大象传媒

Those of you who are old will remember, and those of you who are younger may have read of, the great migrations of the peoples of Europe when the last war ended. The 'Displaced Persons,' as they were accurately labeled. These hundreds of thousands-or was it millions- of ordinary men and women from all of the countries conquered by Nazi Germany who were shipped as slaves to the factories of the Conquerer. And you will remember, or have read, how these Displaced People suddenly free, washed like great, dark, clotted tides acrosss the continent after the Liberation.
Some walked, some were carried in the trucks of the Allied Armies, some lingered with blank memories in camps not knowing anymore from where they had been taken.
And of these who travelled thus, some went eagerly to rejoin their family and countryman, some went numbly, not knowing what they were going back to and some went with tears from leaving their kindly, decent liberators in dread of the regime they had lived under before the war and would again.
The matter of the D.P's was complicated. Germany needed slaves-it is a fair term- during the war to work on land and in factories, taking the place of their own nationals in the Forces. With the war over these wretched folk washed around the country in groups.
Often they became criminals in their efforts to feed themselves and sometimes for revenge. Sending them home was the thing to do, but not easy when the road and rails were so disrupted. Also, were their countries of origin, devastated by war, in a position to receive them?
Some years ago our newspapers were full of a row about the alleged part of a Count Tolstoy in shipping them home to Russia and misery. He pointed out that an international agreement required that he do this. In our officer's Mess we had a number of such women; Russians doing housekeeping jobs. They certainly didn't want to go and wept bitterly on being made to.
It would seem that returning to their homeland was bleak by comparison with working for us, but sadly international agreements could not be set aside for humane reasons or sympathy.
Russia was a central subject in the minds of the Germans at that time. The Russian Army's behaviour in occupied East Germany was rumoured often barbaric and the Germans in the West frequently asked us if the Russians would keep coming West and what we would do if they did. We said they wouldn't and that if they tried we would fight them. Who knows though if Russia had not been so exhausted by Hitler's invasion, perhaps Stalin might have tried it. A terrible thought that!

This story was submitted to the People's War website by a volunteer of the Stoke CSV Action Desk on behalf of John Pound and was added with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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