Speech #810209274

Consequently. they had to accept the position of being homeless. displaced persons. with the hope that some disposition might be made for them in areas of the world where democratic principles prevailed. Since we could neither repatriate all these people nor forever support them in the unproductive and makeshift setting of the camps. the question then arose whether there was any hope that they could be established in the German economy. This theoretical possibility was discarded for two reasonsfirst. because these people were nonGermans whose sufferings at the hands of the Germans made it almost certain that their resettlement in Germany would cause great friction for a long timesettling them in Germany did not seem to be a possibility. and. second. because western Germany was already greatly overpopulated by an influx of millions of Germanspeaking refugees from the east. For these reasons it was unanimously agreed by the IRO countries. including the United States. that the only fair and workable solution was resettlement in any part of the world where we could place these unfortunate people. To be sure. the IRO has constantly encouraged the absorption of DPs in the German.