Displaced persons and refugees in postwar Europe – persons of mainly eastern European origin who, during the Second World War, were forcibly displaced or fled from their countries of origin and at the end of the war were to be found in Western Europe (various official definitions of the terms “displaced person” and “refugee” were used by international organisations at different times during and after the war).
At the end of the war there were over two million Ukrainian displaced persons and refugees in Western Europe. The overwhelming majority were persons forcibly conscripted to work in Germany. Other categories included intellectuals and political activists who fled from Ukraine during the war to avoid Soviet repression, Ukrainians in the Red Army who were captured by the Germans and survived until the end of the war, and members of the Ukrainian nationalist movement and other political prisoners released from German concentration camps at the end of the war. They were provided with temporary aid by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), which was also concerned with the repatriation of displaced persons to their countries of origin. The main wave of repatriation (both voluntary and forced) took place in the summer and autumn of 1945.
At the end of the mass repatriation effort there remained in Western Europe about 220,000-250,000 Ukrainians who did not wish to return to the Soviet Union or to other East European countries in which pro-Soviet regimes were being established. Most were in Germany and Austria, with small numbers in Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, France and Sweden. The majority were accommodated in displaced persons camps, of which about 80 were occupied entirely or predominantly by Ukrainians. Some 25%-30% of the Ukrainians lived elsewhere. The camps became the setting for a wide range of Ukrainian social, religious, educational, cultural and political activities.
After the UNRRA’s mandate ended in 1947, it was succeeded by the International Refugee Organisation, which existed until 1952. Its mandate allowed for the resettlement of displaced persons and refugees in countries willing to accept them. Ukrainian organisations in various countries became involved in the resettlement effort, including the London-based Central Ukrainian Relief Bureau and the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain.
Of the 220,000-250,000 Ukrainian displaced persons and refugees in Europe at the end of 1945, over half emigrated to the USA or Canada, while others settled in South America, Australia or various countries of Western Europe. In 1947-1949 about 21,000 Ukrainians, mainly from Germany or Austria, came to the UK as European Voluntary Workers, together with about 400 adult dependants and 450 children.
Bibliography
Dyczok, M., The Grand Alliance and Ukrainian Refugees, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000.
Isajiw, W., Y. Boshyk, R. Senkus (eds), The Refugee Experience: Ukrainian Displaced Persons after World War II, Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 1992.
Proudfoot, M. J., European Refugees, 1939-52. A study in forced population movement, London: Faber & Faber, 1957.
Satzewich, V., The Ukrainian Diaspora, London: Routledge, 2002.