The New Morality--Victor Gollancz, 'Save Europe Now'and the German Refugee Crisis, 1945-46

This article looks at the origins and development of a campaignin Britain in late 1945 to raise public awareness about deterioratingconditions in Central Europe and to rally support behind measuresto find a political solution at an inter-state level to theGerman refugee crisis and the expulsion of German populationsfrom Poland and Czechoslovakia seen to be contributing to it.It focuses on the activities of the publisher Victor Gollancz,who became closely associated with the issue of post-war Europeanrelief and reconstruction and the plight of Germany and itsrefugees. Drawing on a wide range of archival material, as wellas a comprehensive analysis of contemporary media, this articletraces the development of these initiatives as well as of publishedand parliamentary opinion on this issue. In doing so, it notonly brings to light a buried chapter in immediate post-warBritish history, it also raises important questions about thehierarchy of British interests in post-war Europe and shiftingattitudes towards Britain's former wartime allies in EasternEurope.