World War II officially came to an end September 2, 1945. It is estimated that between 11 and 20 million people had been forced to flee their homelands. As the war ended, these people were faced with the question of “what now?”. The obvious conclusion was that these people should be repatriated to their country of origin. But in many cases, this was not feasible. Borders had changed, and for Latvians, their homeland was still occupied by the USSR. Fear of political persecution by the Soviets made returning to Latvia a perceived death sentence for some. In the months immediately following the end of the war, the Allied (US, British, etc) military troops began attempting to organize these displaced persons (“DP’s”) in Allied occupied Europe. They lived in improvised shelters and were typically malnourished.
Luckily, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), which had already been taking care of some of the camps, took on responsibility for all DP’s. Camps were established all over Europe, using all kinds of improvised shelters – military barracks, hospitals, private homes, sometimes even partially destroyed buildings. People lived here until they were either repatriated, or found new homes. Some remained in Germany. By the end of 1945, already six million refugees had been repatriated. Conditions were harsh. Food and medical supplies were on strict rations. Sanitation was limited, and DP’s were prone to disease.
It soon became quite obvious that there were still millions of people who would never be repatriated, and eventually other countries began accepting refugees. Belgium was the first country to come forward and offer 20,000 DP’s jobs as coal miners in 1947 (Arvids Akerfelds, and also his future father-in-law would be among these) although many thought it to be an easy way to get cheap labourers. Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia accepted a large number of refugees. The USA was one of the last countries to agree to accept refugees, but ended up taking in the largest number (400,000) in the end. As DP’s left the camps, they were shut down, and all but one DP camp had closed by 1952.
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