, were set up throughout the country to manage and organize displaced Germans. In Camp de Rivesaltes, previously a transit camp and deportation center for ‘undesirables,’ a new guarded residence center was established to house both ethnic German civilians as well as individuals suspected of collaborating with the German government and the Vichy regime. German POWs captured in France during the invasion of Normandy joined these interned populations, and were usually separated into different sections of camps. All were employed in wide-spread labor services to make up for France’s shortage of labor in the post-war period (Wyman 1998, 57). Early camp conditions for internees were incredibly difficult and unsanitary, and several camps experienced devastating outbreaks of disease.
Despite cruel camp conditions, the integration of Germans into the workforce outside of the internment camps allowed for improvement in the quality of life. This period of reconstruction marked an era of normalization as the German workers were seen less as prisoners and villains but more so as foreign workers living among the French. Germans who were held in Guarded Residence Centers were all repatriated by 1948, except for workers who were given ‘free’ status. After being in residence for five years, those Germans could then apply for French citizenship (Ziemke 2005, 42)
Conclusion: Remembering Post-War Internment
The years immediately following the end of World War II in Europe constitute a critical period in the history of displaced person and POW management. In an attempt to resettle millions of displaced persons, the Allied powers, the UNRRA, and the IRO normalized the use of the camp. Though these post-war organizations attempted to aid displaced populations, the overwhelming numbers of the displaced combined with a shortage of aid resources caused conditions kindred to those of World War II concentration camps.
Repatriation policies gave rise to other difficulties in post-war reconstruction. Forced repatriation was not a viable solution for both the displaced Jews of Europe and “Soviet” citizens and POWs. In the case of German POWs and displaced persons, repatriation strategies forced millions of Germans out of their homes in Eastern Europe and into DP camps to await resettlement in Germany. Additionally, many Germans from all over Europe would be deployed in the reconstruction of war-torn France. This era of displaced person management is important as a chapter in history in its own right, as well as a lesson on the origins of a modern refugee paradigm.
Block Quote Sources:
*Barbara Spindel, “The Long Road Home”: After WWII, a forgotten refugee crisis; ** Ministry of Work and Social Security, as cited in DPs: Europe’s Displaced Persons, 1945–1951
Bibliography
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