Evening star., 1944-09-03

one OF the most complex problems to
be faced by the Allies in restoring
Europe to order after the war will be
the repatriation of some 100000
persons who have been removed from
their homes as the result of various
causes. It. is a job to which the military
high commands of the United Nations
rs we'll rs the United Nations Relief
and Rehabilitation Administration are
now giving sober study.
After the World War numerous shifts
IN population were made to readjust
nationalities by the new map drawn up
by the statesmen at Versailles. But that
task was insignificant compared to the
present one. Then it was a matter
merely of arranging the transportation
OF people from one area to another
nearby because Of newly drawn border.
Now there is problem of reassembling
long divided families, many of whom
have no knowledge of where their
relatives are located.
The problem results primarily from
Germany's policy Of using the slave
labor" Of conquered states for their own
war industries, although many of the
2o,0o0.0oo cited are people who have
been forced to leave bombed out homes
and battle areas to seek safety elsewhere.
The latter category, Of course, are the
concern OF their own national govern.
ments. But it is estimated by UNRRA
omcials that there are between 1000 900
and 100000 Europeans who have been
forcibly transplanted by the Axis powers
and whose repatriation is an interna-
tional task.
Full Cooperation Needed.
A recent report Of the United Nations
Information Once which has made a
study Of the repatriation problem de-
clares:
The Germans have 30 thoroughly
tangled together the peoples OF the
occupied nations that only full postwar
cooperation by the United Nations can
hope to sort them out and reunite broken
families"
After estimating the number of
Europeans who must be repatriated at
more than 100000, the report adds:
THE human misery and suffering
contained in these figures is hard to
appreciate. Families have been purposely
separated, homes destroyed, relatives
taken away by ruthless power"
Crux of the United Nations problem
is the repatriation of Europen peoples
taken to the Reich itself to slave in war
plants. The report cited above estimates
these as including 100000 Poles, and
10000 Russians from the Ukraine alone
(UNRRA places the total of Russians
at 100000, 100000 Czechoslovaks.
$4,000 Dutch, 100000 Yugoslavs, 100000
Norwegians and several millions of other
assorted nationaities Sc
The report on how these people were
recruited and the conditions under
which they have lived in Germany
reads like pages from Dantes Inferno"
and presents facts which are almost
incomprehensible to the American mind.
Every device of deceit and brutality
known to the Nazi brain has been used
to bring these people to Germany. In
France, TOR example, workers were
recruited on the promise that members
OF their families who were prisoners of
war would be released
These promises were not kept, the
report says. At first the Germans
returned to France one sick or aged
prisoner for every three workers. Later
none were returned, and many prisoners
were forced into German factories.
In Norway workers were recruited by
the promise OF high wages which, 1t was
determined later, were paid from funds
stolen from the Bank Of Norway. In
Western European countries the Nazis
worked TO recruit labor by fake and
fraud. In Eastern Europe, whose people
were regarded as natural slaves of the
"Herrenvolk," the German methods
were much more direct. They merely
loaded the people into cattle cars and
shipped them to the Reich.
The reports description of German
methods Of conscripting labor in Poland