Archive Report
Archive Report
Refugee Problem Left by World War II
Population of Displaced Persons Camps in Europe
At the close of hostilities in Europe in 1945, the Allied armies became responsible for some eight million persons classified as “displaced” in Germany, Austria and Italy. These included persons liberated from concentration camps, forced laborers who had been brought into Germany and Italy from conquered and occupied countries, prisoners of war, and the thousands who had fled before the Russian army as it advanced across the continent. The Allied armies arranged for the return to their home countries of some seven million persons within a year after V-E Day, providing the necessary food, clothing, medical attention and shelter for them in the meantime.
There remained, however, over a million displaced persons for ...