UNRRA

Zadnji dan leta 1943 je preko Jadranskega morja odrinila prva skupina od skupaj skoraj 30.000 beguncev, ki so našli zatočišče v šotorskih begunskih taboriščih Egipta. Večino so sestavljali ženske in otroci. Daleč od doma in očetov, ki so se borili proti okupatorju v domovini, so ženske prevzele vlogo samohranilk, ki so skrbele za dobrobit svojih otrok. Pri tem sta jih podpirala Centralni odbor beguncev in zavezniško vodstvo taborišč, ki sta s pomočjo britanske vojske in ameriškega Rdečega križa zagotavljala primerno
prehrano za mnogokrat podhranjene otroke in mladino. Kljub nekaterim začetnim težavam so za otroke organizirali ustrezno zdravstveno varstvo. Na pobudo beguncev in njihovega vodstva so takoj po prihodu prve skupine v Egipt organizirali tudi prvi šolski pouk, ki so ga vodili vse do končnega zaprtja taborišč. Otroci v taboriščih so imeli tudi politični pouk in so bili kot pionirčki ter mladinci vzgajani kot dobri bodoči državljani povojne socialistične Jugoslavije.

THE DESERT CHILDREN: GROWING UP IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR YUGOSLAV REFUGEE CAMPS IN EGYPT: On the last day of 1943, the first group of almost 30.000, mostly Croat refugees set sail over the Meditearrean for tented refugee camps in Egypt. Most of the refugees were women and children, who relied on the guidance of the partisan and allied administration at the camps. Many children arrived to the camps malnourished and were dependent on the military provisions to help them recover their strength as well as voluntary societies to provide adequate medical support. With plenty of iniciative amongst the refugees, the first school classes were organised immediately after the arrival of the first group. These classes evolved into proper elementary and middle schools. The children refugees were also inducted into Pioneers' Association. In this manner, the partisan administration secured excellent citizens of the new Yugoslavia, at the same time giving thern practical foundation for further education after the war.

This project will assess the instrumental role UNRRA played in the rehabilitation of displaced persons in the occupied zones of Germany after World War II. It will focus on the people and children worst affected and how they were capable of survival after liberation. It will address issues faced by DPs in the centres and camps they were forced to inhabit until they were able to move on and live their lives free of starvation and abuse. The project will not only look at the destruction through the eyes of displaced persons but will also look to the relief workers and how they aided in their rehabilitation through the organisation of the camps and administration of medical relief. It will assess the reconstruction of post-war Europe through the people’s perspective. It will consider the effects UNRRA had on DPs and its success in the containment of disease. The threat of contagion in Greece was at a critical stage after the war and rather than highlight effects it had on the country, this project will look at the people specifically and how UNRRA aided in the elimination of typhoid, malaria, and tuberculosis. This project will show the significant role UNRRA played in the lives of the displaced persons of Europe and how they aided in providing them with the means to rebuild their lives from the ground up.

In  early  1946, the  United  Nations  Relief  and  Rehabilitation  Administration (UNRRA)  initiated  a  programme  to  build  six  penicillin  factories,  in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Belarus and Italy. The continuous availability of this, the first antibiotic, was deemed necessary to combat the plague of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) ravaging war-torn Europe. However, the UNRRA  initiative  coincided  with  rising  hostility  between  East  and West, and was  ultimately  obstructed  by  the  United  States. The  newly-established  World Health Organisation (WHO) failed to help, dragging the fledgling organisation into  its  first  major  crisis.  Eventually,  despite  all  the  obstacles,  the  Polish, Czechoslovakian  and  Yugoslavian  plants  were  opened  and  began  production, becoming  the  foundation  of a  new  industry  which  would  reshape  the  European pharmaceutical market over the next few decades. This article analyses how, via a prolonged battle, the UNRRA’s single largest medical aid programme veered from potential failure to a success.

Between 1946 and 1951, roughly one million European refugees and Displaced Persons (DPs) – mainly survivors of the National Socialist (NS) terror and Eastern Europeans who feared persecution in or by the Soviet Union – were resettled all over the world as part of the work of the International Refugee Organization (IRO). To investigate appeals for assistance and resettlement, the IRO designed a questionnaire, the CM/1 form. These questionnaires have been available for research in the holdings of the Arolsen Archives since 2007.
This study explores to what extent and under what conditions the negotiation of forced migration can be analytically detailed in these CM/1 forms and related documents. This study argues that the CM/1 files are a unique historical source for exploring the negotiation of forced migration after the Second World War and the agency of the actors involved. It must be kept in mind however, that the IRO project was based on at least three overlapping aims, several actors were involved in the negotiations of the resettlement and the setting of the negotiations was based on peculiarities that have to be approached on a theoretical basis.

The postwar experiences of German-speaking Jews who were forced to leave Czechoslovakia or who desperately wanted to leave Czechoslovakia intersected with multiple migrations from and across the Bohemian Lands: the well-known forced expulsions of Germans from Czechoslovakia, the “voluntary” resettlement of German-speaking Czechoslovak anti-fascists, the Zionist-organized mass migration of Jews from Eastern and Central Europe (especially Poland) to the American Zone of
Germany, and the migration of Jews from Subcarpathian Ruthenia and eastern Slovakia to the Bohemian lands. In contrast to a historiography that tends to study these migrations separately and adhere to national (and nationalist) categories, this article analyzes the entangled web of migrations and the agencies, ideologies, legal systems, and individual perspectives their intersection involved. As a result, it challenges several established interpretations of postwar Czechoslovak history, the Brichah (the underground movement dedicated to the migration of East European Jews to Palestine), and the politics of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC).

Ο Ελληνικός Εμφύλιος πόλεμος, ως γενικό φαινόμενο που επηρέασε την ελληνική επικράτεια, έχει αποτελέσει πεδίο σημαντικής βιβλιογραφικής παραγωγής. Δεν συμβαίνει, όμως, το ίδιο- τηρουμένων των αναλογιών- σε επίπεδο τοπικής ιστορίας και συγκεκριμένα για τον νομό Τρικάλων, όπου η έλλειψη επιστημονικά τεκμηριωμένης βιβλιογραφίας για την περίοδο του Εμφυλίου πολέμου είναι κάτι παραπάνω από εμφανής. Αυτή η έλλειψη ίσως οφείλεται στις σχεδόν ανύπαρκτες πρωτογενείς πηγές  στα γεωγραφικά όρια του νομού, εξαιρώντας βέβαια τον τοπικό τύπο της εποχής, ο οποίος στον βαθμό που έχει διασωθεί είναι προσβάσιμος στην ιστορική έρευνα, ή ενδεχομένως στην έλλειψη σχετικού ενδιαφέροντος για τη συγκεκριμένη περίοδο. Το σχετικό κενό και το προσωπικό ενδιαφέρον για τη δεκαετία του 1940 αποτέλεσαν τα εφαλτήρια για την επιλογή του συγκεκριμένου θέματος- Ο Εμφύλιος πόλεμος στον Νομό Τρικάλων: από την Απελευθέρωση ως το τέλος του 1949- ως πρωτεύουσα μεταπτυχιακή διπλωματική εργασία.

As Yugoslavia slowly began to shake off the clutches of occupation, it quickly became clear that the war would leave behind enormous devastation. The damage was such that any political organization taking power in the country would have huge difficulties repairing it. The allies anticipated the problems resulting from the fighting and set up the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). The Allied plans for reconstruction included Yugoslavia, but it was first necessary to negotiate with the local authorities and make the appropriate agreements that would allow UNRRA to enter the country. The first UNRRA staff was introduced as part of the Allied Military Liaison (AML), a military organization whose task was also to provide aid to the Allied countries. The period when the AML and UNRRA worked together was the so-called Military Period. At the same time, UNRRA negotiated with the National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia (NKOJ) and finally signed an agreement to work independently in the country. This agreement enabled UNRRA to contribute significantly to the reconstruction of Yugoslavia over the period of the next two years.

Immediately after the end of World War II the UNRRA personnel, in charge of assisting Yugoslavia in its rehabilitation, arrived to this country. Although the tasks of UNRRA focused especially on providing assistance in the fi eld by providing training in the use of new mechanisation and machines as well as medical care, the Yugoslav government kept a lid on such aid. It believed it could take care of such problems itself, and in its opinion it needed help especially with the supply of urgently needed necessities such as food and clothes as well as raw materials vital to the start-up of the industrial and agrarian sectors. The UNRRA representatives complied with the wishes or demands of the Yugoslav authorities and focused especially on ensuring a suitable supply of goods for Yugoslavia and thus also Slovenia. The latter became the centre of the freight transport routes for several parts of Yugoslavia, since the goods from the ports in Trieste and Germany arrived through its railways. Certain irregularities took place during the division of the aid, but ultimately these did not disrupt the ooperation between UNRRA and the Yugoslav government. At the conclusion of UNRRA operations in Slovenia and Yugoslavia it turned out that the UNRRA Yugoslav mission was the most extensive in terms of scope and financing, since UNRRA provided aid to Yugoslavia that would today amount to over 5 billion dollars.

Neposredno po koncu druge svetovne vojne je v Jugoslavijo prispelo Unrrino osebje, ki je bilo zadolženo pomagati Jugoslaviji pri njeni rehabilitaciji. Čeprav so bile Unrrine naloge zlasti usmerjene v pomoč na terenu, tako z inštrukcijami pri uporabi novih mehanizacijskih pripomočkov in strojev, kot pri zdravstveni oskrbi, je jugoslovanska vlada tovrstno pomoč precej oklestila. Verjela je, da za tovrstne težave lahko poskrbi sama, pomoč pa je po njeno potrebovala zlasti pri oskrbi prepotrebnih potrebščin kot sta hrana in obleka, pa tudi surovin, ki so bile ključne za zagon indrustrijskega in agrarnega sektorja. Unrrini predstavniki so željam oziroma zahtevam jugoslovanske oblasti ugodili in se zlasti osredotočili na ustrezno preskrbo Jugoslavije, s tem pa tudi Slovenije. Slednja je postala središče tovornih poti za več delov Jugoslavije, saj je preko njenih železnic prihajala oskrba iz Tržaškega ter nemških pristanišč. Pri razdeljevanju pomoči je prihajalo do nekaterih nepravilnosti, ki pa nazadnje niso zamajale sodelovanja med Unrro in jugoslovansko vlado. Ob zaključku unrrinih operacij v Sloveniji in Jugoslaviji se je izkazalo, da je bila unrrina Jugoslovanska misija največja po obsegu in finančnemu stanju, saj je UNRRA poslala v Jugoslavijo v današnji protivrednosti preko 5 milijard dolarjev pomoči.

DIE SLOWENEN IN DEN ITALIENISCHEN UND ÄGYPTISCHEN
FLÜCHTLINGSLAGERN 1943–1946

Nach der Kapitulation Italiens begannen die Alliierten auf dessen Territorium Tausende von Verbannten und Internierten zu befreien. Unter ihnen befanden sich mehrere Tausend Slowenen, die daraufhin in speziellen Auffanglagern gesammelt wurden, wo sie sich entweder zu Überseebrigaden formierten und zurückkehrten, um die Heimat – Jugoslawien zu befreien, oder sich den jugoslawischen Flüchtlingen anschlossen, die Ende 1943 nach Italien gelangten. Die Flüchtlinge, die meist mit Konvois aus Dalmatien kamen, wurden von den Alliierten in Flüchtlingslagern untergebracht, aber meist nur für kurze Zeit. Bald darauf wurden sie in ägyptische Flüchtlingslager geschickt, vor allem aufgrund der eigenen Sicherheit und der Tatsache, dass sie dort die Versorgungswege der Alliierten, die für den Vormarsch der alliierten Armee im Kampf gegen die Achsenmächte von entscheidender Bedeutung waren, nicht behinderten und belasteten. In Italien blieben nach dem Abkommen mit den Alliierten nur etwa 7 000 Flüchtlinge zurück, die übrigen 29 000 mussten nach Ägypten gehen. Zu den in diesen Sammellagern untergebrachten Slowenen gibt es aber nicht viele Quellen. Einige Aufzeichnungen liegen als Erinnerungsliteratur vor, doch in den Archivquellen konnten konkrete Angaben über die Slowenen – insbesondere in den ägyptischen Flüchtlingslagern – noch nicht ausfindig gemacht werden. Dafür war vor allem die Tatsache entscheidend, dass sich die Flüchtlinge in der Regel als Jugoslawen und nicht als Angehörige eines der jugoslawischen Völkerbezeichneten.

S kapitulacijo Italije so zavezniki na njenem ozemlju začeli osvobajati na tisoče konfinirancev in internirancev. Med njimi je bilo več tisoč Slovencev, ki so se nato zbirali v posebnih taboriščih, kjer so se bodisi formirali v prekomorske brigade in se vrnili osvobajati domovino – Jugoslavijo bodisi so se pridružili jugoslovanskim beguncem, ki so ob koncu leta 1943 začeli prihajati v Italijo. Te begunce, ki so večinoma prihajali s konvoji iz Dalmacije, so  zavezniki nastanili v begunskih taboriščih, a večino le za kratek čas. Kmalu so bili poslani v egiptovska begunska taborišča, predvsem zaradi lastne varnosti in dejstva, da tam niso ovirali in obremenjevali  zavezniških oskrbnih poti, ki so bile ključne za napredovanje zavezniške vojske v boju proti silam osi. V Italiji je po sporazumu z zavezniki ostalo le približno 7 tisoč beguncev, ostalih 29 tisoč pa je moralo oditi v Egipt. Vendar pa virov o Slovencih v teh taboriščih ni veliko. V obliki spominske literature imamo nekaj zapisov, v arhivskih virih pa izrecnih omemb o Slovencih -  zlasti v egiptovskih begunskih taboriščih - še ni bilo moč zaslediti. Temu je zlasti botrovalo dejstvo, da so se begunci praviloma izrekali za Jugoslovane in ne za pripadnike katerega od jugoslovanskih narodov.

This article examines the history of French relief and assistance to Displaced Persons between 1945 and 1947 and the role of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) in the French zone of occupation in Germany’s South West. For French planners and humanitarian workers, the problem of ‘non repatriable’ DPs was much more than a humanitarian problem and was bound up with issues of domestic reconstruction, policies of occupation, culture and identity as much as the provision of medical aid and relief. Overall, by bringing together issues that have been kept separate in the historiography, this article illuminates the role of distinctive diplomatic strategies, economic requirements and cultural differences in shaping understandings and practices of refugee humanitarianism in the aftermath of the Second World War. It uncovers, in particular, the way relief was understood by the French as a vehicle for pursuing international leadership and as a means of restoring national prestige following years of defeat and foreign occupation.

UNRRINA TRŽAŠKA PRISTANIŠKA PISARNA (1945–1947)


POVZETEK

Organizacija Združenih narodov za pomoč in obnovo – UNRRA je prispela na jugoslovansko ozemlje neposredno po koncu druge svetovne vojne. Po prihodu se je morala soočiti s številnimi ovirami, ki so ji onemogočale nemoteno posredovanje materialne pomoči. Tako se je morala UNRRA aktivno vključiti v povojno obnovo s tem, da je pomagala pri vzpostavljanju transportnih poti. Pomoč je prihajala počasi, sprva preko le dveh jugoslovanskih pristanišč Split in Dubrovnik. Kmalu pa je prišla pobuda, da bi za dobavo pomoči zavezniki dali Unrri na voljo pristanišče v Trstu, ki je lahko čeprav poškodovano začelo z obratovanjem za unrrine namene v manj kot dveh mesecih po osvoboditvi mesta. Prav tako pa je bila ključna njegova železniška povezava z Ljubljano in Beogradom. Unrrina Jugoslovanska misija je v Trstu ustanovila pristaniško pisarno, ki je koordinirala dobavo pomoči ter posredovala pri odnosih med Zavezniško vojaško upravo v Julijski krajini. Delovala je učinkovito, saj je uspešno dobavila več sto tisoč ton zalog in drugih dobrin, ki so postale temelj povojne obnove Jugoslavije.

After two decades of publications and conferences on Europe's humanitarian and refugee crises in the immediate post-World War II period, we finally have a synthesis: David Nasaw's The Last Million: Europe's Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War. As a US political historian, Nasaw's efforts are remarkable. Not only has he tamed the vast English-language literature, he has also presented a kaleidoscopic view of the lives of displaced persons (DPs), social workers, and bureaucrats in Germany, the United States, Britain, and, to some extent, the USSR. These approaches lead to his argument that the politics of national security interests superseded the basic needs of "the Last Million" as the world shifted from World War II to the Cold War. "The Last Million" was comprised of Jews, Poles, Ukrainians, Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians who were displaced by Nazi and Soviet regimes and resistant to repatriation, or returning to their former homelands. They spread across Germany, Austria, and Italy. Ninety percent of the Last Million lived in Germany, the geographical focus of this book.

Prix Duroselle 2022.

À la fin de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, environ onze millions de civils déplacés à travers l’Europe du fait de la guerre sont libérés par les Alliés. Huit millions d’entre eux se trouvent en Allemagne et un peu plus d’un million en Autriche. L’administration de ces personnes déplacées (DPs, Displaced Persons) s’inscrit dans le cadre des politiques d’occupation des trois alliés occidentaux, et leur rapatriement et émigration soulèvent des débats et des tensions entre les différents acteurs institutionnels et étatiques concernés. Cette thèse étudie les politiques adoptées par l’un de ces acteurs vis-à-vis de la présence des personnes déplacées dans ces deux pays : la France.
De 500 000 à la libération, les DPs, parmi lesquelles sont représentées plus d’une vingtaine de nationalités, ne sont plus que 65 000 fin septembre 1945 dans la zone d’occupation française en Allemagne (ZFO), puis environ 20 000 en juillet 1950. En septembre 1950, il reste encore 12 000 personnes en zone française d’Autriche (ZOF), contre  environ 25 000 à l’automne 1945. Du printemps 1945 à la fermeture des services français en charge des personnes déplacées et réfugiées (PDR) en 1951, l’administration française des DPs a connu trois grandes phases : au regroupement des DPs, alors que les militaires français doivent improviser pour mettre de l’ordre dans le chaos de la sortie de guerre, succède le rapatriement comme réponse à la question DP tandis que les premiers pas des administrations PDR s’accompagnent du difficile partage de leurs responsabilités avec l’organisme onusien, l’UNRRA. Dans un troisième temps, le recrutement des déplacés ou leur installation sur place apparaissent comme des voies à suivre tandis que les autorités françaises tentent d’être autonomes vis-à-vis des autres occupants et de l’organisme qui prend la succession de l’UNRRA à la mi-1947, l’IRO.
D’abord désintéressées de la question DP, les autorités françaises s’en emparent finalement pour limiter l’influence de l’UNRRA, organe principalement financé par les Américains et les Britanniques, et qui risquerait de fragiliser la légitimité de la France comme puissance occupante. Par ailleurs, pour la France, les DPs représentent une potentielle main-d’œuvre utile au pays. Aussi, suite à la signature le 29 juin 1945 d’un accord franco-soviétique de réciprocité dans les rapatriements, le retour des ressortissants français en France est conditionné par le rapatriement de tous les DPs revendiqués comme soviétiques par Moscou, ce qui inclut les Ukrainiens occidentaux et les Baltes. Cette situation oblige la France à choisir entre cet accord diplomatique et les engagements qu’elle a pris auprès des Nations unies en février 1946 protégeant les réfugiés réfractaires au rapatriement. Elle implique également la détermination de la nationalité des DPs et donc à définir sa position vis-à-vis de l’expansion soviétique à l’Ouest. De fait, la question des nationalités se retrouve au cœur du sort des DPs et des politiques nationales et diplomatiques de la France. L’assignation d’une nationalité à chaque DP oblige les Français à composer avec les pratiques bureaucratiques et le vocabulaire des divers acteurs impliqués dans l’administration de cette population : les DPs eux-mêmes, les officiers de rapatriement ou de liaison, les agents de l’UNRRA puis de l’IRO, et les divers services français qu’ils fonctionnent en France, à Berlin et à Vienne, dans les quartiers généraux des zones ou directement auprès des DPs.
L’analyse de l’administration des DPs permet d’apprécier la place des zones d’occupation dans la diplomatie française en cette période de début de Guerre froide. Alors que les relations entre Paris et Moscou ou Varsovie sont paralysées, notamment après l’éviction des communistes du gouvernement et l’affaire Beauregard, les zones d’occupation françaises servent de zones de détente. Des contacts fréquents et des négociations en faveur des Malgré-nous y sont encore possible. En outre, entre 1949 à 1952, étant les seules zones d’Allemagne et d’Autriche à accueillir sans interruption les missions soviétiques, elles font office de pont entre l’Est et l’Ouest. La question DP permet donc de décentrer le regard traditionnel sur la place de la France dans la Guerre froide : jusqu’en 1952, dans ce régime de blocs, les Français ont cherché à construire une politique autonome et à rester à la marge.

Thèse disponible sur : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-03660505

Yugoslav Refugees in Egypt and Their Political Affiliation
in the 1943–1946 Period

During the last two years of the Second World War a large group of Yugoslav citizens, most of which were from Dalmatia, lived in refugee camps in Egypt. Their journey to Egypt was made possible by an agreement between the Allied Force Headqarters Mediterrean (AFHQM) and the Supreme Headquarters of the People’s Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. Although the majority of almost 27, 000 Yugoslav refugees declared themselves supporters of the People’s Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, namely the partisans, and perceived themselves as part of its
structure, approximately 400 were adherents of King Peter II of Yugoslavia. Their opposing views frequently caused tension in the camps that occasionally erupted in physical violence. In order to avoid such conflicts and on the basis of requests and statements of those refugees who were supporting the Yugoslav king, the allied camps leadership confirmed their right to be separated from the camps in which partisan supporters represented the majority. This decision triggered a conflict between the Yugoslav Central Refugee Committee, which according to an agreement with the Allied Forces had autonomy over refugee camp  administrative issues, and the Allied Forces Refugee Camp Management that was responsible for general peace and order as well as the general care of refugees. In order to appease the conflict, the Allied Forces leadership consented to interrogate the refugees. Certain that the refugees from refugee camps in the desert merely wished to be transferred to a new camp with better living conditions, the Central Refugee Committee was certain that these hearings would reveal the true background of their requests. But the hearings showed that the petitioners truly supported the King of Yugoslavia and had different political views than most Yugoslav refugees. Many of them stated that they had been forcibly evacuated from Yugoslavia and placed in refugee camps against their will. The Central
Refugee Committee later admitted to be responsible for the forcible evacuation and eventually allowed the removal of the King’s supporters from partisan-oriented refugee camps.

Zadnji dve leti druge svetovne vojne je večja skupina Jugoslovanov – predvsem s področja Dalmacije – preživela v begunskih taboriščih v Egiptu. Pot do Egipta je omogočil sporazum, ki so ga sklenili predstavniki Vrhovnega štaba zaveznikov za Sredozemlje in Vrhovnega štaba Narodnoosvobodilne vojske Jugoslavije. Večina beguncev se je štela za podpornike narodnoosvobodilne vojske in se je tudi identificirala kot del njene sestave. A med skoraj 29 tisoč jugoslovanskimi begunci v Egiptu se jih je znašlo tudi približno 400, ki so podpirali kralja Petra II. Karađorđevića. Med podporniki partizanov in kralja je v taboriščih prihajalo do napetosti, ki so v nekaterih primerih prerasla v fizična obračunavanja. Zavezniško vodstvo taborišč je spore želelo preprečiti, zato je na podlagi prošenj in izjav tistih beguncev, ki so podpirali jugoslovanskega kralja, potrdilo pravico do izločitve iz partizanskih taborišč. Ločitev beguncev je sprožila spor med jugoslovanskim Centralnim odborom beguncev, ki je imel na podlagi sporazuma z zavezniki notranjo avtonomijo pri upravi taborišč, in zavezniškim vodstvom taborišč, ki je skrbelo za splošni red in mir ter oskrbo beguncev. Da bi spor pomirili, je zavezniško vodstvo pristalo v zaslišanja, ki naj bi po mnenju Centralnega odbora beguncev pokazala resnično ozadje prošenj za premestitev, saj je med drugim trdil, da želijo begunci iz puščavskih taborišč zaradi boljših pogojev bivanja v novem taborišču. Zaslišanja so pokazala, da so ločeni begunci resnično podpirali jugoslovanskega kralja in da so imeli drugačne politične nazore kot večina beguncev. Mnogi izmed zaslišanih beguncev so izjavili, da so bili celo nasilno evakuirani iz Jugoslavije in so v begunskih taboriščih proti svoji volji. Centralni odbor beguncev je nasilno evakuacijo kasneje priznal in naposled dovolil izločitev podpornikov kralja iz partizanskih begunskih taborišč.

20th Century Czechoslovakia, historically an international and interdependent economy, played an instrumental role in the European regional and world economies.  Following the destruction from World War II, the country needed a multinational rebuilding effort to reestablish the country’s place in the world system and in turn the well-being of its citizens.  The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was the epitome of the type of organization that was needed for Czechoslovakia and Eastern Europe to rebuild its socio-economic system.  Unfortunately, the political constraints of the modern world system, and the Cold War that resulted from it, did not allow the region or Czechoslovakia to rebuild adequately, and showed the vulnerability of the area’s position in an interdependent world that was primarily guided by the political aspirations of the few nations in positions of power. 

A study of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), and its work in Czechoslovakia, is a key initial study in an effort to understand how international organizations can help influence and facilitate the development of small semi-peripheral and peripheral nations.  This paper will show how UNRRA, without using aid and investment as “political weapons,” was able to quickly reestablish Czechoslovakia in the world economy, and is of profound importance to the overall study of the effects of multilateral aid on both the redevelopment of areas devastated by war countries with “developmental” interests.

The International Refugee Organization (IRO) was the first specialized agency created by the United Nations. It operated between 1947 and 1951 and had under its mandate the masses of displaced persons (DPs) and refugees remaining outside of their countries of origin in the immediate post-war context. The purpose of this paper is to describe the main fields of activity of the IRO and to point out those aspects of its action that could be an inspiration for the future activities of the international community towards the resolution of the refugees issue in a changed contemporary context of this problem. The author claims that as the activity of IRO was the suitable and efficient way to solve the DPs and refugees problem at the time of the crisis connected with the massive presence of refugees, it merits a deeper examination as a temporary instrument of the international community also nowadays, during such critical periods.

Η παρούσα εργασία φιλοδοξεί να διαγράψει την πορεία που ακολούθησε η γεωργική παραγωγή στην Ελλάδα κατά την πρώτη πενταετία μετά την Απελευθέρωση (1944 – 1949). Ο σκοπός είναι, αφού διευκρινιστεί το περιεχόμενο που έδιναν συγκεκριμένες πηγές της εποχής στον όρο «ανασυγκρότηση» στον γεωργικό τομέα, να καταδειχθεί σε ποιον βαθμό η ανασυγκρότηση αυτή επιτυγχάνεται στη συγκεκριμένη περίοδο. Επίσης θα γίνει προσπάθεια να διερευνηθούν οι πρώτες απόπειρες προγραμματισμού προς αυτή την κατεύθυνση από τον Οργανισμό Ανασυγκρότησης που συστάθηκε το 1946 και να καταδειχθούν οι κύριοι παράγοντες που επηρέασαν την πορεία της γεωργίας στα πρώτα χρόνια μετά την Κατοχή.

The survivor has become a prominent figure and a key concept in history, literary studies, and political thought. But who is a survivor? And, more precisely, who is a survivor of the Shoah? The Center for Jewish Studies, Berlin-Brandenburg and the Center for Research on Antisemitism brought together scholars from seven countries to discuss the different semantic and political meanings attached to the concept of “the survivor,” since the Second World War, and also to compare and critically analyze the different disciplinary, historical, and national understandings of the term.

When the Allies and the Soviets occupied Germany during the spring of 1945, they did not expect to find thousands of unaccompanied children left behind. Orphaned and abandoned by dead or missing parents, homeless and displaced by wartime atrocities, and stolen and hidden by war criminals, unaccompanied children quickly became central to national and international humanitarian policy, and produced many policy clashes in the process. At the international level, the United Nations provided care and maintenance for young people in need while carrying out extensive search and tracing missions throughout the occupation zones wherever authorized. At the zonal and national levels, the military authorities financed and authorized the repatriation and resettlement of these children, and had the final authority on the subject.

This paper provides a brief overview of the unaccompanied children's policies in operation in the western occupation zones in postwar Germany. It contextualizes these policies within the contentious debates that emerged regarding stolen and hidden children as the new Cold War order took shape.

One of the challenges that Europe faced after the end of the Second World War was the need for economic recovery. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) played a major role in its decision in the first post-war years, making a great contribution to the reconstruction of many states, including the Czechoslovak Republic. However, in the context of the emerging cold war, its economic activities were closely intertwined with political relations. Since the United States were the main sponsor of the organiza-tion, and while Czechoslovakia was gradually entering the sphere of the Soviet influence, gratuitous assistance from the UNRRA caused serious criticism of American diplomats in Prague.
The US ambassador to ČSR, L. Steinhardt, believed that the UNRRA mission in Praha, headed by USSR cit-izen P. Alekseev contributed not so much to the restoration of the Czechoslovak economy, how to strengthen the influence of the left forces and the socialist reforms. Steingardt perceived the work of the organization pri-marily in a political way, as one of the manifestations of the struggle between Pro-Soviet and Pro-Western forc-es. The scale of the assistance provided by the UNRRA and its press coverage met with serious discontent among Americans. Thus, the economic goals of this organization came into conflict with the political interests of the United States. Despite strong and categorical statements by Steingardt, the UNRRA mission in ČSR main-tained its independence until the end of the organization's work, providing significant assistance in the econom-ic recovery of the country. However, the contradictory nature of its activities led to the termination of funding for this program by Washington and the transition in 1947 to the Marshall Plan.

Unprecedented violence, not only on the battlefields in Europe and Asia, but also against
civilians who suffered large-scale deportation and forced migration, form main themes of
20th century history. This conference, held by Kerstin von Lingen from the Institute
of Contemporary History at Vienna University, aimed at historicizing these events and
practices, visualising geographies, tracking movements and unearth levels of agency and
decision-making on structural and individual levels, forming the point of departure for further research into patterns of displacement and resettlement.

(In Chinese): In early 1946, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) announced a new program of building penicillin factories in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Italy, Yugoslavia, Belarus, and Ukraine. The program was not designed to bring ad hoc relief to these recently war-torn countries by delivering supplies of the medicine, but to build up their ability to help themselves. As a result, these six nations not only gained practically unlimited access to penicillin, but were also given a chance to catch up with current trends in pharmaceutical research. In the long run, the scientific knowledge and technological know-how transferred through UNRRA’s penicillin plant program was probably the most valuable and effective legacy of its activities in this regard. Even earlier, a penicillin factory was also offered to China by the American Bureau for Medical Aid to China (ABMAC). This paper, while outlining the development of UNRRA’s penicillin plant program, from its inception, through its rather difficult realization, to its conclusion, will attempt to assess the role of international health organizations in disseminating the penicillin production methods around the world in the 1940s. In the broader context, this analysis will contribute to redefinition of the roles, from submissive employees to active agents of change, of the technical and scientific experts involved in the rehabilitation programs of the international health organizations.

EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT AND THE SETTLEMENT OF REFUGEE ISSUES DURING THE WORLD WAR II

During the World War II, tens of thousands of refugees took shelter on the territory of the Kingdom of Egypt, Persia and the broader Middle East region, then consequentially in India, East African countries and even in Mexico. Poles, Greeks, Yugoslavs - mostly Croats prevailed. Most of these refugees were concentrated in Egypt and on the Middle East since the Egyptian government was generously recieving, under the influence of Great Britain, first refugees from Greece in 1941. In any sese, the Egyptian government, influenced by the English-Egyptian Agreement from 1936, was helping the Allies to a far greaterextent, as it is mostly evident from historical works, despite the fact that Egypt officially declared war on Germany and Japan not earlier than 1945, and on Italy it had not been declared at all. The Egyptians were offering help despite a difficult economic enviroment in that predominantly agrarian country. Consequently, Egypt began putting a limit on the acceptance of refugees, or in other words, setting conditions on it. The restrictions were initially felt by the primarily British organizations and humanitarian institutions as well. The Egyptian government put a demand on the acceptance of refugees after the war, with their location in the camps during the stay and the limitation of information on refugees in local media institutions.

Was French policy towards Displaced Persons identical in post-World War II Germany and Austria? The example of Franco-UNRRA cooperation (1945-1947).
By occupying a zone in Austria, the French authorities became responsible for the daily life, repatriation and emigration of Displaced Persons (DPs) of various origins and displaced for different reasons during the war. For financial and practical reasons, outlined in this article, they had to cooperate with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency (UNRRA). The differences observed in this study between Franco-UNRRA cooperation in Germany and the one in Austria – the absence of a bilateral agreement, a smaller number of French agents, the presence of former collaborators within UNRRA - illustrate the need to include Austria in research concerning the DPs history.

ĎURČO, Michal. Podiel UNRRA pri obnove dopravnej infraštruktúry Slovenska (so zameraním na rekonštrukciu cestnej dopravy a cestnej siete) [UNRRA's share on Slovak transport infrastructure restoration (with special aim on road transport and road network reconstruction]. In Rok po vojne. Slovensko a Európa v roku 1946. - Banská Bystrica : Múzeum Slovenského národného povstania v Banskej Bystrici : Fakulta politických vied a medzinárodných vzťahov UMB v Banskej Bystrici : Historický ústav SAV : Vojenský historický ústav v Bratislave, 2017, s. 260-272. ISBN 978-80-89514-44-1. Typ: ABD

In a May 1947 memo, JDC worker Theodore Sanejberg described Italian children’s home, Selvino, as a “children’s paradise.” Less than a month later, however, he wrote that his original assessment had been “idealistic” and described the children’s behavior as “very unpleasant.” Located in the foothills of the Alps between Milan and Switzerland, Selvino became the rehabilitation center for hundreds of Jewish children, primarily foreign orphans, in Northern Italy from 1945 to 1948. Heralded as a rousing success in the years that followed its closure, Selvino nevertheless struggled during its existence to please all the parties involved in its operation. This paper examines the role of the JDC as a major funder backing the children’s center and its work in conjunction with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA, and its later successor the International Refugee Organization, IRO) and the Jewish Agency to provide for and eventually resettle the children. It posits that much of the tension between these agencies as it was expressed in Selvino came down to two factors: finances and rehabilitation styles. Jointly funded by UNRRA and the JDC, the home suffered from a lack of materials during its opening, but this absence was eventually resolved as communication between the agencies and the home improved. Rehabilitation, on the other hand, continued to be a struggle as many JDC workers believed in an individualistic approach, while Selvino home leaders practiced communal or collective methods of trauma recovery. By considering Selvino’s history within the broader context of other Italian displaced children’s centers, this paper contends that the operating procedures of these non-governmental agencies become clearer through comparison, as does the remarkable legacy of this small home.

Presented August 2017. Seventeenth World Congress of Jewish Studies Hebrew University, Jerusalem, ISR

Η εισήγηση περιγράφει ένα ερμηνευτικό πλαίσιο της χρήσης των διαθέσιμων πόρων στην Αθήνα στα πρώτα μεταπολεμικά χρόνια, προσανατολισμένο στην κοινωνική οργάνωση της Πρωτεύουσας, ανιχνεύοντας τις συνέχειες, τις τομές αλλά και τις ασυνέχειες στον κοινωνικό χώρο, που σχετίζονταν με την αξιοποίηση των πόρων και των δυνατοτήτων της ξένης βοήθειας που εισέρευσε στη χώρα έως το 1947

Η παρούσα μελέτη αποτελεί μία προσπάθεια διερεύνησης των κοινωνικών δεδομένων της Πρωτεύουσας, μετά την απελευθέρωση της Αθήνας το 1944 και έως την επικράτηση του Εμφυλίου Πολέμου το 1946. Εξετάζονται τα μείζονα ζητήματα της επιβίωσης και των συνθηκών διαβίωσης στον αστικό χώρο για το σύνολο του κοινωνικού σώματος καθώς και τα βασικά διαμορφωτικά διακυβεύματα της κοινωνικής διαστρωμάτωσης που παγιώθηκε στα πρώτα μεταπολεμικά χρόνια. Το πολυκεντρικό αστικό τοπίο της Αθήνας στα πρόθυρα του Εμφυλίου αποτέλεσε το χωρικό στοιχείο μιας εντεινόμενης ταξικής πόλωσης που όχι μόνο δεν αμβλύνθηκε από τις ποσότητες της ξένης βοήθειας της UNRRA που έφταναν στο λιμάνι του Πειραιά, άλλα οξύνθηκε και κατέληξε στη βαθύτατη διαίρεση του Εμφυλίου Πολέμου. Τα νέα αστικά στρώματα, παρά τις εσωτερικές τους διαφοροποιήσεις, ανελίχτηκαν μετά την Απελευθέρωση, διαμορφώνοντας, ή διατηρώντας, ή διευρύνοντας την οικονομική τους δυναμική, μέσα από τον προσεταιρισμό της κρατικής μηχανής που μαζί με την ξένη βοήθεια αποτέλεσε τους βασικούς πυλώνες οικοδόμησης της μεταπολεμικής κοινωνίας. Από την άλλη τα λαϊκά στρώματα, αγωνίζονταν να επιβιώσουν, αντιμετωπίζοντας συνολικά μία ιδιόμορφη «συμμαχία» του κράτους με την ανώτερη αστική τάξη. Η δυστυχία στην Πρωτεύουσα συμπληρωνόταν από τις άθλιες συνθήκες διαβίωσης και τις αρρώστιες που θέριζαν τις πιο ευάλωτες ομάδες του πληθυσμού, τους οικονομικά αδύναμους, τις λαϊκές συνοικίες, τους άστεγους. Το κοινωνικό κλίμα στην Αθήνα ήταν ασφυκτικό. Απείχε πάρα πολύ από την απατηλή εικόνα των σαλονιών του Κολωνακίου, των θελκτικών βιτρινών του Κέντρου και των πολυτελών κέντρων διασκέδασης.

Abstract
The present study constitutes an effort of exploring the social information about the Capital after the Liberation of Athens in 1944 until the predominance of the Civil War in 1946. Major issues of survival and living conditions in the urban location are being examined as far as it concerns the entirety of the social corpus as well as the basic formative will of the social classes which was stabilized in the first postwar years. The central urban location of Athens right before the Civil War constituted the rural feature of a major class conflict that was not soothed by the quantities of the foreign help of UNRAA that reached the port of Piraeus, but instead it was reignited and led to the profound division of the Civil War. The new urban class, despite their inner differences developed after the Liberation by means of forming, maintaining and intensifying their financial power or even by exploiting the state mechanism that composed the basic pillars of the postwar society construction. On the other hand, the lower class struggled to survive by suffering entirely from a peculiar alliance between the state and the upper civil class. In addition to the infelicity in the Capital can be also referred the appalling living conditions and the diseases that tormented the most vulnerable groups of the population, the impoverished individuals, the slum suburbs, the homeless. The social climate in Athens was suffocating. The reality abstained from the illusory images of the lounges in Kolonaki, the alluring shopwindows of the city centre and the exclusive entertainment places.

In early 1946, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) initiated a programme to build six penicillin factories, in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Belarus and Italy. The continuous availability of this, the first antibiotic, was deemed necessary to combat the plague of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) ravaging war-torn Europe. However, the UNRRA initiative coincided with rising hostility between East and West, and was ultimately obstructed by the United States. The newly-established World Health Organisation (WHO) failed to help, dragging the fledgling organisation into its first major crisis. Eventually, despite all the obstacles, the Polish, Czechoslovakian and Yugoslavian plants were opened and began production, becoming the foundation of a new industry which would reshape the European pharmaceutical market over the next few decades. This article analyses how, via a prolonged battle, the UNRRA’s single largest medical aid programme veered from potential failure to a success.

Among the hundreds of thousands of displaced persons in Germany at the end of World War II, approximately 40,000 were unaccompanied children. These children, of every age and nationality, were without parents or legal guardians and many were without clear identities.  This situation posed serious practical, legal, ethical, and political problems for the agencies responsible for their care. In the Children’s Best Interests, by Lynne Taylor, is the first work to delve deeply into the records of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and the International Refugee Organization (IRO) and reveal the heated battles that erupted amongst the various entities (military, governments, and NGOs) responsible for their care and disposition. The bitter debates focused on such issues as whether a child could be adopted, what to do with illegitimate and abandoned children, and who could assume the role of guardian. The inconclusive nationality of these children meant they became pawns in the battle between East and West during the Cold War. Taylor’s exploration and insight into the debates around national identity and the privilege of citizenship challenges our understanding of nationality in the postwar period.