DISPLACED PEOPLE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 118, 14 February 1944, Page 4

DISPLACED PEOPLE

30,000,000 Europeans Wait To Go Home PEACE MAY BRING CHAOS The magnitude of the task of resettling displaced inhabitants of European countries after the way is emphasized in a book by Professor Eugene M. Kulischer published by the International Labour Office. More than 30,000,000 people have been transplanted or torn from their homes since the beginning of the war, the writer estimates. Even this huge total “is far from including all the people of Europe who are now living away from their pre-war homes.” > For instance, “it takes no account of the millions, of men in the enemy armed forces who lire stationed abroad or who have been taken prisoner and scattered over’ the five continents.” And the transfer of workers, sometimes to great distances from their homes, is admittedly imperfectly covered. Nor does it include the millions of German and Italian refugees who have fled or been evacuated from heavily bombed cities in increasing numbers in the past 12 months. Of Jews alone, Mr. Kulischer estimates from the data he has compiled, that since September, 1939, 1,080,000 have been expelled and deported from Germany and German-occupied or controlled countries. Including those who have been evacuated, or have fled or emigrated, the total of Jews uprooted from their homes may be more than 4,000,000. Influx into Germany. Figures are given showing the steady influx of foreign labour into the Keich by enforcement and recruitment. At the beginning of this year, the author computes, the total was 6,500,000, of whom 4,500,000 were civilian workers and 1,750,000 employed prisoners of war. Further infusion has added to some of the national totals, and according to the writer’s latest knowledge, in the mass of foreign labour now employed in Germany there are 1,300,000 Polish civilian workers. 800,000 French civilians and 1,150,000 employed prisoners of war, 1,500,000 Russian civilians and 500.000 prisoners of war, 350,000 Italian civilians.

The permanent resettlement of all these uprooted people, Mr. Kulischer contends, “will be one of the most urgent tasks of post-war reconstruction, and it is nn undertaikng which will require the greatest possible amount of. international organization and collaboration.” Before repatriation can even begin “they will have to be fed, clothed, and given medical aid.”. With the stoppage of the German war machine a condition of chaos may be expected. “Millions of prisoners of war and workers imported from till the countries of Europe will be deprived of their employment from one day to the next.” Summing up the enormous problem with which the victors in war will be faced, the author concludes: “However it is tackled —whether by repatriation, resettlement, or emigration—its solution is beyond the powers of any single country.”