When the International Refugee Organisation took over the displaced persons of the western occupation zones on 1 July 1947, the object of the camps changed from care to departure, and the people in them had to choose between going home, going overseas and staying where they were. Selection missions, labour schemes, sponsorship and a chartered fleet moved most of them out over the next four years, and the organisation closed in January 1952 with the hard core still in Europe.
Resettlement in numbers
Where the International Refugee Organization sent people: 1 July 1947 to 31 December 1949
690,145 people resettled in all.
The same figures as a table
| Receiving country | People resettled |
|---|---|
| United States | 150,843 |
| Israel | 116,368 |
| Australia | 105,485 |
| United Kingdom | 83,016 |
| Canada | 77,703 |
| France | 36,886 |
| Argentina | 28,065 |
| Brazil | 23,354 |
| Belgium | 22,183 |
| Venezuela | 13,287 |
| Other countries | 32,955 |
| Total | 690,145 |
Where the International Refugee Organization sent people: The calendar year 1950
191,119 people resettled in all.
The same figures as a table
| Receiving country | People resettled |
|---|---|
| United States | 88,035 |
| Australia | 65,191 |
| Canada | 16,615 |
| Israel | 4,186 |
| Argentina | 2,926 |
| United Kingdom | 2,889 |
| Venezuela | 2,719 |
| Brazil | 1,340 |
| France | 1,236 |
| New Zealand | 1,066 |
| Other countries | 4,916 |
| Total | 191,119 |
Policy and the schemes, 1943 to 1952
- 9 November 1943The agreement creating the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration is signed in Washington by representatives of forty-four nations.Yearbook of the United Nations 1946-47, Chronology of the United Nations, United Nations Department of Public Information, Lake Success, 1947, printed pages 867 and 876.
- 10 November to 1 December 1943The first session of the UNRRA Council is held at Atlantic City, and Herbert H. Lehman is appointed Director-General.Yearbook of the United Nations 1946-47, Chronology of the United Nations, United Nations Department of Public Information, Lake Success, 1947, printed pages 867 and 876.
- 16 October 1946Under the British Balt Cygnet scheme the first party of a hundred women leaves the Lubeck displaced persons camp by sea for Tilbury, recruited in the British zone for hospital and sanatorium work.The beginning of refugee immigration (1946) and the early years (to about 1950), Latvians in the United Kingdom, online exhibition of the National Archives of Latvia, Accessed 13 September 2026.
- 15 December 1946The General Assembly approves the Constitution of the International Refugee Organisation, with a budget for its first year of operation and arrangements for a Preparatory Commission.Yearbook of the United Nations 1946-47, Chronology of the United Nations, United Nations Department of Public Information, Lake Success, 1947, printed pages 867 and 876. Yearbook of the United Nations 1948-49, Part Two, Chapter X, The International Refugee Organization, United Nations Department of Public Information, New York, 1950, printed pages 1086, 1089, 1091 and 1092.
- 31 December 1946The Preparatory Commission for the International Refugee Organisation comes into being, the requisite eight governments having signed the Constitution.Yearbook of the United Nations 1946-47, Chronology of the United Nations, United Nations Department of Public Information, Lake Success, 1947, printed pages 867 and 876. Yearbook of the United Nations 1948-49, Part Two, Chapter X, The International Refugee Organization, United Nations Department of Public Information, New York, 1950, printed pages 1086, 1089, 1091 and 1092.
- 11 to 21 February 1947The Preparatory Commission meets at Geneva for the first part of its first session.Yearbook of the United Nations 1946-47, Chronology of the United Nations, United Nations Department of Public Information, Lake Success, 1947, printed pages 867 and 876.
- 1 April 1947Brazil concludes an agreement in London with the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees for a trial group of a thousand families, not more than five thousand people.José H. Fischel de Andrade, O Brasil e a organização internacional para os refugiados (1946-1952), Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional 48(1), June 2005.
- End of April 1947The first Westward Ho recruits reach Britain through Tilbury and Hull and Balt Cygnet is superseded; by then almost 2,500 Baltic and Ukrainian women had come in under the earlier scheme.The beginning of refugee immigration (1946) and the early years (to about 1950), Latvians in the United Kingdom, online exhibition of the National Archives of Latvia, Accessed 13 September 2026.
- Spring 1947Westward Ho recruitment opens in the displaced persons camps of Germany and Austria for agriculture, forestry, mining and textiles; every recruit undertakes to work only as directed. Official statistics give 20,912 Ukrainian European Voluntary Workers.European Voluntary Workers, Roman Krawec, Ukrainians in the United Kingdom: online encyclopaedia, Published 12 February 2010, updated 27 March 2016.
- 4 June 1947The first embarkation recruited by the Argentine Delegación Argentina de Inmigración en Europa sails from Genoa.Leonardo Senkman, Etnicidad e inmigracion durante el primer peronismo, EIAL, Estudios Interdisciplinarios de America Latina y el Caribe, 3 (2), pp. 5 to 38, 1992.
- 6 June 1947The Canadian Cabinet agrees to select up to five thousand displaced persons as a bulk labour movement on contracts of ten to twelve months with a designated employer.Robert J. Shalka, The Resettlement of European Refugees in Canada (1947–1952), Part 3, Canadian Immigration Historical Society Bulletin no. 98, September 2021.
- 30 June 1947UNRRA and the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees end their activities on behalf of refugees and displaced persons.Yearbook of the United Nations 1948-49, Part Two, Chapter X, The International Refugee Organization, United Nations Department of Public Information, New York, 1950, printed pages 1086, 1089, 1091 and 1092.
- 1 July 1947The Preparatory Commission assumes operational responsibility, taking over the direct care of more than 719,000 people and the protection of more than 900,000 others, and the running of about seven hundred camps.Yearbook of the United Nations 1948-49, Part Two, Chapter X, The International Refugee Organization, United Nations Department of Public Information, New York, 1950, printed pages 1086, 1089, 1091 and 1092. Yearbook of the United Nations 1951, The International Refugee Organization, United Nations Department of Public Information, New York, 1952, printed pages 939 and 940.
- 1947The Belgian kolenslag begins, recruiting in the camps of occupied Germany on two-year mining contracts; the Australian government reaches its agreement with the organisation to take displaced persons from the camps.Frank Caestecker and Lieselotte Luyckx, Hoe de Belgische mijnindustrie een nieuw thuis aan vluchtelingen-mijnwerkers aanbood (1947-1951), Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire 97/4, pp. 1299–1326, 2019. Bruce Pennay, Receiving Europe's Displaced: Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre 1947–1953, Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Accessed 13 September 2026.
- December 1947The first contingent of 839 Baltic men and women reaches the newly opened Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre in north-east Victoria.Bruce Pennay, Receiving Europe's Displaced: Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre 1947–1953, Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Accessed 13 September 2026.
- 30 April 1948A fresh agreement between Brazil and the Preparatory Commission replaces the earlier one, adds a thousand families and provides for a joint commission.José H. Fischel de Andrade, O Brasil e a organização internacional para os refugiados (1946-1952), Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional 48(1), June 2005.
- 25 June 1948The United States Displaced Persons Act, Public Law 774, opens 202,000 visas outside the ordinary quotas against an assurance of suitable employment and safe and sanitary housing. Truman signs it with what he calls very great reluctance.Displaced Persons Act of 1948, Public Law 774, 62 Stat. 1009, United States Government Publishing Office, 25 June 1948. Statement by the President Upon Signing the Displaced Persons Act, Public Papers of the Presidents, Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, 25 June 1948.
- 20 August 1948The International Refugee Organisation is itself established, fifteen states with three quarters of the operational budget having become parties to the Constitution.Yearbook of the United Nations 1948-49, Part Two, Chapter X, The International Refugee Organization, United Nations Department of Public Information, New York, 1950, printed pages 1086, 1089, 1091 and 1092.
- July 1949The General Council sets the closing datelines: no new applications after 31 August 1949, no new admissions to care and maintenance in assembly centres after 31 December 1949, and care and maintenance to end by 30 June 1950.Yearbook of the United Nations 1948-49, Part Two, Chapter X, The International Refugee Organization, United Nations Department of Public Information, New York, 1950, printed pages 1086, 1089, 1091 and 1092.
- 1949The peak year of the programme: 453,590 people resettled and 13,471 repatriated, at an average of 27,293 re-established a month.Yearbook of the United Nations 1948-49, Part Two, Chapter X, The International Refugee Organization, United Nations Department of Public Information, New York, 1950, printed pages 1086, 1089, 1091 and 1092.
- 16 June 1950Public Law 555 amends the Displaced Persons Act, moving the eligibility date to 1 January 1949 and raising the ceiling to 341,000 visas.An Act to amend the Displaced Persons Act of 1948, Public Law 555, 64 Stat. 219, United States Government Publishing Office, 16 June 1950.
- 1 July 1950Care and maintenance passes to local authorities. The known institutional hard core stands at 15,319 people needing permanent care, with 7,509 members of their families.Yearbook of the United Nations 1950, Chapter X, The International Refugee Organization, United Nations Department of Public Information, New York, 1951, printed pages 982, 985, 986 and 987.
- End of 1950Camps and other installations are down to 88 and the number depending on the organisation for care and maintenance to 80,905. The Australian programme has absorbed 170,543 refugees and is almost complete.Yearbook of the United Nations 1951, The International Refugee Organization, United Nations Department of Public Information, New York, 1952, printed pages 939 and 940. Yearbook of the United Nations 1950, Chapter X, The International Refugee Organization, United Nations Department of Public Information, New York, 1951, printed pages 982, 985, 986 and 987.
- 1 January 1951European Voluntary Workers in Britain may apply for release from the restriction that tied them to directed employment.European Voluntary Workers, Roman Krawec, Ukrainians in the United Kingdom: online encyclopaedia, Published 12 February 2010, updated 27 March 2016.
- 1951The Belgian kolenslag ends, having brought 21,906 eastern European refugees into the Belgian mines.Frank Caestecker and Lieselotte Luyckx, Hoe de Belgische mijnindustrie een nieuw thuis aan vluchtelingen-mijnwerkers aanbood (1947-1951), Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire 97/4, pp. 1299–1326, 2019.
- 31 January 1952The International Refugee Organisation closes, having resettled 1,045,750 people and repatriated 73,873 in fifty-five months. Of some ten thousand chronic sick, aged and handicapped for whom no ordinary resettlement could be found, all but 362 had been placed.Yearbook of the United Nations 1951, The International Refugee Organization, United Nations Department of Public Information, New York, 1952, printed pages 939 and 940.
Introduction
On 1 July 1947 the Preparatory Commission of the International Refugee Organisation took over from UNRRA and the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees. It inherited direct care of more than 719,000 people and responsibility for some 900,000 more, in about 700 camps. The camps had stopped being places to be maintained and become places to be emptied.13
Three futures were now on the table. Return, which after the repatriation drive of 1946 the more than 200,000 Ukrainians still in Germany and Austria would not take. Resettlement, which meant accepting a receiving country's terms, almost always a contract to work where a government chose. Or staying, which meant waiting to see whether anyone would have you. The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine's estimate for 1947 to 1957 gives 80,000 Ukrainians to the United States, 30,000 to Canada, 20,000 each to Australasia and Great Britain.87
Ukrainians were near the head of the queue from the start. When the organisation's operations began in July 1947 they were the second most numerous national group among its wards, 102,430 people, many of them of former Polish nationality from the eastern provinces annexed by the Soviet Union. Sękowski's accounting of the whole operation gives 113,677 Ukrainians resettled, of whom 45,044 went to the United States, 19,607 to Australia and 35 to Israel, the remaining 48,991 to other countries. Those totals are compiled on a different basis from the country figures given below.54
Selection
Eligibility was decided on a four-page form. From the summer of 1947 the organisation issued the CM/1, headed Application for IRO Assistance, and about 350,000 were completed. Applicants had to account for where they had been and worked over the previous ten or twelve years and say why they would not go home. Of 14,815 appeals settled by the end of 1949 the Geneva Review Board reversed 4,601 into the mandate and confirmed 8,622 as outside it.41
Being inside the mandate only qualified a person to be looked at. Receiving governments set their own criteria and sent their own selection missions into the camps, and resettlement outside the United States and Israel followed their economic requirements. The medical examination did the sorting. The British form disqualified lung, heart and abdominal disease, loss of a substantial part of a limb, deafness that made communication difficult, epilepsy and evident pregnancy, and of nearly 4,000 people interviewed for the first 1,500 Canadian forestry places half were rejected. Preference went to applicants with no dependants in the camps, and Australia accepted displaced families only from mid-1948.21261022
Britain and Belgium
Britain went first, and it went for women. Balt Cygnet recruited in the British zone for hospital and sanatorium work, and the first party of a hundred left Lubeck on 16 October 1946 for Tilbury; by May 1947 almost 2,500 Baltic and Ukrainian women had come. Westward Ho, open from the spring of 1947, was the scheme that mattered: teams filled vacancies in agriculture, forestry, mining and textiles, and every recruit undertook to work only as directed. Official statistics give 20,912 Ukrainian European Voluntary Workers.141011
A second group came by a military route. On 1 April 1947 the Cabinet decided to move the interned former soldiers of the Galicia Division out of Italy, and 8,570 people travelled by sea from Venice that May and June; 8,128 were released from prisoner of war status into the same scheme between August and October 1948, and their camps became hostels. At Lockerbie a camp hut was made into a Ukrainian Greek Catholic chapel, with shell fragments for candlesticks and a blue ceiling of gold stars. Release from directed employment came only from 1 January 1951.15161710
Belgium wanted men underground. The kolenslag ran from 1947 to 1951, recruited in the camps of occupied Germany on two-year mining contracts and brought 21,906 eastern European refugees into the Belgian mines. The Ukrainian population of Belgium rose to about 10,000 by 1947, a figure for the country and not a count of miners, and fell to about 5,000 by 1955.181920
Across the oceans
Australia bought labour with a passage. Under a 1947 agreement it took more than 170,000 displaced persons by 1951, on Arthur Calwell's condition of two-year contracts in industries vital to the development of Australia. Ukrainians were 8.5 per cent of that intake, behind Poles at 37.1 per cent. Trains carried arrivals inland to Bonegilla, expanded to hold 7,700, and to Bathurst, opened at Kelso in May 1948 for just over 6,000.2224
Canada worked differently. On 6 June 1947 Cabinet agreed to select up to 5,000 people as a bulk labour movement, each contracted to a named employer for ten to twelve months, with a close relatives scheme alongside it. Ukrainians were the second largest group admitted, 19,215 in the three fiscal years to March 1950, and almost all landed at Pier 21 in Halifax, where screening, customs and the trains were handled under one roof.262729
The United States took the most, and did it by statute. The Displaced Persons Act of 1948, signed on 25 June with what Truman called very great reluctance, opened 202,000 visas outside the ordinary quotas, but only against an assurance from someone in America of suitable employment and safe and sanitary housing; the 1950 amendment raised the ceiling to 341,000. Approximately 85,000 Ukrainians entered under the Act, some 33,000 sponsored by the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee, and because job and address were settled beforehand there were no American reception camps. Brazil took 29,000 refugees, about 7,000 of them Ukrainians.3031323336373435
The Australian agreement was signed at Geneva on 21 July 1947 between the Commonwealth government and the Preparatory Commission of the International Refugee Organisation, and the National Archives of Australia names Ukraine among the countries from which the largest numbers of postwar migrants came to Australia under IRO agreements. Canada's programme was designed to fill chronic labour shortages in its resource industries, and its first transport was the General Stewart, which docked at Halifax on 13 September 1947 with 831 men, each selected and screened by Canadian teams in Europe and offered a contract to work as a pulpwood cutter for ten months. A government radio broadcast in 1948 told the Canadian public that of the 11,000 displaced persons who had already arrived, 25 per cent were Poles, 25 per cent Ukrainians, 20 per cent Lithuanians and 8 per cent Jews; 160,367 workers and their families were moved to Canada between April 1947 and January 1952. The Canadian service ran its own ship: by 1954, when she was sold to an Italian shipping firm, the Beaverbrae had made fifty-two crossings in Canada's service and carried more than 38,000 refugees.5253
The voyage
Between the selection interview and the ship stood a staging camp. At Bremen the Interzonal Embarkation Center opened at Camp Grohn on 30 September 1948 with 3,500 places, and the fortnight there was customs, security checks and a last medical inspection before the short journey to the Columbuskaje at Bremerhaven, the only overseas passenger quay in the American zone, nicknamed the Kaje der Traenen. People going through Italy were gathered instead at Bagnoli near Naples or Cinecitta in Rome and sailed from Naples or Genoa.3853941
The fleet was assembled rather than built: thirty-nine chartered vessels, nineteen of them United States Army transports, and a ship of about 1,200 left Bremerhaven every two or three days. The American General class transports had been built for 3,485 soldiers and usually sailed with fewer than 700 displaced persons, yet families were split by sex, meals were eaten standing at high tables and passengers worked the galley and cleaning details themselves. Of the 813 people General W. M. Black carried out on 21 October 1948, seventeen were listed as Ukrainians, a number that says more about how people were recorded than who was aboard.1240
The chartered ships were worse. Fairsea took about 1,800 in open dormitories and landed 1,096 at Newcastle on 19 August 1949, the first draft put ashore outside an Australian capital city, who went by steam train to Greta. Skaugum landed 1,543 at Fremantle on 6 January 1950 with measles aboard. On the Hellenic Prince the drinking water ran out and passengers worked the boiler rooms for Woodbine cigarettes. At Port Melbourne a train ran onto the pier so that people crossed from the gangway into a carriage for Bonegilla.422543444547
Canadian applicants did not go straight from interview to ship. Once selection was complete, successful applicants were sent back to their original location to wait for notice to travel to the interzonal staging area at Diepholz, just south of Bremerhaven, one week before embarkation. At sea the receiving country sometimes came aboard: a Canadian Red Cross information officer sailed on the RMS Samaria, leaving Cuxhaven on 21 October 1948, to answer passengers' questions about life and work in Canada before disembarkation.53
Those who stayed
The schemes had taken the fit, and what was left was called the hard core. When care and maintenance passed to local authorities on 1 July 1950 there were 15,319 known institutional cases needing permanent care, with 7,509 family members. Stebelsky's tables put the Ukrainians in the camps of the British zone of Germany at 28,460 in December 1947 and 4,580 by 1950, leaving about 10,800 elderly people, invalids, widows and mothers with children.29
The last camps filled as the others emptied. Wentorf recorded 104 Ukrainians in December 1947 and 825 in August 1951, where 9,000 homeless foreigners were still in camps on 1 July 1950; it was dissolved in January 1952. The organisation closed on 31 January 1952 having resettled 1,045,750 people and repatriated 73,873.5150493
Where people landed, communities grew out of the institutions that held them. The Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain counted 242 branches of twelve or more members by the end of 1949. The sixty Ukrainian men who came ashore at Fremantle in October 1948 were incorporated as an association on 1 September 1951. At Greta the Ukrainian faithful built a church hall in 1960, the year the camp closed. The huts came down; what had been built inside them went out with the people.164825
Timeline
- 16 October 1946The first party of a hundred women leaves the Lubeck displaced persons camp by sea for Tilbury under the British Balt Cygnet scheme, the first movement of camp residents into employment abroad.14
- 1 July 1947The Preparatory Commission of the International Refugee Organisation takes over from UNRRA and the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, inheriting more than 719,000 people in care and about 700 camps.13
- 21 July 1947The Commonwealth of Australia and the Preparatory Commission of the International Refugee Organisation sign their resettlement agreement at Geneva.52
- Summer 1947The CM/1 Application for IRO Assistance comes into use; about 350,000 are completed and an eligibility officer records on each form whether the case falls within the mandate.4
- May and June 19478,570 Ukrainians of the interned Galicia Division are transported by sea from Venice to Britain, where they are reclassified as prisoners of war.15
- 6 June 1947The Canadian Cabinet agrees to select up to 5,000 displaced persons as a bulk labour movement on contracts of ten to twelve months with a designated employer.26
- 13 September 1947The General Stewart docks at Halifax with 831 men contracted to work as pulpwood cutters in Canada for ten months.53
- December 1947The first contingent of 839 Baltic men and women arrives at the newly opened Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre in north-east Victoria.22
- 25 June 1948Truman signs the United States Displaced Persons Act, opening 202,000 visas against assurances of suitable employment and safe and sanitary housing, with what he calls very great reluctance.3032
- 30 September 1948The Interzonal Embarkation Center opens at Camp Grohn near Bremen with 3,500 places, the last stop before the Columbuskaje at Bremerhaven.38
- 21 October 1948General W. M. Black leaves Bremerhaven with 813 people of eleven nationalities, seventeen of them recorded as Ukrainians, the first party admitted under the Displaced Persons Act.40
- August to October 19488,128 former soldiers of the Galicia Division are released from prisoner of war status in Britain and engaged as European Voluntary Workers; their camps are redesignated hostels.1510
- 19 August 1949Fairsea lands 1,096 migrants at Newcastle, the first draft of displaced persons put ashore outside an Australian capital city; they go by steam train to Greta, where a choir formed during the voyage performs that month.2542
- 6 January 1950Skaugum lands at Fremantle the passengers she took over from the disabled Anna Salen at Aden; 1,543 are put ashore in Western Australia and sent by train to Northam.4344
- 1 July 1950Care and maintenance passes to local authorities; 15,319 institutional hard core cases remain with 7,509 family members, and 9,000 homeless foreigners are still in camps in Schleswig-Holstein alone.250
- 31 January 1952The International Refugee Organisation closes, having resettled 1,045,750 people and repatriated 73,873 in fifty-five months; the Wentorf camp is dissolved the same month.349
Sources
- Yearbook of the United Nations 1948-49, Chapter X: The International Refugee Organization
United Nations Department of Public Information, 1950
Chapter read in full from the page PDFs 1096 to 1110. Supplies the constitutional dates, the caseload taken over on 1 July 1947, the freeze order, the Annex I categories and Part II exclusions, the 1949 datelines, the Review Board appeal figures, the resettlement table to 31 December 1949 and the transport paragraph on thirty-nine chartered vessels.
- Yearbook of the United Nations 1950, Chapter X: The International Refugee Organization
United Nations Department of Public Information, 1951
Chapter read in full from the page PDFs 994 to 1010. Supplies the second version of the resettlement table to 31 December 1949, the 1950 receiving countries and totals, the Australian cumulative figure of 170,543, the fleet reduction from 36 to 15 vessels, the air movement of 5,336 people, the amended Displaced Persons Act, the hard core figures and the Review Board and Tracing Service descriptions.
- Yearbook of the United Nations 1951: The International Refugee Organization
United Nations Department of Public Information, 1952
Section read in full from the page PDFs 949 to 951. Supplies the five constitutional purposes, the 700 camps at the outset and their reduction to 88 installations and 80,905 people by the end of 1950, the peak fleet of 36 ships, the London Agreement travel document, the 1951 and January 1952 movements and the closing totals of 1,045,750 resettled and 73,873 repatriated, and the Shanghai and PICMME arrangements.
- CM/1 application
Arolsen Archives e-Guide, Accessed 13 September 2026
Describes the four-page Application for IRO Assistance, its use from the summer of 1947, the roughly 350,000 applications, the information demanded of applicants, the eligibility officer interview and the within or not within the mandate decision recorded on the form.
- Bremen Emigrant Staging Area card
Arolsen Archives e-Guide, Accessed 13 September 2026
Describes the Bremen staging area and its camps Tirpitz, Grohn and Lesum with their capacities and dates, the sequence of interview, medical examination and trade test at a resettlement centre before transfer to the staging area, the fortnight of formalities, and Bremen and Genoa as the main departure ports.
- Emigration
Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Accessed 13 September 2026
Section on the third wave read for the 1946 distribution of Ukrainian displaced persons in Germany, Austria and Italy, the destination estimates for 1947 to 1957, the position at 1 August 1948, and the note on later secondary emigration from Britain, France and Belgium.
- Displaced persons
Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Accessed 13 September 2026
Read for the residual population after the 1946 repatriation drive, over 200,000 Ukrainians within about 1.2 million displaced persons in Germany and Austria, and for the statement that the IRO resettled over 600,000 refugees to the New World by 1952.
- Ukrainian Population Migration after World War II
Ihor Stebelsky; Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, 1992
Tables 5 to 7, printed pages 43–51, and the closing passage on printed page 37. Zone totals for Ukrainians in the camps of Austria (Table 5, p. 43), the British zone of Germany (Table 6, pp. 44–46) and the American zone of Germany (Table 7, pp. 47–51), the residual population of about 10,800 by 1951 and the some 25,000 Ukrainians absorbed into the Austrian and West German economies, with the archival sources named beneath each table.
- European Voluntary Workers
Roman Krawec, Ukrainians in the United Kingdom: online encyclopaedia, Published 12 February 2010, updated 27 March 2016
Full entry read: scheme approval, spring 1947 start, selection by interview and medical inspection, the undertaking to work as directed, preference rules, the 20,912 Ukrainian total with its sex breakdown and dependants, the 700 who left, initial placement percentages for all nationalities, the autumn 1948 absorption of 8,128 former Galicia Division soldiers, and the July 1950 decision effective 1 January 1951.
- When the war was over: European refugees after 1945. Briefing Paper 6, Coming to Britain
AHRC project, Universities of Manchester and Nottingham, 2012
Both pages read: the sectors covered by Westward Ho, the contrast with Balt Cygnet, the total of more than 80,000 EVWs, wage parity alongside the ban on changing jobs, police registration, and the ranking of nationalities in which Ukrainians stood below Balts.
- The beginning of refugee immigration (1946) and the early years (to about 1950)
Latvians in the United Kingdom, online exhibition of the National Archives of Latvia, citing Emily Gilbert, Rebuilding Post-War Britain (Pen and Sword, 2017), Accessed 13 September 2026
Full exhibition page read: the autumn 1946 introduction of Balt Cygnet, the age range eighteen to forty, the first party of a hundred leaving Lubeck on 16 October 1946 for Tilbury, work in TB sanatoria, the extension to Ukrainian women, nurse training and women up to fifty, recruitment in the American zone, almost 2,500 women by May 1947 in twenty-three parties, WRVS reception and registration centres, and the Westward Ho arrival figures for April and May 1947.
- Former soldiers of the Galicia Division
Roman Krawec, Ukrainians in the United Kingdom: online encyclopaedia, Updated 2014; consulted 13 September 2026
Full entry read: the 1945 surrender and internment near Spittal, the Yalta argument and the pre-September 1939 test, Bellaria and the voluntary returns, the move to Rimini in October 1945, the Italian peace treaty as the trigger, the Cabinet decision of 1 April 1947, the reclassification from surrendered enemy personnel to prisoners of war, the sea transfer of 8,570 from Venice with 17 nurses, the Home Office search for removal options, the Ministry of Agriculture's initial 4,700, the protests, the August to October 1948 release, and the December 1948 deportation decision, strike and reduction to 81.
- Post-war camps and hostels
Ukrainians in the United Kingdom: online encyclopaedia, Accessed 13 September 2026
Full entry read: accommodation in prisoner of war camps in eastern England and southern Scotland, the July 1948 counts by location, the redesignation of the camps as hostels after the release, the carry-over of Rimini choirs and theatre, and departure from hostels after the beginning of 1951.
- Historic Environment Scotland, Hallmuir Ukrainian Chapel with Memorial, LB49592
Historic Environment Scotland, Listed 2003
Live full designation text read; listing description is not a current site survey.
- Hoe de Belgische mijnindustrie een nieuw thuis aan vluchtelingen-mijnwerkers aanbood (1947-1951)
Frank Caestecker and Lieselotte Luyckx, Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire 97/4, pp. 1299–1326, 2019
The three abstracts, French, English and Dutch, and the open first page, p. 1299, were read: the total of 21,906 eastern European refugees entering the Belgian mines, recruitment in the IRO camps in occupied Germany, the promise of a free and normal life, the tension between labour recruitment and resettlement, the majority's eventual departure, the fifty thousand German prisoners as a temporary answer, the 1946 turn to Italy and the German camps, and the article's archival abbreviations. Pages 1300 to 1326 are behind the Persée preview and were not read.
- Belgium
Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Accessed 13 September 2026
Full entry read: the roughly 2,000 arrivals from 1945, the rise to 10,000 Ukrainians by 1947 under two-year contracts from the German camps, returns to Germany and departures for the United States and Canada, the fall to about 5,000 in 1955 and about 4,000 in 1977, concentration in Hainaut, Limburg and Liege, and the organisational life including the Relief Committee's 29 branches and SUM's 21 chapters.
- Oekraïense parochies OGKK in Limburg 1947–2016
Dr J. Koziej, Heilige Sophia vzw, Waterschei-Genk, 29 November 2016
Full article read: several thousand Ukrainians migrating to Belgium in 1947–1949 for mine work under the kolenslag, several thousand of them to the Limburg pits, Redemptorist pastoral care, the first congregations at Waterschei, Winterslag and Zwartberg about 1949–1950, the priest serving Genk and Zolder from 1950 to 1963 with a miner's house and a subsidy from the André Dumont mine, the deanery structure under Archbishop Buchko, the cultural house and its lessons, and the reduction of parish centres to three as people emigrated.
- The International Refugee Organisation's Resettlement Policy
Paweł Sękowski, RCIN digital repository, Accessed 13 September 2026
All fifteen pages read: the observation that dissatisfaction with resettlement conditions in Europe, especially in Belgium, sent many refugees back to the western zones of Germany and that the IRO then treated them as not yet resettled; the statement that destination countries' selection teams recruited to economic policy; and Table 2, drawn from the IRO Final Statistical Report in Archives nationales AJ 43/1257, giving 10,378 Poles resettled in Belgium, 11,882 in France and 35,780 in Great Britain.
- Receiving Europe's Displaced: Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre 1947–1953
Bruce Pennay, Bonegilla Migrant Experience, Accessed 2026
Read in full. Supplies the 1947 IRO agreement, the 170,000 total, the nationality shares taken from Egon Kunz (Ukrainians 8.5 per cent), Calwell's two-year contract language, the selection sequence, reception centre functions, the surge and the additional centres, holding centres, and the Ukrainian recollections of separation quoted here.
- Bathurst Migrant Camp 1948–1952
Bathurst Family History Group, Accessed 2026
Read for the Limekilns Road site, the May 1948 opening and April 1952 closure, the eleven blocks holding just over 6,000, the building fabric and the typical length of stay.
- Greta Migrant Camp 1949-1960
Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations, Accessed 13 September 2026
Read for the 19 August 1949 Fairsea landing of 1,096 migrants at Newcastle, the statement that this was the first draft of displaced persons landed outside a capital city, the steam train to Greta, and the Ukrainian choir organised by Roman Hrobelko during the voyage.
- The Resettlement of European Refugees in Canada (1947–1952): Lobbying, Humanitarianism, and Enlightened Self-Interest (Part 3)
Robert J. Shalka, Canadian Immigration Historical Society Bulletin no. 98, September 2021
Read in full. Based on Cabinet conclusions, Documents on Canadian External Relations and departmental annual reports. Supplies the 6 June 1947 Cabinet decision and its occupational quotas, the ten to twelve month contract, the composition of the selection teams, the X-ray and blood-test arrangements, the rejection rates, Heidelberg and Karlsruhe, the SS Beaverbrae refit, the approved bulk labour positions, the close relatives dispute and the 40 per cent direction, the admissions tables by year and nationality, and the description of the work performed.
- Canada
Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Accessed 2026
Read for the 34,000 Ukrainians arriving between 1947 and 1954, their origin in the camps of Germany and Austria, their educational profile and their settlement in the industrialised east, particularly Ontario.
- Exploring Pier 21's Immigration Quarters
Steve Schwinghamer, Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, Updated 20 July 2021
Original museum research on dormitories, detention, facilities and the 1944 reconstruction, with archival photographs.
- Displaced Persons Act of 1948, Public Law 774, 62 Stat. 1009
United States Government Publishing Office, 25 June 1948
Statute text read. Sections 2, 3, 6 and 8 supply the definition of an eligible displaced person and the 22 December 1945 and 1 January 1948 dates, the assurance requirement of suitable employment without displacing another worker and safe and sanitary housing, the 202,000 visa ceiling, the 40 per cent annexed-territories proviso, the 50 per cent quota mortgage, the 3,000 orphan visas, the 30 per cent agricultural preference and the second and third preferences, and the creation, duties and reporting requirements of the Displaced Persons Commission.
- An Act to amend the Displaced Persons Act of 1948, Public Law 555, 64 Stat. 219
United States Government Publishing Office, 16 June 1950
Statute text read for the amended eligibility date of 1 January 1949, the raised ceiling of 341,000 visas, the added categories, and the requirement that a person admitted on an assurance of employment first swear to abide by its terms.
- Statement by the President Upon Signing the Displaced Persons Act
Public Papers of the Presidents, Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, 25 June 1948
Read in full. Truman's reluctance, the legislative delays, his objection to the 22 December 1945 date and its effect on Jewish and Catholic displaced persons, the 40 per cent annexed-territories requirement, the quota mortgaging, and his description of the prior assurances of suitable employment and safe and sanitary housing as niggardly conditions.
- United States of America
Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Accessed 2026
Read for the third wave: arrivals between 1947 and 1955, approximately 85,000 Ukrainian immigrants entering under the Displaced Persons Act of 1948, the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee founded in 1944 and sponsoring some 33,000 by 1952, and the origins and education of the wave.
- Etnicidad e inmigracion durante el primer peronismo
Leonardo Senkman, EIAL, Estudios Interdisciplinarios de America Latina y el Caribe, 3 (2), pp. 5 to 38, 1992
Full article PDF read. Used for the creation and remit of the DAIE and CREI, the transfer of the immigration directorate and its renaming as Direccion Nacional de Migraciones in February 1949, the triple ideological, professional and physical selection at Rome and the Italian ports, the categories of passenger and the Dodero call permits, the Special Programmes for military and aeronautical technicians, the two Innsbruck lists of April and May 1948 with their nationality and religion breakdown, the figure of 32,172 IRO refugees to the end of 1949 with the country of origin breakdown, footnote 38 with the IRO figures for Latin America at 30 June 1948, the exclusions applied to Jewish and communist applicants, the change to individual landing permit requests from 1949, the 1948 and 1949 amnesties, and the passages on collaborators and the clandestine escape route.
- Argentina
Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, consulted 13 September 2026
Entry read. Used for the third period of Ukrainian immigration totalling about 6,000 between 1946 and 1950 from displaced persons camps in Germany and Austria, the professional profile of the arrivals, settlement in Buenos Aires, Berisso, Misiones and Chaco, the later departure of part of the group to North America, and the effect of the third immigration on Prosvita and Vidrodzhennia and their differing OUN orientations.
- O Brasil e a organização internacional para os refugiados (1946-1952)
José H. Fischel de Andrade, Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional 48(1), June 2005
Full Portuguese text read. Study based on primary sources in the Itamaraty historical archive. Used for the selection commissions and their composition, the absence of criteria and of the labour register, Neiva's priority order of national groups, the 1947 and 1948 agreements and their terms, the joint Brazil–IRO commission and its sub-delegations, the 14,016 people received between December 1948 and August 1949, the failed São Paulo–IRO agreement, the non-ratification of the IRO constitution, and the 29,000 figure reported at the closure of the Rio office.
- Brazil
Oksana Borushenko, Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (from Encyclopedia of Ukraine vol. 1, 1984), Accessed 13 September 2026
Entry read for the third wave of about 7,000 Ukrainians arriving in 1947 to 1951 from displaced persons camps in Germany and Austria, their urban settlement and later onward emigration to Canada and the United States, the distribution of Ukrainians between Paraná, São Paulo and other states, and the founding of the Sociedade Ucraniana Unificação at São Caetano do Sul in 1949.
- Roland-Kaserne
Wikipedia (German), retrieved 13 September 2026
American administration of Bremen and Bremerhaven as the supply route for United States forces; the barracks renamed Camp Grohn in May 1945; the Interzonal Embarkation Center opened 30 September 1948 with 3,500 places; IRO takeover 30 September 1950; emigrant use to mid-1951; the 307th Replacement Depot Group at Camp Grohn from December 1951 to January 1955.
- Bremerhaven, Bremen, Columbuskaje
Elke Kimmel, Deutschland Archiv, Bundeszentrale fuer politische Bildung, 1 May 2024
The Suedkurier report of 3 November 1949 that the hundred thousandth stateless refugee had emigrated to the United States at the end of October 1949; the Columbuskaje as the only overseas port in the American occupation zone, with emigrants transferring directly from train to ship; the nickname Kaje der Traenen; Jewish survivors among those departing; the 1948 currency-reform shipment landed at the quay.
- Displaced Person Transports: Cargo of Hope
American Merchant Marine at War, compiling The Mast Magazine, 1948, Accessed 13 September 2026
Conditions on board, the division of men and women, passenger work details, and the nationality breakdown of the 813 passengers on the first sailing under the Displaced Persons Act, including 17 Ukrainians.
- Giuliani e dalmati in Australia
Centro Studi sulle migrazioni Aletheia, Accessed 2026
Read for the emigration process: transfer to an IRO camp, mostly Bagnoli near Naples or Cinecittà in Rome, for selection and enrolment; the two-year contract with the Australian government to do whatever work was required; departure from Naples, Genoa or Bremerhaven; arrival at Bonegilla.
- M.V. Fairsea, 1949-1969, post World War II migrant ship
Company of Master Mariners of Australia, reproducing Museums Victoria, Accessed 13 September 2026
Full text read: build history, dimensions and tonnage, the 1949 Genoa rebuild for 1,800, the IRO contract and its ban on return passengers, the maiden voyage dates, the 1952 end of the charter, the 1955 British assisted-passage charter, the 1957 refit, the Frank Kriesl account of dormitory conditions in 1951 and the 1969 fire. Used in place of the Museums Victoria original, which refused every retrieval attempt.
- International Refugee Organisation group resettlement to Australia: Skaugum passenger lists
Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild, Accessed 13 September 2026
Voyage headers read for the arrivals of 31 May 1949, 28 July 1949, 28 September 1949, 6 January 1950, 14 July 1950 and 11 December 1950. The 6 January 1950 page carries the Anna Salen narrative and the measles report attributed to The Age of 6 January 1950, page 3, and states 1,570 passengers. Nationality tallies for the three Fremantle lists were counted from the transcriptions.
- Polish and other migrants in Wyalkatchem 1950-1970
Joseph Poprzeczny / Polish Museum and Archives in Australia, Rocznik tom V, 2012
Chapter section on Skaugum read in full: the Ostmark identity and the Steiermark and Kormoran connection, the January 1940 launch and wartime lay-up, the 1945 British prize and 1948 sale to Isak M. Skaugen, the 1949 rebuild at Kiel, tonnage and dimensions, the 1949 Melbourne and Newcastle voyages, the Anna Salen diversion to Aden, the four 1950 voyages with their ports, and the 1964 sale. Also the table of ships reaching Western Australia 1948 to 1950 with Skaugum on 6 January 1950 (1,543), 12 July 1950 (1,823) and 24 September 1950 (1,854). The chapter cites Peter Plowman for its shipping detail.
- SS Hellenic Prince 1948-1954, ex HMAS Albatross 1928-1946, Part Two
Reuben Goossens, ssMaritime, Accessed 13 September 2026
Conversion history and specifications, the voyage-by-voyage account of the IRO charters, the Kangaroo newsletter of 5 January 1951 and the Krohnje family's account of conditions, and the full text of the West Australian report of 12 May 1951.
- Bonegilla Migrant Experience Site Guide
Bonegilla Migrant Experience / Wodonga Council, July 2026
Read. Describes hundreds of people arriving each week from the Melbourne docks, trains known as red rattlers unloading passengers at the Bonegilla siding, luggage collection and the short trip to the centre, where staff aimed to serve a hot meal within an hour of arrival, and the two-year work contract signed by everyone over sixteen.
- History of the Association
Ukrainian Association of Western Australia, Accessed 13 September 2026
Read for the 11 October 1948 Kanimbla arrival of sixty Ukrainian men from Germany, the dancing group, choir and first Ukrainian concert in the state, the split into work parties for Kalgoorlie, the railways and Mundaring Weir, the later settlement at Graylands, Northam and Cunderdin, and the association's founding meetings of October 1949 and February 1950 and its incorporation on 1 September 1951.
- Displaced Persons Camp Wentorf, Mai 1945 bis Januar 1952
Wentorf im Blick, no. 84, May 2020
Local history account read for the camp's phases: repatriation under British administration and then UNRRA from 1945 to 1948, and from 1948 to 1951 an emigration camp for displaced persons administered by the IRO, with up to 12,000 people accommodated at times, a hospital, schools, three churches and a radio station.
- Displaced persons in Schleswig-Holstein
Gesellschaft für Schleswig-Holsteinische Geschichte / Karsten Dölger, Accessed September 2026
Regional historical account by Karsten Doelger. Identifies the Regional Processing Centre at Wentorf as for many the most important stage on the way overseas. Land figures read 13 September 2026: 130,255 DPs in Schleswig-Holstein on 18 July 1945, of whom 75,972 Poles, 11,986 Italians, 4,809 Yugoslavs, 4,629 Russians and 32,859 'others'; 54,247 in May 1947; 9,000 homeless foreigners still in camps on 1 July 1950; last camps cleared in spring 1962. No Ukrainian line in the 1945 breakdown.
- Ukrainians in Wentorf Resettlement Centre
Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, 1992
Stebelsky table 6, printed pages 44-46: 104 Ukrainians in December 1947 and 825 in August 1951. Columns visually inspected.
- International Refugee Organisation and Australian Government agreement
National Archives of Australia, student research portal, Agreement dated 21 July 1947; page accessed 13 September 2026
Transcript of the agreement signed at Geneva on 21 July 1947 between the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia and the Preparatory Commission of the International Refugee Organisation, read with the portal's commentary naming Ukraine among the countries from which the largest numbers of postwar IRO migrants to Australia came. Only the fact, date and place of signature are taken from the transcript.
- 'The kind of people Canada wants': Canada and the Displaced Persons, 1943-1953
Julie Frances Gilmour, University of Toronto doctoral thesis; Library and Archives Canada, 2009
Abstract and printed pages 1, 106, 143 to 144, 149 to 150 and 159 read: the labour-shortage rationale of the 1947 programme, the General Stewart's arrival at Halifax on 13 September 1947 with 831 contracted pulpwood cutters, the interzonal staging area at Diepholz, the 1948 broadcast's nationality percentages, the total of 160,367 workers and families moved to Canada between April 1947 and January 1952, the Beaverbrae's fifty-two crossings and more than 38,000 refugees, and the Red Cross information officer aboard the Samaria in October 1948.
- Activity of the international community in Europe after the Second World War within the scope of the International Refugee Organization as a model of the aid action towards refugees
Paweł Sękowski, Securitologia 1/2017, pp. 119–139, 2017
Pages 128, 134 and 135 read: the 102,430 Ukrainians who were the second most numerous national group among IRO wards when operations began in July 1947, the closing total of 1,038,750 resettled including 113,677 Ukrainians, and Table 3 giving Ukrainian resettlement by destination. The closing total differs from the 1,045,750 given at source 3 and neither source explains the difference.
Reviewed 13 September 2026.