Opinion: how did Germany manage to house 12 million refugees from eastern Europe immediately after the Second World War?
As governments, NGOs and ordinary householders grapple with the challenge of accommodating thousands of Ukrainian refugees, it is worth reminding ourselves that Germany managed to accommodate 12 million refugees immediately after the Second World War. The refugees in question were ethnic Germans who had been expelled from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and elsewhere in eastern Europe in response to the war-time actions of the Nazis.
Like many of the Ukrainians now fleeing their homeland, the first wave of these refugees came with little more than the shirts on their backs. They also endured arduous and traumatic journeys by train or on foot. They were often subjected to harassment and violence by hostile regimes.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's History Show, Dr Róisín Healy and Dr Gearóid Barry on a new anthology collecting family stories of staff members at NUI Galway during the Second World War
As Ian Connor has described in his book Refugees and Expellees in Post-War Germany, Germany had never been in a worse position to receive refugees. There had been a shortfall of 2.5 million homes in Germany even before the war and wartime bombing destroyed 2.1 million existing homes, nearly a quarter of the entire housing stock.
Faced with this severe housing shortage and fearful that refugees would not accept being housed in camps, all four Allied powers decided to billet the refugees on households. The Housing Law of March 1946 confirmed the right of the authorities to requisition rooms in homes for use by refugees. Householders who refused could be sent to prison for up to a year.
Guidelines to local authorities stipulated the number of people that each house could accommodate based on its size. A house with four rooms in addition to a kitchen and bathroom was, in theory, to accommodate eight people, including the original residents. In practice, the numbers of refugees billeted on each house fell short of the bar set by the authorities, as some Germans used political influence or lengthy legal processes to lessen them or even resist billeting entirely.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's The Business, Esther O'Moore Donohoe reports on the migrant community in Ireland's contribution to business here
While the authorities had to set up camps in community buildings to make up for the shortfall, the vast majority of new arrivals nonetheless ended up in German homes. Households that accepted refugees inevitably experienced tensions. Despite the common language, Germany's established residents often found their eastern cousins strange, some suspecting contamination by exposure to Slavs and 'gypsies’ as 12 years of official racism under the Nazis took its toll.
The sudden presence of Protestants in Catholic households and vice-versa, as often happened, could give rise to sectarian outbursts. Competition over space, especially the use of the kitchen, created conflict in some homes.
For refugees, the hostility of some hosts exacerbated the pain of flight. On the other hand, living in households proved better than living in camps, where cramped conditions led to greater levels of disease. Refugees also recounted acts of kindness, such as donations of food or clothing by individuals or relief organisations, especially the churches. Interestingly, those Germans who had themselves experienced suffering during the war, often living in bombed-out cities, were more likely to help the refugees.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, Nadia Dobrianska outlines her journey from Kyiv to Cork following the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Ultimately, Germany did manage to absorb and integrate the 12 million expellees. These found employment, often married resident Germans and made their own homes, although many still pined for their homeland beyond Germany’s reduced borders.
The scale of the challenge facing Ireland is much less formidable than that which Germany faced. The EU has capped the number of Ukrainians entering Ireland at 2% of the total number of Ukrainians entering the EU. By 1950, refugees made up 16% of the population of West Germany and 24% of East Germany. An additional 200,000 Ukrainians, the likely upper limit for Ireland, would constitute no more than 4% of our population. As a prosperous country enjoying a hundred years of peacetime, we are unquestionably better resourced.
But even with the best will in the world, managing a sudden influx of refugees is still hard. Billeting is not the answe and not everybody is in a position to accept refugees. The state should not be permitted to make such a demand of Irish households or use private homes as an alternative to providing adequate housing for all at a time of high homelessness.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, Liam O'Dwyer from the Irish Red Cross discusses pledged accommodation for Ukrainian refugees.
Yet availing of the generous offers of accommodation by Irish households and encouraging more of these is part of the answer. Not all of the difficulties experienced in postwar Germany need follow. Religious prejudice has diminished, travel has increased familiarity with different cultures, and the EU has set standards to protect Ukrainian refugees, including direct cash payments, work permits and medical cards.
On a practical level, many houses today are bigger than in the past, families are smaller, and en suite bathrooms abound. Inexpensive internet devices mean there is no need for everyone to agree on television viewing. Remember that fights break out over space, household chores and access to facilities in even the most harmonious households. Refugees merely add an international dimension to the daily task of domestic peace-keeping.
We can view the current crisis as an opportunity to reassert the spontaneous generosity for which we are known
If it helps, we should remember who is ultimately to blame – Putin – and think of the alternatives. For Ukrainians, it may well be living with tens or hundreds of others in halls filled with camp beds while waiting for new houses to be built, or worse, enduring the terror of bombing and the prospect of a violent death in Ukraine.
For us, it may be a permanent tarnishing of our reputation for the céad míle fáilte (already damaged by the direct provision system) and the international goodwill on which so much of our own defence is based. We can view the current crisis as an opportunity to reassert the spontaneous generosity for which we are known. Hospitality may turn out to be our best defence against the kind of international order that Putin is seeking to create.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
