Poster in the Soviet Occupation Zone exhorting Germans to help Resettlers (1946)
Abstract
In the immediate postwar period, authorities in both the eastern and western portions of Germany had to deal with significant numbers of refugees from the territories ceded to Poland and other neighboring countries. These expellees were called “resettlers” [Umsiedler], so as not to offend the Eastern European governments that had deported them. This 1946 poster from the Soviet Occupation Zone features a family with four young children and urges Germans: “Take them into your midst! Help the resettlers!”
Source
Source: Plakat Umsiedler [Resettler Poster], Inv.-Nr. P 73/1386. Deutsches Historisches Museum/ I. Desnica.
© Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin
Further Reading
Klaus J. Bade, Neue Heimat im Westen: Vertriebene, Flüchtlinge, Aussiedler. Münster: Westfälischer Heimatbund, 1990.
Mathias Beer, Martin Kintzinger, and Marita Krauss, eds., Migration und Integration: Aufnahme und Eingliederung im historischen Wandel. Stuttgart: Steiner, 1997.
Andreas Kossert, Kalte Heimat: Die Geschichte der deutschen Vertriebenen nach 1945. Munich: Siedler, 2009.
Martina Kessel, “Keine Heimat für Hybrides – Mamitschka und die Politik der Gefühle im Film der 1950er Jahre,” in Politische Leidenschaften: zur Verknüpfung von Macht, Emotion und Vernunft in Deutschland, edited by José Brunner. Tel Aviver Jahrbuch für deutsche Geschichte 38. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2010, pp. 183-98.