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Kielce pogrom

4 Jul 1946 — A false rumor about a kidnapped child leads to a pogrom in Kielce. Soldiers, police and townspeople kill 42 Jews who had survived the Holocaust. In the following months some 90,000 to 100,000 Jews leave Poland, most for the American zone of Germany. Remember them.

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Map: Kielce pogrom, 4 July 1946
4 JULY 1946 · UPROOTED: REFUGEES IN EUROPE 1945–1960 AND INDOCHINA 1975–1990

The moment in context

For millions of people, repatriation—the return to their country of citizenship—offered a quick end to displacement. French, Belgian and Dutch workers went home within weeks. By the end of September 1945 nearly six million people had left Germany’s western zones. Soviet citizens presented a harder problem. Britain and the United States had agreed at Yalta in February 1945 to return them, but Stalin regarded people who had lived under German rule with suspicion.

From Displaced persons camps after WW2, chapter 4 of Uprooted: Refugees in Europe 1945–1960 and Indochina 1975–1990 (1947).

The place: Kielce pogrom — map and full story →

Teach this in 5 minutes

Then ask the room: Why did the Western Allies abandon forced repatriation by 1947, and what does the change reveal about how refugee protection is created? The argued answer is on the chapter page →

The atlas that shows it

Uprooted: Refugees in Europe 1945–1960 and Indochina 1975–1990
12 CHAPTERS · AN INTERACTIVE SITUATION MAP

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