Between Relief and Politics

Refugee Humanitarianism in Occupied Germany 1945—1946

Bibliographic Data

ID10076358
AuthorsG Daniel Cohen (Rice University, Houston, Texas, corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume43
Issue3
Pages437-449
Publication date2008-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-0094 • E-ISSN: 1461-7250
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0022009408091834
OpenAlexW2151929217
LanguageEN
Citations received21

In this article, I argue that international relief operations carried out between 1943 and 1947 under the umbrella of UNRRA went beyond their stated goal of civilian 'rehabilitation': relief efforts also contributed to the rise of a new internationalism in the aftermath of the second world war. I start my discussion with a comparison between relief operations in Europe after the first and second world wars. In contrast to 1918, humanitarian efforts in 1945 pertained to displaced persons and refugees found outside their countries of origin: an unprecedented instance of mass displacement on the European continent. Although narrowly framed in 1943 in terms of 'Relief and Rehabilitation', Western humanitarianism was tied to the broader issues of forced migration and genocide. In a second section I examine how relief operations can be seen as an illustration of the Anglo-Saxon 'human rights talk' during the wartime period. UNRRA and private welfare organizations fed, housed and clothed refugees at a time when Roosevelt's call for 'freedom from want' was translated into a new set of basic human rights. Western humanitarianism was implementing on the ground some of the general principles proclaimed by the 'human rights revolution' of the 1940s. In a third section I focus on some of the political aspects of relief operations. I discuss the place of Jewish refugees in humanitarian politics and argue that relief operations did much to recognize Jewish Holocaust survivors as a specific national entity, with important consequences for their access to self-determination. I also show how relief efforts rapidly evolved into a commitment to protect political asylum: in this way, postwar humanitarianism was part and parcel of the emergence of the 'West' in the context of the Cold War

Displaced person · Genocide · Human rights · Humanitarian aid · Internally displaced person · Judaism · Political science · Politics · Poor relief · Poverty · Refugee · Relief Work · Sociology · The Holocaust · World War II · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · History · Law · Medicine · North African History and Literature

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