On 3 May 1945 British forces entered the city of Hamburg after overcoming the last desperate defence of the beleaguered German army in northern Germany. Hitler had already shot himself in Berlin, and the European war was all but over.
Victory brought with it enormous challenges as the Allies attempted to deal with millions of people displaced by the war – liberated prisoners, former slave workers and survivors of concentration camps. These were people who had been wrenched from their homes and incarcerated, or put to work in the factories of the Third Reich. The Allies called them Displaced Persons (DPs) and set up a network of camps to house and feed them.
‘Zoo Camp’
In Hamburg, a British Army unit called 521 Military Government Detachment was set up to handle displaced persons.
There were at least 45,000 in the city at the time of its capture, and that number was increasing. The British established a major reception camp – No. 17 Displaced Persons Assembly Centre – in the grounds of the zoological gardens, making use of temporary buildings put up by the Blohm & Voss company to house its forced labourers.
This assembly centre quickly became known as the ‘Zoo Camp’.
On arrival, the DPs were organised into groups of 50 for processing.
Their clothes were dusted with DDT powder (to control lice) and they were given registration cards to note name, nationality and place of residence.
All were then allotted a bed in one of the huts. As numbers grew, a large Hamburg air raid shelter was also used for overnight accommodation.
On 18 May 1945, a photographer with No. 5 AFPU (Army Film and Photographic Unit) visited the Zoo Camp and took a series of images documenting the care administered to the DPs.
The British authorities were keen to publicise the work being carried out there for these innocent victims of the Nazi regime:
Going Home
The Zoo Camp was intended as a temporary refuge only. After a few days at the camp, and when transport became available, the DPs were sent on to an appropriate 'National Camp' ready for repatriation to their country of origin.
Large numbers of people passed through.
British official records list 68,974 people from 26 countries in the first four weeks of operation:
1 Argentine; 2 Australian; 1,601 Belgians; 4 Bulgars; 1,006 Czechs; 102 Chinese; 139 Danes; 342 Dutch; 5 English; 26 Estonians; 7,000 French; 286 Hungarians; 1 Irish; 712 Italians; 478 Yugoslavs; 126 Latvians; 98 Lithuanian; 5 Luxembourg; 3,467 Poles; 67 Romanians; 33,043 Russians; 420 Norwegians; 3 Spanish; 1 Swiss; 8 Turks; 1 American.
However, while many DPs were quickly repatriated, not all could or wanted to go home. People from countries in eastern Europe taken over by the Soviet Union, such as Poland and the Baltic states, feared persecution and imprisonment. In fact, the Soviets tried to force the Western Allies to hand them over.
Many DPs hoped to make new homes in the west. Some were simply too ill or frail to travel. It was a Europe-wide problem.
In 1947, the International Refugee Organisation replaced UNRAA as the organisation overseeing the effort to care for and repatriate the DPs.
As a result, DP camps throughout the Allied areas of control found themselves having to look after thousands of people for much longer than expected. As the official British record notes: ‘In addition there are large static camps established for ‘stateless’ persons or persons unwilling to return to their own countries.
The problem of the Poles and the Baltic peoples is a serious one..’ The issue was not fully resolved until migration to the US, Canada, Britain and Australia accelerated in the late 1940s as immigration laws in those countries were relaxed. In 1948-49 there was an exodus of DPs keen to make new lives for themselves.
