Wartime Events and Planning (September 1939–Spring 1945)

Abstract

By the end of the Second World War over sixty million people had been involuntarily displaced throughout Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and the Far East.¹ In May 1944 the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force estimated that there were 11 332 700 refugees in Western Europe alone, excluding displaced Germans.² Among them were approximately three million Ukrainians.³ They did not constitute a cohesive group united by citizenship and not all had a strong sense of national identity. The reasons for Ukrainian displacement were also varied. Being citizens of four interwar states whose borders changed during the course of the war, many found themselves uncertain about which state would claim jurisdiction over them.