Displaced persons departing Germany for the United States enter the gates of the former Von Tirpitz Naval Yard, Bremen, [Hannover] Germany, May 1946; courtesy the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Aviva Kempner

Refugees and Survivors of the Holocaust

At the end of World War II Europe was home to between 11 and 20 million displaced persons who had been forced from their homelands for political or religious reasons. Displaced persons could be found in Germany, Austria, and Italy. A substantial number of these were Jewish survivors of the Holocaust.

Seeking to help return Europe from the brink of disaster, the United States reluctantly agreed to accept slightly more than 200,000 displaced persons under the 1948 Displaced Persons Act.

At first, the act discriminated against Jews who had entered displaced persons camps in 1946 and 1947. But the act was amended in 1950 to allow more groups, including Jews, to emigrate to the U.S. By 1953, some 600,000 displaced persons were allowed entry, making the U.S. second only to Israel in nations receiving people who had been displaced by World War II. By 1952, about 80,000 of those admitted to the U.S. were Jews.

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