VICTIMS OF WAR

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27500, 6 November 1954, Page 3

VICTIMS OF WAR

The Wild Place. By Kathryn Holme. Shakespeare Head. 233 pp. The term "displaced person” is a neat category on paper, a tidy description for administrative purposes. But as Kathryn Hulme found when she went to Wildflecken camp in Germany to work on behalf of UNRRA as deputy director of a camp of twenty thousand people, a displaced person is one thing on paper, another' thing face to fere. At first the hopelessness and magnitude of the-problem overwhelmed her. As last as some moved out of the camp, repatriated to Poland with some misgivings, others moved in. and as the iron curtain closed around Europe, more and more came and the hope of return for thousands of others ceased. Nevertheless, Miss Hulme found that even then there could still be hope and gaiety, and the celebration of the first Christmas after the war was something she was never likely to forget. Perhaps the most heartbreaking problem of all was the agonisingly deferred hope which tortured the thousands whose hope for the future centred on emigrating to the U.S-A. and for whom, even after passing of permissive legislation, there were months and sometimes years of frustration and delay. All this took place against a background of official red-tape and administrative difficulty. Miss Hulme must be a woman not only of outstanding ability but of remarkable courage and understanding ** well. Th e tale of the aftermath of war is one that those of us who have suffered little are likely to forget too easily and it is as well that those who like her have had experience of it should be put on record. But her book is more than a record: it is written with such humanity, compassion and tolerance that it is difficult to praise ft too highly, especially as these qualities are added to a remarkably intelligent and balanced statement of the problem. No one should miss this book.