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Processes in the aftermath of violence-induced mobility: “Displaced Persons” between repatriation, resettlement and integration in Lower Saxony municipalities after World War II

Research fellow: Linda Ennen-Lange, M.A.
Project lead: Prof. Dr. Christoph Rass / Dr. Sebastian Huhn
Project Funding: Pro Niedersachsen

“Displaced persons” who could not be repatriated by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNNRA) or who were not eligible for resettlement in the context of the resettlement program of the International Refugee Organization (IRO), finally remained in the Federal Republic of Germany. They were henceforth categorized as “Heimatlose Ausländer” (“homeless aliens”) by ministerial bureaucracy – a legal status – and had to be integrated into German society. Their settlement and administrative and social integration constituted an initial learning process for the young democratic Federal Republic of Germany in dealing with "foreigners" and still represents a desideratum of research.

The research project examines further the categorization of these residents as “Heimatlose Ausländer” as well as the negotiation of their recognition and their options for settlement and participation. A special focus is laid on the role of the municipal authorities in the negotiation processes to visualize both the concrete implementation of higher-level political directives and the conditions and perspective of these negotiations. For this purpose, in a case study on the city of Osnabrück, administrative files from the holdings of the Lower Saxony State Archives and, for the first time, the data from the (historical) Foreigners Card File Index of the city of Osnabrück (big data approach) as well as case files of the IRO from the Arolsen Archives and IRO-documents from archives in Geneva, Paris and New York will be evaluated.