Key Idea: The Second World War ended in May 1945, but roughly 40 million Europeans were displaced — with no home, no papers, or no safe place to return to. This topic asks WHY that happened, HOW the world responded, and HOW displacement felt different depending on who you were.
This topic has three sub-topics, and they build on each other: first the causes of displacement (4.1.1), then the response to it (4.1.2), then the different groups' experiences within that crisis (4.1.3). Keep all three in your head together — a good Paper 1 answer usually pulls from more than one.
How this topic is tested — Paper 1
Paper 1 gives you 2-4 sources (photos, reports, extracts, testimony) on this topic and asks three fixed questions worth 24 marks total. The skill being tested is NOT memorising facts — it's using facts to interrogate sources.
Q1 [6 marks] — Content of TWO sources: name a specific detail from each source and link it to a cause, actor, or group you've studied. Q2 [6 marks] — Context of ONE source: who made it, when, and why — and what that means for how reliable or useful it is. Q3 [12 marks] — Perspectives across ALL the sources: group sources by whose viewpoint they show, then explain where they agree, where they clash, and why (origin and purpose usually explain the difference).
Must-know facts — one row per sub-topic
| Sub-topic | Core question | Must-know facts |
|---|---|---|
| 4.1.1 — Conditions for displacement | What caused mass displacement? | ~40 million displaced by 1945. Three overlapping causes: (1) combat + Allied victory — ~8 million forced labourers taken to Germany, then liberated with nowhere to go; (2) persecution/fear — Holocaust survivors feared returning, ~12 million ethnic Germans expelled from Eastern Europe, others feared Soviet rule; (3) economic collapse — bombed cities (Berlin, Warsaw, Dresden), failed 1945–46 harvest. |
| 4.1.2 — National and international response | How did the world respond? | UNRRA (founded 1943) ran DP camps and repatriated ~6 million DPs by late 1945. Over 1 million refused repatriation (mostly Eastern Europeans fearing Soviet rule). UNRRA wound down in 1947; the IRO (1947–52) took over, organising emigration/resettlement instead. The International Red Cross (neutral NGO) ran a family-tracing service alongside both. |
| 4.1.3 — Experiences of different groups | How did displacement differ by group? | ~1 million DPs still in camps by 1947. Jewish survivors refused to return to Poland after the Kielce pogrom (July 1946, 42 killed) and sought Palestine/USA instead. Roma survivors (Porajmos genocide) were rarely even recorded by relief agencies. German POWs held by the USSR were not released until 1955–56. Soviet citizens who'd fought for Germany (e.g. Vlasov's ROA) were forcibly handed back to the USSR under the 1945 Yalta agreement — 'Operation Keelhaul' — facing execution or the Gulag. |
- Displaced person (DP) — someone forced from home by war or persecution who cannot yet return or resettle.
- DP camp — temporary Allied/UN-run housing for DPs, sometimes reusing former camp sites.
- Repatriation — returning DPs to their home country (UNRRA's priority, 1945–46).
- Emigration/resettlement — permanent move to a new country when home was unsafe or gone (IRO's role from 1947).
- Kielce pogrom (1946) — attack on Jewish survivors in Poland; a key reason Jews refused repatriation.
- Operation Keelhaul — forced Allied handover of Soviet nationals (including ex-German-command soldiers) to the USSR under Yalta.
Modelled question 1 — Q1 content [6 marks]
Using Sources A and B, explain how the content of these sources can be used to answer the question: What were the conditions that led to mass displacement in post-war Europe?
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Modelled question 2 — Q3 perspectives [12 marks]
Examine how the perspectives of the sources can be used to answer the question: How was displacement experienced by different groups?
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Important: Writing 'this source shows refugees on a road' earns almost nothing. You must name what the detail proves — which condition, which group's experience, which actor's viewpoint. Always finish the sentence with 'this shows that...' linked to the actual inquiry question.
How many Europeans were displaced by 1945? Around 40 million across the whole continent, with 7-11 million DPs in Allied-occupied Germany, Austria and Italy alone.
Why did UNRRA hand over to the IRO in 1947? UNRRA's mandate was repatriation-first, but over a million DPs refused to go home (fearing Soviet rule) — a problem UNRRA's model couldn't solve. The IRO (1947-52) was created specifically to organise resettlement abroad instead.
What was the Kielce pogrom and why does it matter? A July 1946 attack on Jewish survivors in Poland that killed 42 people. It's the key reason most Jewish DPs refused repatriation and sought emigration to Palestine or the USA instead.
What was Operation Keelhaul? The forced handover of Soviet nationals — including soldiers who had fought for Germany, like Vlasov's ROA — from Allied to Soviet custody under the 1945 Yalta agreement, even though many faced execution or the Gulag.
Why are Roma experiences so hard to research? Postwar relief agencies rarely recorded Roma survivors of the Porajmos as a distinct persecuted group, so the source record itself has a gap — which is historically significant in its own right.
What's the difference between repatriation and emigration/resettlement? Repatriation means returning to your home country (UNRRA's 1945-46 priority, ~6 million people). Emigration/resettlement means permanently moving to a NEW country, which became the main route for DPs who could not or would not go home.
Remember the three-part cause (combat/victory, persecution/fear, economic collapse), the two-stage response (UNRRA repatriation, then IRO resettlement), and that 'displacement' was never one experience — Jews, Roma, ethnic Germans, POWs and ex-German-command soldiers each faced a different fate. For every source, ask: what does it show, who made it and why, and whose perspective might be missing.