Following the mass destruction and loss of life caused by the Second World War Europe was faced again with another problem,the displacement of millions of Jews, Ukrainians, Yugoslavs,Poles, Czechoslovakians and other groups of European citizens. The reasons behind these citizens displacements were various. Some of the major reasons people fled their homelands were because of religious, ethnic, and political strife. Some people did not even have a say in their displacement and were forcefully removed from their homes. Many political organizations and leaders made it their mission to deal with the problem of displacement. The life of Displaced Persons were never easy. They often lived in Displaced Person’s camps and had to try and adjust to a new way of life that was unlike their own. Many of them knew that they would never be able to return to their own country once they left. If they were to return they would be faced with great hardship and in some cases arrest or death. Though many citizens fled their homes it was interesting to read that many stayed behind. They were afraid of living in DP camps and were aware that life would be hard no matter where they went so they decided instead of leaving the comforts of home they would just stay.
Displaced individuals caused a challenge not only for Western Europe but the world. How were nations going to handle these mass influxes of people coming through their borders? The newly established United Nations made it their mission to aid displaced persons and refugees. Eleanor Roosevelt worked with the UN to help with the refugee crisis was her goal “first and foremost to take into account the rights of man, not the rights of governments” (Cohen,28) . It was interesting to learn that the UN was a bipartisan organization. It was surprising to see that the UN appeared to sympathize more with the anti-Communist West. This contributed to the tensions between the West and East that would ultimately lead to the Cold War, it is surprising that the organization would take such an active role in promoting Democracy and Western values instead of staying neutral.
It was startling to read that some people had no actions in their displacement. German soldiers would often take children away from their families during the Second World War and give them to German families. These children had no say in whether they wanted to leave behind their home or family. Sadly, they were thrust into a world in which they were an outcast and many lost ties to the Nations that they once called home. It was an outrageous act that destroyed not only the displaced children’s lives but also those of their family. Following the war many organizations made it their mission to repatriate these children to their former homelands however, in many cases the damage was already done. Either the children were set in their ways in Germany and did not want to return or they knew little of their former home and no longer felt connected to their past.
The two cases of displaced persons have great contrast, while some freely left their homes others were forcefully taken. However, in both cases citizens no longer were a part of the nations that they were born into and had to find a new home. Displacement was a major consequence of the War that caused great turmoil and despair for those impacted by it. The strengths of the two articles are that they gave a deeper understand of the world of DPs and it caused global problems that shaped and defined the 20th century. “A Human Treasure” did a great job of appealing to human emotion through the tales of children that were ripped from their homelands. A weakness of In Wars Wake was that it was more factual and had less of a human element to it making it harder for the reader to find connections to the topic it was discussing.
These articles relate to what we talked about in class because they follow the aftermath of the War, many people do not address the hardships faced by Europeans following the end of the War. However, these articles illustrate that just because fighting was over did not mean that the trials and tribulations caused by the War ended. Millions of people still felt the repercussions and cost of War and DPs are the perfect example of this. Though these articles gave great insight into the life of DPs they also raised a few questions: Why does scholarship not focus on the lives of DPs when it is still a challenge that many people face in our world today?
Cohen, Gerard Daniel, In War’s Wake (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 28.
I think you made a really valid point about the displaced people not having anywhere to go. I think it shows us a lot about current events in our lives today and the strife that even now causes people to not be able to be in their homes or their home lands.
I feel as though the Europeans made it more difficult because their was so much distress on where these people should go and what they should do with them and who should gain them as citizens. I felt as though this article really opened my eyes to seeing what really was happening in the world during this time.
In regards to your final question, I think that the world is still very much interested in the struggles of displaced persons, but the terminology has changed slightly. In Cohen’s work, there was mention of when “displaced persons” became “asylum seekers” and “refugees”. I think scholars today don’t reflect much on the Displaced Persons of post-World War II, because their case has pretty much been settled, and there has been an uprising of asylum seekers and refugees from the Middle East and Northern Africa. The discourse on displaced persons is still in the forefront of the modern world, even more so with the solidification of international organizations, just with them being referred to as refugees and asylum seekers now.