Saturday, February 18, 2012

Displaced Persons Camp or DP Camp


My father standing and my Mother with my brother on her lap.
A displaced persons camp or DP camp is a
temporary facility for displaced persons coerced into forced immigration. Combat, ethnic cleaning,genocide and general fear resulted in millions of people being uprooted from their original homes and countries during WW ll.    Displaced Persons were mostly Eastern European. People were forced to work in German factories and farms, some were survivors of concentration camps and others fled to escape Communist rule. DP's often moved from camp to camp, looking for family, country men, accommodations as well as other reasons.Most of the refugees suffered from psychological difficulties,many were depressed and traumatized.

After WWll  many people were housed in camps admimistered by the IRO International Refugee Organization.By 1952 all but one DP camp was closed. The last one was closed in 1957.

In Hann Munden Germany there existed a Polish DP Camp from August 1945 to June 1950, situated in the Kurhessen Barracks , a former military post. This is the camp where I was born.

In the photo above my parents enjoying time spent with friends. The accommadations were a tiny room that served as a bedroom ,kitchen,living room and nursery as well.

2 comments:

  1. Monica, thank you for sharing your memories of the DP camps.

    I've also written about the ones my family was in. Here's a link to it:

    http://lightning-and-ashes.blogspot.com/2007/06/some-background-on-slave-laborers-and.html

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    Replies
    1. John, I have read your blog as well, your poems are touching. You have a gift for writing.

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