Displaced Persons (DP)

At the end of the war, there were eight to nine million displaced persons and refugees in West Germany, Berlin and Austria. Roughly 2,500 displaced persons camps provided shelter. The various relief organisations were able to repatriate between six and seven million people and helped about 1.5 million people to emigrate to other countries, such as Australia, Israel, Canada and the USA.

The Post-War Documents section in the ITS archives holds records relating to displaced persons who were attended to by international refugee organizations on the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and England after the war. The records from the UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration), the IRO (International Refugee Organization) and various other aid agencies, dating from the end of the Second World War and thereafter document the repatriation of displaced persons and include records of emigration resulting from the Second World War.

UNRRA and IRO registrations are made up of lists, medical records and books, files and questionnaires. Some of the information contained in the records was given personally by the DP. The following documents are available:

1. Original catalogue cards (DP-1, DP-2)
2. Medical records and books
3. Care and maintenance (C/M1) files
4. ICEM records (Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration)
5. Displaced persons questionnaires
6. UNHCR files
7. Hong Kong files
8. Miscellaneous lists

The care and maintenance (C/M1) files and displaced persons questionnaires refer to approximately 250,000 families, providing information relating to roughly 850,000 individuals. Displaced persons were required to enter details of their whereabouts in the previous 12 years in the questionnaires.

The International Tracing Service is also in possession of IRO and ICEM (Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration) records dating from 1948 to 1970. The records list all former displaced persons who emigrated from West Germany, France and Italy to other countries by sea or air.

The archives also contain documents relating to immigration to Palestine and Israel facilitated by the AJDC (American Joint Distribution Committee), as well as the arrival and transfer records of approximately 2,500 displaced persons camps.

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