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\nWhy is it important to understand the U.S. Immigration policies of the time?<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n
1. Our project focuses on the immigration and resettlement of DPs to the U.S., more specifically Minnesota.<\/p>\n
2. The U.S. was one of the major countries after WWII that accepted large numbers of displaced persons.<\/p>\n
3. These policies determined how the voluntary agencies would operate, the number of DPs admitted, and the resettlement process which they had to go through.<\/p>\n
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Click on the buttons for quick navigation.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_button button_url=”#General%20Background” button_text=”General Background” _builder_version=”4.22.2″ _module_preset=”default” custom_button=”on” button_text_color=”#1C2B5E” button_bg_color=”RGBA(255,255,255,0)” button_border_width=”0px” button_border_radius=”33px” button_icon=”||divi||400″ button_icon_placement=”left” button_on_hover=”off” box_shadow_style=”preset1″ global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_button][et_pb_button button_url=”#Truman%20Directive” button_text=”Truman Directive” _builder_version=”4.22.2″ _module_preset=”default” custom_button=”on” button_text_color=”#1C2B5E” button_bg_color=”RGBA(255,255,255,0)” button_border_width=”0px” button_border_radius=”33px” button_icon=”||divi||400″ button_icon_placement=”left” button_on_hover=”off” box_shadow_style=”preset1″ global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_button][et_pb_button button_url=”#1948″ button_text=”The 1948 DP Act” _builder_version=”4.22.2″ _module_preset=”default” custom_button=”on” button_text_color=”#1C2B5E” button_bg_color=”RGBA(255,255,255,0)” button_border_width=”0px” button_border_radius=”33px” button_icon=”||divi||400″ button_icon_placement=”left” button_on_hover=”off” box_shadow_style=”preset1″ global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_button][et_pb_button button_url=”#Amendments” button_text=”Amendments of the DP Act” _builder_version=”4.22.2″ _module_preset=”default” custom_button=”on” button_text_color=”#1C2B5E” button_bg_color=”RGBA(255,255,255,0)” button_border_width=”0px” button_border_radius=”33px” button_icon=”||divi||400″ button_icon_placement=”left” button_on_hover=”off” box_shadow_style=”preset1″ global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_button][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ _builder_version=”4.22.2″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.21.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text quote_border_color=”#bf5e5e” module_id=”General Background” _builder_version=”4.25.1″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”21px” text_line_height=”1.9em” header_font=”Cormorant||||||||” header_font_size=”50px” header_2_font=”Cormorant|700|||||||” header_2_text_color=”#000000″ header_2_font_size=”30px” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
General Background<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n
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The Marshall Plan<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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\nAfter WWII, the European economy, as well as the cities destroyed in the war, needed to be rebuilt. In response, the Secretary of State, George Marshall, proposed that <\/span>the United States provide economic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of postwar Europe.<\/span> This proposal was then signed by President Truman <\/span>on April 3, 1948<\/span>, and became known as the Marshall Plan. However, the attention to the DP cause came rather late, even though part of the funds from the Marshall Plan did go into DP relief. 1<\/span><\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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Harrison Report<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\nHowever, the Truman administration was more sympathetic than Congress to the DP cause. Out of humanitarian impulse, President Truman issued several statements on behalf of DPs and posed measures to alleviate the situation. One of these measures was when Truman sent Earl G. Harrison to investigate the livelihoods of displaced persons in Germany, soon uncovering the harsh environments they were in. The result of this investigation was the Harrison Report. 2<\/sup><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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Response<\/h3>\n
In the early days, there was huge opposition against the newcomers out of fears of immigrants taking jobs, widespread anti-Semitism, and anxieties over communism. This was common both in Congress and among the citizens.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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Truman Directive<\/p>\n
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\nOn Dec.22, 1945, President Truman issued the Truman Directive, requiring that quotas be specific to people considered displaced persons.<\/strong> The directive largely accelerated the immigration process and permitted voluntary agencies (VAs) to provide a \u201ccorporate affidavit.\u201d<\/span> This means the VAs should guarantee that its clients would not be a public charge. The VAs interviewed and selected the DPs they wanted to sponsor. From here, they helped their sponsored persons to prepare for immigration. The first two ships that arrived in NY in May 1946 under the Truman Directive carried mostly Jewish refugees. 3<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
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President Truman had such strong pro-refugee sentiments that he repeated his intention to ask the Congress to adopt DP legislation on Oct.4, 1946. However, a lot of people, out of patriotic and restrictionist positions, were opposing this liberal immigration policy. 4<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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Jewish Response: <\/strong>The American Jewish Committee (AJC) worked hard for Jewish DP immigration along with other Jewish and Hebrew organizations in the U.S.. Their aim was to allow all of the 100,000 Jewish DPs to enter the U.S.. However, only 20-25% of the total DPs in Germany and Austria were Jewish. 5 <\/sup> <\/a><\/span> Thus, they called upon other religious groups. Eventually, on December 20, 1946, 32 prominent religious leaders organized a meeting with Earl G. Harrison as the chair to discuss the DP issue.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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Calling for Admission<\/h2>\n
\nBills like The Stratton Bill (H.R. 2910) introduced on April 1, 1947 called for the admission of 400,000 DPs. Even though there continued to be strong resistance in the Congress, religious organizations started making efforts to urge their members to call for allowance of a fair share of the DPs into the U.S., realizing displaced persons shared their religions. Even Pope Pius XII was involved in suggesting the U.S. to adopt a more liberal immigration policy.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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\nAs religious organizations were enacting to support the Stratton Bill, President Truman, on July 7, 1947, also issued a statement to support. The Department of State immediately followed up and urged the Congress to act. Hearings of the Stratton Bill soon began. The Citizens Committee on DP (CCDP) was a noteworthy organization in the push to change public opinion on displaced persons as well as sentiments regarding their resettlement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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The 1948 DP Act<\/span><\/h1>\n
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Background<\/p>\n
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The battle for DPs continued against the restrictionists in the Congress with more and more Bills introduced. Finally, the <\/span>Wiley-Revercomb DP Bill<\/b>\u00a0was carried out and approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 2, 1948. It allowed 50,000 DPs to be admitted every year for 2 years and set the eligibility only to those who arrived at the DP camps before Dec. 22, 1945.<\/strong> Meanwhile, it also posed a strata that 50% of the visas should be granted to agricultural workers while the other half to those whose countries had been annexed by Soviets<\/em> (the Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians, and Poles) after strict screening of the DPs and with assurances.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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As the adoption of the bill, the Jews were not mainly the focus anymore and the cut-off date limited a lot of Jewsish entry, creating conflicts between interests of religious organizations and many calls for amendments from Jewish Americans. 6 <\/sup> <\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
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Two amendments passed increased the number of DPs allowed into the US to 200,000 over the two years and changed the percentage of the DP strata to 30% agricultural workers and 40% Baltic people. In addition, it also removed the cut-off date of Dec. 22nd, 1945.<\/em> The amended bill was known as the <\/span>DP Act of 1948 <\/b>and was signed by President Truman on June 25, 1948. This bill also established the <\/span>DP Commission<\/b>, which recruited some UNRRA and IRO personnel, supervised the resettlement program, and cooperated with the voluntary agencies. <\/span>Volksdeutsche<\/b> (Ethnic Germans, or the German Expellees) were included under this bill with at least 50% of German\/Austrian acceptances required to be Ethnic Germans. 7 <\/sup> <\/a><\/span><\/span> This resulted in the admission of 27,377 Ethnic Germans.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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