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national archives and records administration
To the west, twenty million dislocated Europeans—both military and civilian— were trying to get back to their homes. Most could make the journey overland. More complicated were the more than one million displaced persons (DPs), who feared persecution in their home countries for religious or political reasons and could never return. They found their way into camps operated by the International Refugee Organization (IRO), an agency of the newly created UN, supported by American dollars. Many DPs wanted to resettle in nations like Canada and Australia, which were likewise eager to receive them. The US was less welcoming, fearing that political subversives might enter the country posing as refugees. Congress vigorously debated the issue until a committee visited the camps and found that “these people … are democratic and profoundly interested in settled lives in an individual economy. They are mostly young and skilled. Practically all of them want to work.” The greatest impediment was a global shortage of blue-water shipping to move the DPs across the oceans to new homes, so nations like Australia, which wanted 4,000 migrants in 1947, received only 480. Congress resolved the issue in June 1948 when it passed the Displaced Persons Act. This law allowed 205,000 DPs and 17,000 orphans to enter the country, provided they had a sponsor and entered the country aboard a US-flagged ship. Furthermore, the US government made available a fleet of ten ships to move the DPs to other nations. Five US Army troop transports (USATs) could carry an average of 875 persons each, while the five Maritime Commission ships could accommodate 550 persons. Ultimately twenty USATs were in operation for the IRO, most of them of the General Squier class, manned by civilian merchant mariners. The first USAT carrying DPs to reach the United States was the General W. M. Black, described as a “somewhat shopwornlooking ship with a rusty grey hull and flecks of dirt on its white superstructure.” It departed Bremerhaven on 21 October 1948, with 813 DPs on board. The ship arrived to a tumultuous welcome in New York Harbor on 30 October. The DPs chose a representative among them to reply to the
Displaced persons line the decks of USAT General W. M. Black as it departs Bremerhaven. Dubbed the “Ship to Freedom” by its passengers, the 522-foot transport ship brought the first DPs to the US under the provisions of the newly enacted Displaced Persons Act. welcome with a touching speech. With tears in his eyes and a quavering voice, he said: “Today we are liberated from every misery of existence in Europe and we thank you very much. We are born today the second time in our lives to a new life of freedom and a new life of democracy. We thank you very much. Thank you.” Most of the 318 passengers bound for the New York area found relatives on the pier ready to take care of them, but, significantly, the first person to disembark was a sixteen-year-old orphan. On their ocean voyage to the US, the DPs found that while seasickness was a constant peril, they enjoyed American candy bars, Coca-Colas, oranges (which many had never tasted before), and nightly movies. The ships were far from glamorous, but the passengers were generally pleased with their accommodations in their delight to start a new life. American-flagged ships moved more than 450,000 refugees around the world to settle in new homes. The United States took in the most DPs. Many disembarked at Boston and New York, with smaller numbers at New Orleans and San Francisco. Australia and Canada
followed in popularity, while some went to South America. More than half were Catholic, but there were also many Jews and Protestants in the group. Some were “stateless” persons who had no country to identify with anymore. Among these were White Russians who had fled during the Russian Civil War and Spanish Republicans fleeing the Franco dictatorship. The American government contributed money and ships to the IRO resettlement program to the end of 1951. Most of the DPs left European ports, typically from Bremerhaven, Germany, if bound for North America, and various Italian ports if resettling in South America or Australia. Less well-known were the activities of the IRO in East Asia, particularly Shanghai. In the 1920s and 1930s, this Chinese port city became a haven for some 14,000 refugees, including White Russians and Jews. When Communist forces threatened to overrun Shanghai, the IRO, in conjunction with the American government, moved rapidly to evacuate them and used a temporary camp in the Philippines to shelter them before most of them sailed for San Francisco. SEA HISTORY 177, WINTER 2021–22