At the end of World War II, long before an Allied victory was assured and before the scope of the atrocities orchestrated by Hitler would come into focus or even assume the name of the Holocaust, Allied forces had begun to prepare for its aftermath. Taking cues from the end of the First World War, planners had begun the futile task of preparing themselves for a civilian health crisis that, due in large part to advances in medical science, would never come. The problem that emerged was not widespread disease among Europes population, as anticipated, but massive displacement among those who had been uprooted from home and country during the war.
Displaced Persons, as the refugees would come to be known, were not comprised entirely of Jews. Millions of Latvians, Poles, Ukrainians, and Yugoslavs, in addition to several hundred thousand Germans, were situated in a limbo long overlooked by historians. While many were speedily repatriated, millions of refugees refused to return to countries that were forever changed by the wara crisis that would take years to resolve and would become the defining legacy of World War II. Indeed many of the postwar questions that haunted the Allied planners still confront us today: How can humanitarian aid be made to work? What levels of immigration can our societies absorb? How can an occupying power restore prosperity to a defeated enemy?
Including new documentation in the form of journals, oral histories, and essays by actual DPs unearthed during his research for this illuminating and radical reassessment of history, Ben Shephard brings to light the extraordinary stories and myriad versions of the war experienced by the refugees and the new United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration that would undertake the responsibility of binding the wounds of an entire continent. Groundbreaking and remarkably relevant to conflicts that continue to plague peacekeeping efforts, The Long Road Home tells the epic story of how millions redefined the notion of home amid painstaking recovery.
From the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In the vast literature on WWII, scholars have largely ignored the 10 million to 15 million displaced persons who confronted the Allies in 1945. British writer and documentarian Shephard (After Daybreak: The Liberation of Bergen-Belsen, 1945) tells a fascinating story of their ordeal. Although concentration camp victims made headlines, their numbers were hugely augmented by millions of foreign workers and slave laborers later joined by millions of destitute Germans expelled from former conquered nations. Aid planners expected a typhus epidemic, but generous use of DDT prevented this. They expected to repatriate everyone only to discover that many objected to returning to Soviet rule; Shephard describes American soldiers dragging terrified Russians and Ukrainians to assembly points. Despite relief efforts, in 1947 a million refugees lingered in dreary camps; Germany remained devastated. Matters only improved after the Marshall Plan's massive infusion of money and supplies, sold to a reluctant Congress as an anticommunist program. Shephard reveals that however well planned, post-WWII relief also produced shambles. His masterful account mixes history, colorful personalities, and moving individual stories. 8 pages of photos; 1 map. (Feb.)
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From Booklist
The enduring images of VE Day are of the unrestrained, joyful celebrations that swept European and American cities. But as this detailed and absorbing study illustrates, massive human suffering and even violence was far from over. Left in the wake of the cataclysm were millions of so-called DPs (displaced persons), many of whom were Jewish survivors of the concentration camps, although the massive scale of the Holocaust was not yet evident. But the miserable also encompassed numerous other nationalities tossed about by the vagaries of war. Tasked with the responsibility for dealing with their misery was the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). Oxford-educated historian, writer, and documentary-film producer Shephard is sympathetic to the difficulties of the mission. Yet his description of the efforts of UNRRA is replete with examples of bureaucratic bumbling and political manipulation that imposed an immense human cost on already destitute people. Shephard has provided a depressing but valuable examination of a largely neglected aspect of WWII. --Jay Freeman
Words : 186855.0 Pages : 1220.0