ABSTRACT
With the termination of hostilities in Europe in the spring of 1945, United States President, Harry S.Truman, sent Earl G.Harrison as special envoy to the Continent to report on the refugee situation. He was to give special attention to the plight of the Jewish refugees. Harrison, who was Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, had been Roosevelt’s representative to the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (I.G.C.R.), which met at Evian in 1938, and was thus conversant with the subject. Harrison’s report to Truman was shocking, especially with regard to the treatment of the DPs (displaced persons) by American troops. His conclusion that “we appear to be treating the Jews as the Nazis treated them except that we do not exterminate them,” appalled America.1 Consequently, insensitive American commanders like General Patton were relieved of their commands and replaced by more considerate officers and Jewish advisors were appointed by the American HQ.2 Strong measures were taken to curb anti-Semitic feeling among U.S. troops since an inquiry among them had revealed that a high proportion believed that “Hitler was partly right” in his treatment of Jews. The Army Information Branch published material on the DPs to explain to the soldiers the particular situation of the survivors of the concentration camps. Yet the GIs
found it difficult to understand and like people who pushed, screamed, clawed for food, smelled bad, who couldn’t and didn’t want to obey orders, who sat with dull faces and vacant staring eyes in a cellar or concentration camp barrack, or within a primitive cave, and refused to come out at their command.3
