Does the German government have a duty to re-unite World War 2 displaced persons with their families?

Answer

This is a moot question since by now, 61 years after fighting stopped, all those 'displaced' have either passed on or been re-settled.

As for the time right after the war, there was no 'German government' to do this type work. Germany was an occupied and wrecked country for about ten years after the war. By the time Germany had recovered sufficiently to be of assistance in this area, most of the refugees had found new homes.

In the bigger picture one should question whether Germany had any duty to do this type work at all. They were hardly the only nation involved in creating displaced persons. What about the Soviets? They forcibly moved gigantic numbers of people before, during, and after the war. Some of these groups are still trying to recover their homelands stolen from them by Stalin's henchmen. These groups have a much greater claim to aid from Russia than any group has from Germany.

Other nations were involved in creating refugees too. France and Bohemia forcibly expelled huge numbers of Germans without compensation and with brutal force for no other reason than revenge and hate. The Poles, victims of mass displacement by the Soviets and Nazis both, took out their hatred on ethnic Germans after the war creating about 2,000,000 displaced persons. Perhaps your question should be directed at the Poles who still sit on land stolen from German civilians.

In the Far East there were also mass movements of peoples. As in Europe, the communists caused many persons to flee for their lives, perhaps in more numbers than in Europe. Japan suffered crushing numbers of Japanese forcibly ejected from colonial possessions, some of which they had controlled for decades. These persons were forced to relocate to an island nation desperately short of jobs, housing, food and all other necessities.

Point is, your question implies that Germany alone created displaced persons and held/holds some special position of responsibility for them. I could scarcely disagree more. In fact, the German government is the only one I know of that pays a yearly indemnity, totally voluntary, to Israel, as compensation for losses suffered by Jews during WWII. Even though Germany was only one part, albeit a major part, of the holocaust, they alone have shouldered this burden. Name another country who aided the holocauste that has accepted this expense: Ukraine? Lithuania? Poland - which had its own mini-holocaust after WWII? Russia? China? Japan? I know of none other than Germany.

Answer

The simple answer is NO. All camps - except one - for displaced persons from WW2 and its immediate aftermath were dissolved by the end of 1952, and the last camp was wound up in 1957. Of course, people weren't always able to return to their original home countries, but by 1957 at the latest all DPs from WW2 had been found somewhere to live that offered reasonable prospects.

On a point of information, the voluntary payments from West Germany to Israel came to an end in the mid 1970s, as planned and as previously announced.

First answer by ID3636395563. Last edit by Joncey. Contributor trust: 1754 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 39 [recommend question]