Displaced Persons Camp Conditions

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Displaced Persons Camp Conditions Following WWII, many Jews uprooted by the war were placed in assembly centers in Austria, Italy, and Germany, known as DP (Displaced Persons) camps. Unfortunately, these refugees were still housed in terrible conditions and kept within barbed wire fences. According to Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, “[in these camps], Jews were still subsisting on inadequate amounts of food and still suffering from shortages of clothing, medicine and supplies. In Bergen-Belsen, an infamous concentration camp that was transformed into a displaced persons camp, there were over 23,000 deaths within three months after liberation.” In 1945, President Harry S. Truman requested that someone from the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees inspect and report the conditions of the DP camps. Earl G. Harrison, a recently appointed US delegate, performed the task, touring camps for 3 weeks. Harrison was baffled by his findings. He sent them in a report to Truman. These are his words: …show more content…
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