Description
Object description
'Counter-Offensive: A historic record of overseas relief work 1945 – 1950' (313pp ts), an unpublished account of the activities of the Salvation Army relief teams in Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War, documenting the origins and early planning of British voluntary societies relief work, with particular reference to the Salvation Army's role, while the war was still in progress (1942 onwards), the departure of its first Relief Service team (RS 101) from Britain to the continent in February 1945 and its work with the civilian population in Belgium and the Netherlands, mainly effecting the treatment of widespread scabies, the subsequent despatch of teams RS 111 and 112 to meet the relief needs in the Netherlands in particular, in cooperation with Dutch Salvation Army comrades, the teams' move to Germany later in 1945 to assist with the care of 'Displaced Persons', initially in Polish DP camps in the Hamburg area before being deployed to other parts of northern and western Germany where there was a need for DP work, being joined before the end of 1945 by newly formed relief teams from the UK, with much detail on conditions in the various camps and the RS teams' efforts to improve them, the subsequent shift of focus from DP relief work to the assistance of the German population in the areas most affected by the devastation of war and of the Germans displaced westwards from the territories occupied by the Soviets, for which several new RS teams were raised, the issues created in this regard by the 'non-fraternisation' directives, detailed reports on the situation in Hamburg (RS 128) with particular reference to the plight of young children and other most vulnerable people, accounts of the situation in Kiel (RS 129), Essen (RS 144), Berlin (RS 153, headed from early 1946 by the author), and Herne in the Ruhr area (RS 142), the repatriation from the Soviet zone (notably Czechoslovakia) of German children separated from their parents as a result of the war, a visit in April 1946 by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery to the relief teams HQ at Vlotho, the problem of dislocated 'post-Nazi youth' in the British zone and the attempts by RS team youth-workers to tackle it, including the establishment of rehabilitation hostels and of the 'Seehof Youth Colony' near Malente in Schleswig-Holstein, a project for orphaned and unwanted babies and children at Leese, Salvation Army work in the major refugee transit camp at Friedland (Lower Saxony) and in Czechoslovakia and Austria, concluding with a detailed account of the German Salvation Army ('Heilsarmee') under the Nazi regime and its British-assisted rebirth in the postwar period.
Content description
'Counter-Offensive: A historic record of overseas relief work 1945 – 1950' (313pp ts), an unpublished account of the activities of the Salvation Army relief teams in Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War, documenting the origins and early planning of British voluntary societies relief work, with particular reference to the Salvation Army's role, while the war was still in progress (1942 onwards), the departure of its first Relief Service team (RS 101) from Britain to the continent in February 1945 and its work with the civilian population in Belgium and the Netherlands, mainly effecting the treatment of widespread scabies, the subsequent despatch of teams RS 111 and 112 to meet the relief needs in the Netherlands in particular, in cooperation with Dutch Salvation Army comrades, the teams' move to Germany later in 1945 to assist with the care of 'Displaced Persons', initially in Polish DP camps in the Hamburg area before being deployed to other parts of northern and western Germany where there was a need for DP work, being joined before the end of 1945 by newly formed relief teams from the UK, with much detail on conditions in the various camps and the RS teams' efforts to improve them, the subsequent shift of focus from DP relief work to the assistance of the German population in the areas most affected by the devastation of war and of the Germans displaced westwards from the territories occupied by the Soviets, for which several new RS teams were raised, the issues created in this regard by the 'non-fraternisation' directives, detailed reports on the situation in Hamburg (RS 128) with particular reference to the plight of young children and other most vulnerable people, accounts of the situation in Kiel (RS 129), Essen (RS 144), Berlin (RS 153, headed from early 1946 by the author), and Herne in the Ruhr area (RS 142), the repatriation from the Soviet zone (notably Czechoslovakia) of German children separated from their parents as a result of the war, a visit in April 1946 by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery to the relief teams HQ at Vlotho, the problem of dislocated 'post-Nazi youth' in the British zone and the attempts by RS team youth-workers to tackle it, including the establishment of rehabilitation hostels and of the 'Seehof Youth Colony' near Malente in Schleswig-Holstein, a project for orphaned and unwanted babies and children at Leese, Salvation Army work in the major refugee transit camp at Friedland (Lower Saxony) and in Czechoslovakia and Austria, concluding with a detailed account of the German Salvation Army ('Heilsarmee') under the Nazi regime and its British-assisted rebirth in the postwar period.
History note
Cataloguer SWW