Due to the nature of World War II, which lasted from 1939 to 1945, around 55 million European citizens were uprooted from their home countries. At war’s end, 11 million remained as displaced persons or refugees. Most of them returned home, either willingly or through forced repatriation. However, 1.2 million insisted that it wasn’t safe for them to return because they were ideologically opposed to the new regimes. About 400,000 of them were Poles who remained in Germany rather than return to communist Poland. Recognizing the need to develop a plan which protected international refugees, the Third Committee of the United Nations Assembly declared in 1946 that “No refugees or displaced persons…..shall be compelled to return to their country of origin.” In the same year, the UN established the International Refugee Organization to help rehabilitate these people. These photos show some of the Poles helped by the IRO who brought them to the United States where they had been granted permanent residence under the Displaced Persons Act of 1948.

That act also established the Displaced Persons Commission to oversee the resettlement of refugees in this country. This letter is typical of the type of letter received by refugees such as the Pole who donated this one to the Center. His photograph is also included below.

Resettlement of refugees in the United States was also carried out by the National Catholic Welfare Conference’s War Relief Services. This was a comprehensive war relief program that the NCWC established in early 1943. In 1945, the War Relief Services agency, along with other Catholic and ethnic organizations, created the National Catholic Resettlement Council whose goals were implemented by Diocesan Immigration Councils. Below is a War Relief Services pin button donated to the Center.

Author: Nathaniel Caraballo, Computer Science major, Elms College.