The Last Million: Europe's Displaced Persons from world War to Cold War - Nasaw - B+

                       At war's end, the living detritus of the conflict, millions of slave laborers, Holocaust survivors, prisoners of war, soldiers and civilians were homeless and starving in Germany. "By October 1, 1945, 2 million Soviets, 1.5 million Frenchmen, 586,000 Italians, 274,000 Dutch citizens, 300,000 Belgians, 200,000 Yugoslavs, 135,000 Czechs and 94,000 Poles had been sent home." This book is about the million displaced Eastern Europeans who refused to go, or had no home to go to. They were Polish Catholics fearful of communism and the Jewish camp survivors.  The majority of the million were from the Baltics and the Ukraine, many of whom had fled before the Red Army, some of them displaced workers, but also those who had collaborated with the Nazis.                                                                                                                The 1941 invasion of the USSR had afforded those who despised the Soviets many opportunities. Thousands went to work for the Germans, and up to half-a-million men joined the Waffen-SS to fight the Soviets. When the Red Army returned, the collaborators fled west and attempted to hide among the civilian displaced persons, preferably in the American and British sectors. Joining them were hundreds of thousands of intellectuals, clergy, doctors, shop owners and others who knew they would be persecuted by the Reds. Also with them, often on foot and occasionally in cattle cars, were the surviving Jews from all the corners of Europe who had been in the camps.The Jews were barely alive and lodged with fellow countrymen. "The fear of the survivors, in those first weeks and months after liberation, was that the American and British military were going to force them to return to the nations and the peoples who had murdered their families." Allied military policy, and the United Nations Refugee Relief Administration wished to treat all DP's equitably and repatriate them. Most Jews were still in striped pajamas and many were behind barbed wire in the same camps in which the Nazis had kept them. An American observer reported that the only difference is "that we do not exterminate them." The majority wished to go to Palestine. Both Britain and the US State Dept. were opposed. Their policy considerations were straightforward: ignore the humanitarian issues because foisting more Jews on the Arabs would drive them straight into the Soviet's camp.                                                                              Knowing Truman's concerns and anticipating a change in policy, Ike appointed Jewish chaplains as liaisons, stated that any Jew who did not wish to be repatriated be treated as stateless, and, materially improved living conditions. By autumn, 1945, all DP's were in accommodations sorted by nationality and religion.  The only ones willing to return home were the non-Jewish Poles, and by year end, a quarter million of them were repatriated. That said, there were an equal number of Poles who had no interest in living under communism. The Balts and Ukrainians did not wish to be repatriated, and the Jews simply wanted out of Europe.The financial and personnel demands on the US military charged with managing the DP's was such that the Army tried to close the camps. When that failed, they began to try to weed out the war criminals, collaborators, and those who had fought for Germany. Meanwhile, the Jewish problem in the camps continued to fester while the US and UK did battle over whether 100,000 DP's would be allowed to go to Palestine. Added to the mix in 1946 were 150,000-200,000 Jews who were in the USSR during the war and upon returning to Poland, were met with vicious anti-semitism and chose to flee to the American sector. The DP's became a political football with the USSR and Poland demanding repatriation, Britain and America opposed but without a plan for their future.                                                                                                                The UNRRA was replaced by the International Refugee Organization (IRO), which was basically a UK-US entity with the objective of resettling those now defined as refugees, who were people who did not wish to be repatriated for any reason, including fear of the regime in their former homeland. Settling a substantial number of Jewish refugees in the US was a goal of the administration and America's Jews, but any possibility of amending immigration laws fell by the wayside when Republicans soundly won the 1946 congressional elections. While America dithered, the UK, Canada and Australia began taking in refugees from Poland and the Baltics because of their severe labor shortages. Brazil and Argentina followed suit. Very few Jews were accepted by these countries. The most desirable DP's were single and capable of work in mines, on farms, or as lumbermen. The Jews didn't fit that bill, and when anti-semitism was added to the equation, they were stuck in Europe for years. The UK was allowing 1500 immigrants to Israel per month. So, illegal immigration exploded. The UN suggestion in response to the British desire to leave the Mandate behind was a partition that the Arabs refused to accept. Both sides prepared to fight. The Jews struck first, committing a major atrocity at an Arab village near Jerusalem and beginning to evict Arabs from Palestine. The British Mandate expired at midnight May 15, 1948. Within minutes Ben-Gurion declared the existence of Israel and Truman recognized the new state. By the end of 1948, 750,000 Palestinians had fled. One hundred and thirty-two thousand DP's replaced them.                                                                                                                                         The same year, the US addressed immigration reform legislation at a time when anxiety about communists sneaking in was at a high pitch.  A bill passed admitting 200,000 mostly Catholic and Lutheran DPs, which  was labelled "a shameful victory for the school of bigotry" by the Times. Complicating the process was a genuine concern that many of the Balts and Ukrainians were willing Nazi collaborators. Truman's re-election and a Democratic majority in Congress led to the Displaced Persons Act in 1950. It allowed a potpourri of 328,000 Europeans in, but only about 32,000 Jews because by then, the majority of Jewish DP's had been absorbed by Israel. Further anti-communist anxiety occasioned by the Korean War led to legislation that made it easier for former Waffen-SS and other Nazis to come to America. One of the consequences of the two US laws was a worldwide opening of doors in Australia, Canada, and Central and South America.                                                                                                                                                "The Last Million and their children could not escape history, nor will they let the rest of us do so. They stand as living testimony to the inescapable truth that the dislocations and displacements of the war in Europe did not magically end with the cessation of hostilities, but bled into the postwar and the Cold War that followed."