Nazism and Fascism have been two of the three major totalitarianisms in history and have provoked important migrations, often forced, other times voluntary.
During the Nazi period, about 85,000 Jews approached the United States but the number of immigrants was far fewer than those seeking asylum. Towards the end of 1938, 125,000 people lined up outside American consulates hoping to obtain one of the visas granted by immigration quotas but in May-June 1939, the United States refused to take in more than 900 Jewish refugees sailed from Hamburg aboard the St. Louis. After being denied permission to land in the United States, the ship was forced to return to Europe and the governments of Great Britain, France, Holland and Belgium agreed to welcome some of the passengers as refugees. In the end, more than 28% of St Louis passengers were victims of the holocaust. Given the reduction in the number of nations willing to host them, thousands of thousands of German, Austrian and Polish Jews emigrated to Shanghai, the only destination that did not require a visa. The Shanghai International Colony, effectively under Japanese control, welcomed 17,000 Jews.
Moving forward in time, after the end of the Second World War, in May 1945, there were more than 10 million refugees of various nationalities in the territories of Germany, Austria and Italy. This huge and heterogeneous mass of people on the move, mostly from Central and Eastern Europe, was made up of former prisoners of war camps, runaway civilians, former labor inmates and collaborators of the Nazis. Their condition was indicated by the Allies with the formula Displaced Persons, a technical term to define that they were outside the borders of their countries of origin, people ” displaced “had to be dealt with by the community and they had to be international” re-located “.
With respect to the question of origin, the data revealed that Poland was the country of origin of 72% of the refugees, while the remaining 28% was divided as follows: 9% came from Romania, 8% from Czechoslovakia, 5% from Hungary, 3% from Lithuania and another 3% from other countries.
To the question “Do you want to return to your home country?”, there was only one positive answer among all the interviewees. The reasons for the clear refusal of a possible return to the old houses were various, but, especially among refugees from Poland and Lithuania, psychological resistance to the idea of living among people who had collaborated in the massacre of Jews or in any other places prevailed. Other reasons given were the cruel robbery of Jewish property, the difficulties in starting new economic activities and the fear of reprisals due to internal political struggles.
Also, for the second question “where do you want to emigrate and for what reason?”, the answer was almost unanimous: 98% of the refugees declared Palestine as their coveted destination and the few remaining had chosen other destinations only to rejoin their relatives.
Having to leave your country, home and family as a result of being persecuted should never be allowed. Although almost 80 years have passed since the Nazi and Fascist period, some people still believe that there are superior races, carriers of civilization, and inferior races, not even having the right to live in their own country.
Don’t you think it’s crazy after what history has taught us?
