World War II

Relief Agencies

The huge challenge of relief and recovery was met by the combined efforts of governments, international organizations, occupying armies and administrations, and voluntary or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). This great mix of agencies was better coordinated, and its work in the field underpinned by more thorough planning than in World War I (1914–18), from which many lessons had been learned.

Western and eastern European countries were progressively liberated from Nazi rule from mid-1943 until Germany's surrender in May 1945. In the initial stages of liberation, Allied military authorities took charge before handing over to national governments or (in Germany and Austria) occupying powers. This transitional period was relatively brief, especially where governments in exile were able to return and take up the reins of power.

International voluntary organizations, which were both numerous and diverse, played an important role before, during, and after liberation. They included long-established humanitarian agencies, of which the Red Cross movement was the most prominent; others that had come into existence during World War I; many Jewish welfare and relief organizations, some of which had been active since the late 19th-century pogroms in Russia; religious welfare organizations; and a host of more ad-hoc groups, such as those set up in the 1930s to help refugees from Nazism, and famine relief committees created during the war. However, as a sector, the international voluntary organizations had less freedom and influence than during and after World War I. Now they were deployed under the coordination of the military and civilian authorities, and after the war, under the United Nations (UN) Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA).

The role of indigenous organizations in relief and rehabilitation has not been measured, but should not be overlooked. All the European countries had official welfare and civil defense organizations of one kind or another that had been kept busy during the war, for example in helping people who were bombed out of their homes or invalided out of the armed forces. A vast array of other groups, formal and informal, had been involved in feeding, sheltering, and caring for the needy and in hiding and smuggling prisoners of war (POWs), refugees, and Jews. The secret archive of the Warsaw Ghetto (1940–43) reveals a network of soup kitchens, self-help, and welfare organizations functioning even in appalling conditions. Some local groups, such as Red Cross branches, were quick to mobilize in newly liberated territories and took an active part in emergency care [Page 798]and relief, while the broader relief effort gave opportunities to many individuals to put their wartime skills and experiences to use.

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