NA Bouman

The Refugee Problem in Western Germany NA Bouman 1939 edition

Gradually interest in Germany and her manifold problems is growing. News of her in dailies and weeklies is ever increasing. In the Netherlands, too, there have lately been signs of this increasing interest, not only in Germany but in the problem of German refugees from the East , "the greatest migration of our time". This isthe case - despite a certain reserve in attitude towards German problems which, in the Netherlands, is only too easy to understand. The interest in our Eastern neighbour can to a certain extent be accounted for by the reviving economic relations. Then, the recognition of a "European Co-operation" including Western Germany means that attention is also being given to social conditions in all countries ofthe future "EuropeanCornmunity". The international problem of a divided Germany and other German difficulties, not least that of the German refugees, which has sometimes been called the most serious present-dayEuropean minority problem, requires a solution. In 1946V. Gollanczwarned England and Western Europe of the consequences to Western Germany and the whole world of the migration from East to West which was at that time well on its way. In the Netherlands Prof. P. J. BOUMAN has emphasized this problem in his book "Society in Ruins". He calls the stream of refugees to Western Germany "a migration of unknown extent". In the UnitedStates, England and othercountries, but in Western Germany especially, a great many publications on this subject have appeared.