In the aftermath of war millions of refugees and former inmates of Nazi concentration camps were scattered far from home. DP camps in Germany, Austria and Italy were set up to house them before they could be repatriated or resettled.
The end of World War Two brought in its wake the largest population movements in European history. Millions of Germans fled or were expelled from eastern Europe. Hundreds of thousands of Jews, survivors of the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis, sought secure homes beyond their native lands. And other refugees from every country in eastern Europe rushed to escape from the newly installed Communist regimes.
Some of the people who left those eastern countries were recent arrivals, who had been settled in German-conquered territories by the Nazis as part of their long-term plan for German domination of eastern Europe. But most of those being expelled came of stock whose ancestors had been settled in the eastern lands for generations, and who knew no other place as home. The Volksdeutsche, as the Nazis had called them were, however, for the most part, victims of a calamity of which they were themselves part-authors. Not all were Nazis, but a majority had become supporters of Hitler.
The total number of Germans who were expelled or who departed voluntarily from eastern Europe after the end of the war mounted to 11.5 million by 1950.
As the German presence in eastern Europe was thus abruptly terminated, the Germans' foremost victims were also turned into refugees. Surviving Jews from concentration camps who returned to their homes found that they were unwelcome. Their property had new occupants who were generally reluctant to vacate the premises.
In Poland and Slovakia pogroms broke out, in which Jews were killed. Over 100,000 Jews infiltrated to the western powers' occupation zones in Germany and Austria. Most sought permission to enter Palestine - but the British mandatory government there denied entry to all save a handful. They therefore remained stuck for years in so-called displaced persons' camps.
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