The Way From Germany - A short film on Displaced Persons in Germany - 1946

A short film (11.5mins) on post war displaced persons: "The Way from Germany": IWM - THE WAY FROM GERMANY [Main Title]

Or alternatively: DPs; postwar rehabilitation - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Object description
The problem of the displaced persons - former migrant labourers - in Germany at the end of the war.
Full description
Film opens with (reconstructed) scenes of Fremdarbeiter under German guard moving along roads, in workshops etc as commentary tells how Germany "drained Europe of its manpower", talking also of the hardships of the workers, and of the disruption of Germany's war effort by sabotage and bombing. Allied advance brings liberation: 18 million people "suddenly set free". Workers fraternise with Allied soldiers, throng the roads; scenes also of looting, vandalism etc. "War had brought chaos to the cities, and now the freed slaves spread it through the countryside". To halt the "blind, aimless movement" displaced persons (DPs) are collected into camps (self-administered, under Allied officers) - camp scenes: registration, medical care (contrasted to Belsen footage), food and clothing issued, child care, information (Russian officers give news briefings) and entertainment (Poles with camp radio; orchestra, dancing etc). Finally, the return - lorries and trains leave camps, reunion scenes at stations. One and a half million DPs remain in camps, however, unable or afraid to go back (film of Jews in camp room with Palestine posters, reading Hebrew newspaper). "The war is over, but for them there is still no peace. The United Nations must see that they find it."

OBJECT DETAILS
Category
film
Related period
1945-1989 (content)
Creator
Crown Film Unit (Production company)
Allied Control Commission of Germany(Production company)
Army Film Unit (Production company)
Wright, Basil (Production individual)
Trench, Terry (Production individual)
Lutyens, Elisabeth (Production individual)
Calder-Marshall, Arthur (Production individual)
Cameron, Ken (Production individual)
Guyler, Deryck (Production cast)
Production date
1946-06
Place made
GB

 

Thankyou for the link - I've clicked 'like', but because I've saved it, to watch later.
Who can like that kind of thing? Reminds me of Wilfred Owen - the pointlessness of war, the wastage of youth. etc

 

This was quite common in many parts of the country.
But many farmers and individuals who treated their forced labour in a good way, still have connections to them.
In my town, a young women fell in love with a young pole, which was bad nes at first, but after the war they married and had 5 kids.

Stefan

 

I wonder where the actual bits of film, shown variously, came from? i.e. whether mostly archive, or filmed especially and uniquely for this short film.

Or whether it's possible now to tell much about the places, people, units etc. depicted?

Ps. Edit:

Some links: "The Way From Germany" film 1946 - Google Search

The Way from Germany (1946) - IMDb

 

Tricia,
to be honest, one scene in the woods, could be in the the woods north of our town. But then, woods look alike in many places.
Stefan.

 

A good account of the aftermath of war and the attempt to restore settlement to those forceabily removed from their homelands for slave labour....as stated some were induced to leave home for work with promises...the better pay etc was not delivered as these people were harnessed for the German war economy.

Strangely Hitler did not mobilise German women for the war economy.Enrollment of women was restricted to duties in military organisations such as the concentration camp structures and flak units.This was probably related to Hitler's philosophy with woman as being K K K. Russian females deported from occupied Russia were often found serving as domestic servants.

I think there was a better chance of improved conditions for a slave labourer in employment such as farms where the supervision and any brutality was not to the level experienced by those employed in factories and coal mines

.(As an aside I remember reading about a British POW put to work on a German farm where the husband was in military service and working conditions were ideal A relationship progressed sexually between the POW and the farmer's wife.When the POW made his escape,he wore the mufti belonging to the husband given to him by the German's wife.

The chaos in the immediate postwar period enabled those with dubious backgrounds of serving with the Third Reich to reinvent themselves as DPs and settle in the west.It posed a problem for the Western Allies....some were weeded out but many were able to evade their past up to the evenings of their lives.

On the other side of the coin,Denmark had to deal with nearly 250.000 German refugees who in the latter days of the collapse of the Third Reich had fled the Russian advance.It appears that there was a high mortality rate due to lack of food and accommodation. Further, it is recorded that there were also 250.000 German soldiers along with 50.000 German wounded and 20.000-24.000 Allied POWs in Denmark making a total,in addition to the Danish population,in the first hectic days of liberation of about 560.000-570.000.

It took many years to overcome the problem of refugees and the last German refugees left Denmark on 15 February 1949.

Some might have noticed Deryk Guyler conducting the film commentary who went on to be prominent in sitcoms on BBC Radio.....apparently was in Jimmy Handley's ITMA programme as a first job.

 

Yes I recognised the name Derek Guyler too.
The film was very short, and in some ways skipped the worst parts. I agree doing farm work was probably the best option. They would fed better too. My uncle was a farmer and had german pows working for him. Some married local girls and stayed.
I read a book by a frenchman who was among those conscripted to work in German munitions factories. Their return home to France wasn't always easy, and they were regarded as traitors in France until about 10 years ago.
Then there was the whole gruesome story of the revenge that the Russian army took on the German population. And the amount of rebuilding which had to be done in ruined towns and cities. And many stories of Jews returning to find their homes occupied by the local people. I think Germany is still paying restitution for this.