Escaping War-ravaged Europe, Mass Emigration 1945-1955

European emigrants, 1949

Escaping war-ravaged countries in Europe became the objective for millions of people at the end of World War II. In 1945 Europe was in chaos. Germany was crushed. Infrastructure was devastated and political institutions were barely functioning in many countries. The pre-war map of Europe was being carved up by the victorious allies, led by the United States and the Soviet Union. Whole populations were in turmoil. All this resulted in the largest population movements in the history of the continent.

Many Europeans dreamt of finding peace, security and a better life far from their place of origin. At the same time other countries, outside Europe, were motivated to provide shelter to "Displaced Persons" (DP) and refugees as well as to seize the opportunity to bolster their own long-term prosperity by attracting these European emigrants.

Post-war population movements in Europe

Receiving bread rations at the Bindermichl displaced persons' camp in Linz, Austria

In the first post-war decade multiple factors contributed to the mass movement of people across Europe.

• By 1950 at least 12 million Germans had fled or were expelled from their wartime locations to be resettled in post-war Germany. Most of these expulsions occurred in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania. Many of these people had been settled in German-conquered territories by the Nazis as part of their long-term plan for domination of eastern Europe. In Czechoslovakia alone, more than 2.2 million Germans were expelled, and their property was expropriated. The expulsions were often conducted brutally.
• During the late 1940s and early 1950s an estimated 40 million other people escaped to Western Europe from the newly installed Communist regimes in Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia.
• Many of the people on the move, either forced or voluntary, sought refuge in western European countries. Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland were especially favoured as these nations were seen to provide safety, economic opportunities, and stability for those displaced by the war.
• Around 11 million people were classified as DPs. Two years after the end of World War II in Europe, some 850,000 people still lived in temporary DP camps scattered across Germany, Austria and Italy.
• Many Jews found that they were unwelcome in their pre-war homes in Eastern Europe. Although not technically DP, some 220,000 Jewish refugees from there managed to find their way into the DP camps. Survivors of the Holocaust in particular were desperate to find safety and better life prospects elsewhere, preferably outside Europe.
• Great Britain, though nominally victorious in the War, still suffered serious physical destruction and massive economic and social dislocation. This caused continuing hardship for millions of its citizens. Rationing of basic foods, fuel and other life essentials only finally ended in the UK in 1954.
• The emergence of the Cold War, dividing Western and Eastern Europe along sharp political lines, created genuine fears of the outbreak of new hostilities potentially involving nuclear weapons. In this fearful environment the prospect of building a new life and a new home on the other side of the world was irresistible for many people.

Assisted Migration Schemes to destination counties in the "New World"

In response to the mass movement of people across Europe a number of countries outside Europe implemented assisted immigration schemes or other programs aimed at refugees, displaced persons and economic emigrants. These policies reflected both humanitarian motives and self-interest.

Australian Migration Poster, late 1940s

• Australia, shaken by the very real threat of Japanese invasion during the war and concerned that its small population on a vast continent left it vulnerable, was determined to expand its numbers as rapidly as possible. The slogan "Populate or Perish" summed up Australian fears and culminated in the establishment of the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme in 1945. Colloquially known as the 'Ten-Pound Pom' scheme this program enabled British citizens to migrate to Australia for a nominal fee of £10. By 1947, more than 400,000 British citizens had registered for it. A separate UK child migration program which had ben operating since the 1920s was expanded. This was ostensibly aimed at offering British orphans and children from deprived backgrounds a better life but in reality they were often subject after arrival to harsh conditions and abuse. Australia subsequently widened its program to attract migrants from other European countries. Informal migration agreements operated with Malta, the Netherlands, Italy, West Germany, Turkey, and Yugoslavia.
• Canada implemented various programs to attract European migrants. In addition to their humanitarian aims another key objective was to address domestic labor shortages. Formal migration agreements were signed with the United Kingdom, Malta, the Netherlands, Italy, West Germany, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. There were also informal arrangements with Austria, Greece, Spain, and Belgium.
• New Zealand, which had a per-war history of assisted immigration from Britain, expanded and revised its migration program in 1947. Still aimed at UK emigrants the focus was switched to attracting young single people with practical skills.
• Even without formal assistance programs some Europeans emigrated to South America, principally to Argentina. They attracted by its relative prosperity and the cultural ties created by earlier waves of immigration. This was especially true of emigrants from Italy, long a source of labour to South America. Inflows lasted until the second-half of the 1950s, when Europe's growth rates began to outpace that of South American destination countries, reducing the incentive to migrate.
• The United States accepted Holocaust survivors, other European refugees and displaced persons through various programs. These included the Displaced Persons Act of 1948 although this was not technically an assisted immigration scheme. America also facilitated the migration of war brides of their military and their children from Europe.

Post-war European emigration to Israel

SS Exodus, 1947

In the years immediately after the war about 250,000 European Jews travelled from displaced persons camps in Germany and Austria to then British-mandated Palestine. They included people assisted by Zionist organisations through an underground network known as the Brichah ("escape", in Hebrew). Large scale Jewish migration was opposed at the time by the British but other European governments effectively turned a blind eye to it. A key incident occurred in 1947 when there was an attempt to transfer 4,515 Jewish migrants from France to Palestine aboard ship renamed the SS Exodus for the journey. The plight of the ship's passengers stirred international sympathy for Holocaust survivors.

The establishment of Israel in 1948 saw the British drop its opposition, enabling many more European Jews to emigrate. Between 1948 and 1951 almost 700,000 Jews arrived, representing more than two-thirds of the Jewish displaced persons in Europe. Thousands of Jewish detainees held in DP camps on Cyprus, whom the British government had previously intercepted while seeking to resettle in Palestine, were among the new arrivals.

Impact of the mass post-war emigration on Europe itself

Mass emigration compounded the devastating effects of the World War II itself and had profound and multi-dimensional effects on European countries.

• The demographics of the entire continent shifted due to the loss of lives and displacement of millions of people. This drastically reduced the speed of population recovery to its pre-war levels and altered the sex and age profiles of many nations.
• Economies, already burdened with millions homeless or dislocated and much of Europe's industrial infrastructure destroyed, was further impacted by the migration of skilled, mainly young workers (a “brain drain”) and their families to the New World destination countries.
• As reconstruction and economic activity picked up many migrant workers were recruited from southern European countries such as Portugal, Spain, Italy, Yugoslavia and Greece to the industrial core of Western Europe comprising West Germany, northern Italy, Switzerland, Austria, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Lesser numbers also moved to the UK, Denmark and Sweden.

By the 1960s Western Europe's reconstruction efforts paved the way for sustained, rapid growth and social progress. Soviet-dominated countries in Eastern Europe were less dynamic. But everywhere it was a different Europe - ethnically, culturally, socially and politically - from that which existed pre-war.

Impact of the mass post-war emigration from Europe on destination countries

Multicultural Food Fair

The flip side of mass emigration from Europe was its impact on destination countries. This was largely positive, but there were also some negative consequences.

• The arrival of large number of European migrants led to increased cultural diversity in the destination countries, creating or cementing more diverse societies.
• Post-war European emigrants often experienced various forms of segregation, discrimination or cultural clashes, especially in their early years. Language barriers, differences in social values, even their traditions and food preferences all attracted objections from some sections of society in their new countries.
• Assimilation usually occurred over time as these migrants settled in their destination country. However a proportion never felt fully accepted, considering themselves to be still citizens of their European country of origin who happened to be now living “abroad”. These mixed loyalties created threats of cultural ghettoes and political/social tensions.
• Just as the emigration of skilled workers negatively impacted source European countries the influx of talented emigrants, highly motivated to succeed and eager to have children, was a boon to destination countries themselves recovering from war disruption and suffering labour shortages.

Despite these broad similarities there were also some specific impacts in individual destination countries.

• In 1955 the one-millionth post-war immigrant arrived in Australia, taking its population to 9.2 million in 1955, up from 7 million in 1945, and completely transforming the previous overwhelmingly British character of the country.
• In addition to the hundred of thousands of refugees, DP and economic migrants from war-torn Europe arriving in Canada there was the return of around 48,000 war brides and more than 20,000 children fathered by Canadian soldiers stationed in the Europe during the war. These war brides were mostly from Britain, but a few thousand were also from other countries including the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy and Germany.
• New Zealand was less impacted by any cultural disruption from post-war European migration as it continued to focus on white British migrants who were seen to more easily assimilate into the existing NZ society. It was only in 1950 that its Assisted Migration Scheme was extended to include people from a limited number of other European nations, most notably the Netherlands.
• European emigration after World War II, adding to the contemporaneous large-scale internal migration south to north, reshaped the population mix, economy and society of the USA. This left a lasting impact on the nation's future trajectory. It also was a driver of later relaxation of America's immigration policies.
• Jews from various parts of Europe who found refuge in Israel in the immediate post-war years significantly contributed to the diversity of the demographic base, as well as the skills mix, of the new Jewish state. By the end of 1951, these immigrants constituted 43% of Israel’s total population.

Explore more on post-war emigration from Europe

• MyHeritage can help you discover your family immigration stories across its 19+ billion historical records. These include passenger arrival records, naturalisation records, border crossings, emigration records, passports, convict transportation records, all searchable by name.
• The Wiki article, How to research immigrant ancestors, offers a valuable primer on general strategies and using MyHeritage and other resources such as genealogy websites, historical records, and archives to uncover valuable information about immigrant ancestors.
• DNA testing, available through MyHeritage, is a unique tool to connect immigrant descendants with unknown family in origin or destination countries. The MyHeritage blog includes individual stories of how people have used DNA matching to solve long-standing immigrant mysteries.
• The Arolsen Archives, formerly the International Tracing Service archive (ITS), is a non-governmental organisation that collects and preserves records of victims of Nazi persecution. The Arolsen Archives online database includes a wide collection of digitised personal records from the files of International Refugee Organisation (IRO). These can be used to trace the movements of European DPs, refugees and others impacted by the war and its immediate aftermath.
• The reference material listed below is a good starting point for further general research on post-war European emigration, including its causes, scale and outcomes.

References

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