-
9. Population Changes
- State University of New York Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
9 POPULATION CHANGES Each night Corporal Ferris, the company clerk, slaves over the Daily Displaced Persons Center Report. He huddles over his typewriter, entering onto the form-in triplicate-information about the organization, conduct, and health of the DPs, the camp sanitation, and the supply situation. There is also room for special remarks. Then the CO reads and signs the original and sends it to G-5 of 7th Army. The capacity of the center is estimated at 2,200. Every day, population figures are brought to Rosenbloom's office by each national leader, who receives his statistics from his barracks leaders, who in turn procure their data from room commanders. The table is a compilation of population data obtained from four separate reports covering the days from April 23 through 26, 1945. POPULATION STATISTICS, ScUWABACH, 1945 April 23 April 24 April 25 April 26 DPs POWs DPs POWs DPs POWs DPs POWs Russians 700 100 913 50 837 50 835 5 Poles 150 175 182 187 French 440 258 310 385 240 381 165 417 Belgians 50 50 52 54 Dutch 50 0 Yugoslavs 6 5 7 15 Czechs 6 6 6 5 Italians 300 16 221 25 23 1 3I 243 Greeks 5 5 5 5 Others 161 306 Total 2065 1907 2267 2270 58 I During this interval the figures fluctuate mysteriously. There is a reduction in the number of French, never adequately explained, and a dramatic decline in the number of Dutch, who disappear entirely. We presume that they have abandoned their camp in order to start the homeward trek. Neither of these groups is responsible for the significant increase in the number of "others." They increase because new DPs are found and brought into the center and because some Poles, Russians , Estonians, and Latvians are beginning to shed the countries of their birth in order to become stateless people. Some of the other variations are caused by people wandering in and out of the barracks and the camp during the roll call, abetted by a lack of proficiency in arithmetic and counting by our DP census takers. But they are not the only ones who cannot add. The failure of the "total" numbers on the bottom of the table to match the true sums of the individual, daily columns cannot be blamed on the DPs who supplied the figures: somebody in our office made these mistakes and nobody ever detected them-not even G-5. It is remarkable that the number of Greeks remains the same every day. Perhaps they never leave their quarters. They seem to be happy playing dominoes hour after hour. But there is nothing constant about the number of POWs. During the four days of operation covered in the table, the total population increases 10 percent. But, simultaneously, French POWs increase 75 percent, Italian POWs multiply like rabbits, and Russian POWs decrease almost 95 percent. It is difficult to explain these gyrations. A reasonable explanation is based on the DPs' lack of proper identification papers. Because of this, they think they can claim any background that might be useful to them. We speculate whether the Italians and French are convinced that former POWs will be repatriated first and perhaps be given better food or quarters; hence their flocking into the ranks of military personnel. But reverse thinking exists in the minds of the Russians, in whose barracks we hear the rumor that the Soviet government might take a dim view of their former soldiers permitting themselves to work for the Germans-even though such labor was compulsory. The daily report form has an entry for supply shortages, and the same items are listed during the first two days: medical supPopulation Changes I 59 plies, beds, blankets, mattresses, DDT, spray guns, maintenance equipment, and plumbing material. On the third and fourth days medical supplies are "good," but kerosene is added to the other listed shortages, because DDT in kerosene is an important agent in the purification of latrines. In the daily report of the third day of operation the following comments appear in the section labeled "Remarks (use back of sheet if necessary): "Arrangements completed to delouse DPs. Recommend that the Military Barracks (formerly used by the German Signal Corps) be converted to a new DP center to solve problems of housing and control." (The CO had recommended previously that many administrative problems could be remedied by operating a single, large, adequate camp. Now he repeats his recommendation .) The report ends with...