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Show Americans Help Liberated Europe Live Again 757 even thousands, of miles from home. The roster of their nationalities reads like a history of German conquest: Poles, Czechs, Aus-trians, Danes, Dutch, Belgians, Frenchmen, Hungarians, Romanians, Serbs, Croats, Bul-gars, Greeks, and of course Russians-Russians by the hundreds of thousands. One statistician figures that it would take one train each hour, every hour for a year and a half, to get them all home. You will hear a lot about displaced persons before the last one is repatriated. Refugees and "Displaced Persons" The degree of care which the Armies have been able to give refugees and displaced persons has ranged from the provision of a hot ration or a truck ride to a rear area (where refugees can usually fend for themselves) to the extreme in which displaced persons found at work on Hitler's West Wall in June last year have been fed and housed ever since. Not all the care of these people has been an Army function. By a series of agreements with the governments concerned, SHAEF has arranged for each to undertake the care of the displaced persons of the others and to speed their repatriation when transportation is available. Camps for displaced persons are generally run by the Allied Governments, which try to provide jobs for those of working age. In some, schools have been set up, courses of domestic science arranged, and there is a general effort to make of each camp a self-administered unit. But the fundamental responsibility for all these people and the direction of their care continue with the Army as long as it controls transportation, food, and medical supplies. It is to assist with displaced persons that UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) has first been called to action by the Army. This organization, which may ultimately have the full responsibility for relief and rehabilitation in Europe, is providing hundreds of its officers to serve under military command in the administration of the growing displaced-persons problem. As with the supply of civilians, the whole matter of refugees and displaced persons is approached not only on a national basis and in terms of a long-range repatriation program, but every day in more or less rough-and- tumble fashion by Army units on the ground. Military men learned in France in 1940 that uncontrolled movements of civilians could immobilize an army. Controlled evacuation, standfast orders, and the use of specified roads for civilian traffic are some of the measures employed to regulate refugee movements in combat areas. From one unconventional report of an officer commanding a civil affairs detachment with the Third Army (page 768) come these graphic paragraphs, illustrating the treatment of these people "on the ground": "Five hundred and one were evacuated. We had them screened (for security) and inscribed (tagged for identification) and loaded, arguing, pleading, and commanding them to get rid of some of their omnipresent baggage. We straightened out the families, returned children to their mothers, found a place for that last bicycle, and evacuated the 501 . . . "In a suburb there was a gigantic quarry. Approximately 3,500 people had taken shelter in this quarry. They had cows, chickens, lamps, and other household items with them. There were two doctors in the group and, although there were several wounded, the' health situation was not dangerous. Seven German soldiers were also in the cave. "The organization was individual. Each family had brought its own supplies. The poorer people had begun to run out of food. The tactical commander could permit neither the entrance of a relief mission nor the evacuation of any sizable number. The forest covering the entrance was mined. "Finally a relief mission was completed. The mines along one path through the woods were cleared. Food and medicine were carried on litters through the woods for one and one-half kilometers (about a mile) beyond American outposts and under enemy fire. On arrival we ordered a reorganization of the quarry dwellers so that those who had food would share with those whose supplies were exhausted." Such incidents are commonplace, being repeated in one form or another every day along the whole battle line. By an orderly process based- on existing Army procedures for the evacuation of prisoners of war, refugees and displaced persons are transported to assembly centers and ultimately to camps where they live until they can return to their homes. Curfews, Travel Passes, and Questions Army activity in the course of liberation extends into many other fields, largely concerned with the protection of the troops. In border regions it is particularly difficult to distinguish between an ally and an enemy civilian. The most harmless-looking French type, complete with beret and dangling |
