Displaced persons camp A displaced persons camp or DP camp is a temporary facility for displaced person s coerced into forced migration . The term is mainly used for camps established after World War II in West Germany and in Austria , as well as in the United Kingdom , primarily for refugees from Eastern Europe and for the former inmates of the Nazi German concentration camps . Even two years after the end of World War II in Europe , some 850 , 000 people still lived in DP camps across Western Europe , among them Armenians , Poles , Latvians , Lithuanians , Estonians , Yugoslavs , Greeks , Ukrainians and Czechoslovaks . In recent times , camps have existed in many parts of the world for groups of displaced persons including for refugees in the Darfur region of Sudan , and for Palestinians in Lebanon and Jordan , as well as for Afghan refugees in Pakistan . Such camps are now generally known as refugee camp s . DP camps following World War II . Background . Combat operations , ethnic cleansing , genocide , and general fear resulted in millions of people being uprooted from their original homes in the course of World War II . Between 11 million and 20 million people were displaced according to estimates . The majority were inmates of Nazi concentration camp s , Labor camp s and prisoner - of - war camp s that were freed by the Allied armies . In portions of Eastern Europe , both civilians and military personnel fled their home countries in fear of advancing Soviet armies , who were preceded by widespread reports of mass rape , pillaging , looting , and murder . As the war ended , these people found themselves in unfamiliar places facing an uncertain future . Allied military and civilian authorities faced considerable challenges in resolving the problem of displaced persons . Since the reasons for displacement varied considerably , the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force classified individuals into a number of categories : evacuees , war or political refugees , political prisoners , forced or voluntary workers , Organisation Todt workers , former forces under German command , deportees , intruded persons , extruded persons , civilian internees , ex - prisoners of war , and stateless persons . In addition , the origins of these people varied considerably . They came from every country that had been invaded and / or occupied by German forces . Although the situation of many of the DPs could be resolved by simply moving them to their original homes , this could not be done , for example , where borders changed to place the location in a new country . Additionally , many could not return home for fear of political persecution or retribution for perceived ( or actual ) collaboration with Axis powers . Establishing a system for resolving displacement . The original plan for those displaced as a result of World War II was to repatriate them to their countries of origin as quickly as possible . Depending on sectors occupied in Austria and Germany , American , French , British , or Soviet forces tended to the immediate needs of the refugees and set in motion plans for repatriation . ( Estimates for displaced persons do not typically include several million ethnic Germans in Europe ( Poland , the Netherlands etc . ) who were expelled and repatriated in Germany . See Flight and expulsion of Germans ( 1944 – 1950 ) . ) In the months and sometimes years following the end of the war , displaced persons typically reported to military personnel who attended to their immediate needs . Nearly all of them were malnourished , a great number were ill , and some were dying . Shelter was often improvised , and there were many instances of military personnel sharing from their own supplies of food , medicine , clothing , etc . , to help the refugees . In a matter of weeks , there was a more or less formalized infrastructure for taking in , registering , treating , classifying , sorting , and transporting displaced persons . Initially , military missions of the various Allied nations attached to the British , French and U . S . army commands assisted in the sorting and classifying the DPs of their own nationality . For example , during 1945 and 1946 there were several dozen Polish liaison officers attached to individual occupation army units . On October 1 , 1945 , the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration ( UNRRA ) , which had already been running many of the camps , took responsibility for the administration of displaced persons in Europe , though military authorities continued to play a role for several years to come , in providing transportation , supplies and security . Those who were easily classified and were willing to be repatriated were rapidly sent back to their country of origin . Already by the end of 1945 , over six million refugees were repatriated by the military forces and UNRRA . British authorities made June 30 , 1946 the cutoff for accepting further displaced persons in their sector of occupation , and in the American sector set it at August 1 , with the exception of those persecuted for race or religion , or who entered the zone in " an organized manner . " A definitive end to further additions also in the American sector was set on April 21 , 1947 . It is not known how many displaced persons rejected by authorities were left to survive on the German economy . Camps . Displaced persons made themselves known in various ways and under widely differing circumstances in the spring of 1945 . Allied forces took them into their care by improvising shelter wherever it could be found . Accommodations primarily included former military barracks , but also included summer camps for children , airports , hotels , castles , hospitals , private homes , and even partly destroyed structures . Although there were continuous efforts to sort and consolidate populations , there were hundreds of DP facilities in Germany , Austria , Italy , and other European countries by the end of 1945 . One camp was even set up in Guanajuato in Mexico . The UNRRA moved quickly to field teams to take over administration of the camps from the military forces . A number of DP camps became more or less permanent homes for these individuals . Conditions were varied and sometimes harsh . Rations were restricted , frequently curfews were imposed . Camps were shut down as refugees found new homes and there was continuous consolidation of remaining refugees into fewer camps . By 1952 , all but two DP camps were closed . The last two DP camps , Föhrenwald closed in 1957 and Wels in 1959 . The needs of displaced persons . All displaced persons had to varying degrees experienced hardship , including a constant fear for their lives , neglect , abuse , torture , and often attempted murder . The immediate concern was to provide shelter , nutrition and basic health care . Most DPs had subsisted on diets of far less than 1 , 500 calories a day . Sanitary conditions had been improvised at best , and there had been minimal medical care . As a result , they suffered from malnutrition , a variety of diseases , and were often unclean , lice - ridden , and prone to illness . In addition , most of the refugees suffered from psychological difficulties . They were often distrustful and apprehensive around authorities , and many were depressed and traumatized . Displaced persons were anxious to be reunited with families they had been separated from in the course of the war . Improvised efforts to identify survivors were refined to become formalized through the UNRRA ' s Central Tracking Bureau and facilities of the International Red Cross . The organization collected over one million names in the course of the DP era and eventually became the International Tracing Service . Displaced persons often moved from camp to camp , looking for family , countrymen , or better food , accommodations , etc . Over time , ethnic and religious groups concentrated in certain camps . Camp residents quickly set up churches , synagogues , newspapers , sports events , schools , and even universities . Among these were the Technical University in Esslingen set up by the Polish Mission , the Free Ukrainian University , the Ukrainian Technical - Agricultural Institute of Prodebrady , the Baltic University and the short - lived UNRRA University . German universities were required to accept a quota of DP students . A number of charitable organizations provided significant humanitarian relief and services among displaced persons - these include the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee , American Friends Service Committee , British Friends Relief Service , the Lutheran World Federation , Catholic Charities , several national Red Cross organizations , Polish American Congress and Ukrainian American Relief Committee . The difficulties of repatriation . Over one million refugees could not be repatriated to their original countries and were left homeless as a result of fear of persecution . These included : The agreement reached at the Yalta Conference required in principle that all citizens of the allied powers be repatriated to their home country . The Soviet Union insisted that refugees in the American , British , and French sectors who were or at some point had been Soviet citizens be sent back to the Soviet Union . A large number of refugees resisted this , fearing that their fleeing Soviet rule had condemned them as traitors . American , British , and French military officials , as well as UNRRA officials , reluctantly complied with this directive , and a number of Soviet citizens were repatriated . Many of these met with the hardship they feared , including death and confinement in the Gulags . There were also cases of kidnapping and coercion to return these refugees . Many avoided such repatriation by misrepresenting their origins , fleeing , or simply resisting . Rejecting claimed Soviet sovereignty over the Baltic states , allied officials also refused to repatriate Lithuanian , Estonian , and Latvian refugees against their will . Similarly , a large number of refugees who were repatriated to Yugoslavia were subjected to summary executions and torture . A large number of Poles , who later agreed to be repatriated , did in fact suffer arrest and some were executed , particularly those that had served in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 , or in the Polish Resistance against the Nazis . Jewish survivors of the death camps and various work camps similarly refused to return to their countries of origin , starting instead an extensive underground movement to migrate to the British Mandate of Palestine . - see Berihah . Resettlement of DPs . Once it became obvious that repatriation plans left a large number of DPs who needed new homes , it took time for countries to commit to accepting refugees . Existing refugee quotas were completely inadequate , and by the fall of 1946 , it was not clear whether the remaining DPs would ever find a home . Between 1947 and 1953 , the vast majority of the " non - repatriables " would find new homes around the world , particularly among these countries : By 1953 , over 250 , 000 refugees were still in Europe , most of them old , infirm , crippled , or otherwise disabled . Some found resolution through suicide . Some European countries accepted these refugees on a humanitarian basis . Norway accepted 200 refugees who were blind or had tuberculosis , and Sweden also accepted a limited number . In the end most of them were accepted by Germany and Austria for their care and ultimately full resettlement as citizens .