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Catholics, Refugees, and Resettlement
The Refugee in Contemporary Imagination
The Definition and Meaning of Refugees and Displaced Persons
Twentieth-Century Warfare and World War I- the Prelude to World War II
An Enormous Problem and an Enormous Response
Relocation to the United States
Useful Terms, Important People
Glossary of Important Terms and Individuals
Letter from H.A. Reinhold to John J. Burke on German Refugees, October 23, 1936
Letter from Bishop Rummel to General Secretary Ready with enclosed "Report of the Episcopal Committee for the Care of Catholic Refugees from Germany", May 11, 1937
"An Appeal for Catholic Refugees from Germany", October 1938
Letter from Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli to the US Bishops, January 9, 1939
"Catholic Refugees in Lisbon," September 1941
Letter from Howard J. Carroll to Apostolic Delegate Cicognani, with memorandum on Lithuanians in France, May 23, 1945
Letter from NCWC Executive Director Patrick O'Boyle to US Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, with enclosed memorandum on American Policy on Displaced Persons, March 20, 1946
Proposal: A Vatican Commission on Displaced Persons," March 1946
Letter from Bishop Noll to Cardinal Stritch, April 1, 1946
Letter from unnamed NCWC staff person to Apostolic Delegate Cicognani, with enclosure "A Technique for Fighting Communism in the USA"
Letter from General Secretary Carroll to Apostolic Delegate Cicognani with Proposal on a Catholic Committee for the Resettlement of Displaced Persons, October 22, 1946
Letter from Apostolic Delegate Cicognani to General Secretary Carroll, with enclosure, Letter to Cicognani from the Vatican Secretariat of State, September 26, 1947
Letter from Secretary John O'Grady to Most Rev. C.H. LeBlond, with enclosure, "Resolution Passed by the Directors of Catholic Charities at their Annual Meeting, October 9-10, 1947."
Letter from Swanstrom to Carroll, November 1, 1947, with enclosed memorandum "The Displaced Persons Problem and its Implication for the Catholic Church in the United States."
Letter from Cardinal Spellman to Archbishop McNicholas, with an enclosed excerpt from a confidential letter received in Vienna on December 15, 1947
Memorandum of Understanding between the Vatican Emigration Office and War Relief Services- NCWC (no author), 1947.
John J. O'Grady, Executive Secretary of the NCCC, "Address Before the Syracuse Citizens Committee on Displaced Persons, Hotel Onondaga, Syracuse, New York: The Challenge of Displaced Persons to the People of the United States," January 10, 1948
Letter from Swanstrom to Carroll, with enclosure, the Parish Resettlement Kit, March 16, 1948
Minutes of the National Catholic Resettlement Council meeting in Buffalo, New York, July 14, 1948
Apostolic Letter from Pope Pius XII to John T. McNicholas, Archbishop of Cinncinnati, December 24, 1948
Inter-Office Communication of the NCWC from Bruce Mohler to Msgr. Carroll, November 28, 1949, with enclosure, letter from Father Killion to Bruce Mohler, November 21, 1949
Minutes of a Joint Meeting of the National Catholic Resettlement Council and the National Catholic Rural Life Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, October 24, 1951
Refugees and Resettlement Chronology
National History Standards
History Standards
Refugees and Displaced Persons Before, During, and After World War II
Catholic Refugee Organizations and Jewish Refugee Organizations
Family Structures in Migration and Resettlement
Occupation, Region, and Agriculture vs. Academia
The Church, the State, and Transnational Organizations
Cultural Negotiation and "What It Means to be an American"
The Cold War and Displaced Persons as "Victims of Communism"
The Church's Mission in a Globalizing World
American Catholic History Classroom > Exhibits > Catholics, Refugees, and Resettlement > National History Standards > History Standards
The U.S. Catholic Bishops, Refugees, and Resettlement in the Twentieth Century
Connecting with History Standards
This site's materials are particularly useful in meeting world history content standards Era 8 and Era 9: (The Standards can be found here http://www.nchs.ucla.edu/Standards/world-history-standards):
World History Content Standard, Era 8, "A Half Century of Crisis and Achievement, 1900-1945"
Standard 2: "The causes and global consequences of World War I."
One consequence of World War I is that it created the seedbed for the rise of totalitarian ideologies that would spread through Germany and Eastern Europe. These documents, particularly the four dating from the 1930s, reveal the effects of the spread of those ideologies, especially Nazism, on the population of Germany. Later documents detail the effects of World War II, which had origins in the first Worl War, on population displacement throughout Europe.
Standard 3: "The Search for Peace and Stability in the 1920s and 1930s."
The 1920s and 30s saw increases in the number of refugees across Europe due to the effects of emerging political ideologies such as Nazism on demographics. Those who found their thinking at odds with the Nazi ideology were often compelled to leave the country, as were those discriminated against by the Nazis due to ethnic and religious affiliations. Displaced peoples were forced to attempt to find more hospitable places to settle. The four documents from the 1930s describe the situation from the perspective of the Catholic Church, which attempted to address the refugee issue at the time. Initially lacking the institutional structures to address the refugee problem in the 1930s, by the 1940s, the Church was a leading force in address the problem.
Standard 4: "The Causes and Global Consequences of World War II"
The documents on this site discuss the numbers of individuals displaced by the Second World War, breaking down those numbers by national groupings and religious groupings. The documents from the 1930s reveal that Catholics, in particular and in comparison with Jews, had very little infrastructure toward address the expanding refugee problem in Europe. By the end of the Second World War the Church's efforts to organize an international structure, sanctioned by the Vatican, were in full swing. The documents here reveal the initial lack or organization, and subsequent attempts to organize a Catholic infrastructure for addressing the refugee issue before and after the Second World War. By the early 1950s, this infrastructure was largely in place, a mass effort to inform the lay Catholic population of the refugee situation had been undertaken, and large-scale resettlement effort full undertaken. The documents here chronicle that process from the perspective of the International and U.S. Catholic hierarchy
Standard 5: "Major global trends from 1900 to the end of World War II"
The documents can be used to address the emergence of the Cold War in the wake of the Second World War, and how refugees became enmeshed in broader political conflicts between communist and non-communist nations. Correspondence from the 1940s reproduced here, for example, discusses provide a range of supports for refugees, asserting, for example, that funding for the refugee camps needed to continue so that the refugees would not be forced to return to their countries of origin, particularly those under totalitarian control.
This sites materials are also useful in addressing Historical Thinking Skills, grades 5-12 (the U.S. Historical Thinking Standards can be found here: http://www.nchs.ucla.edu/Standards/historical-thinking-standards-1)
Standard 1: Chronological Thinking
This site's resources help clarify chronological thinking as it presents documents related to a topic across time, and a chronology in which to set the documents. The documents here illuminate the sequence of events leading to the rise of the refugee populations in Europe in the 1930s, and the organizational response of the Catholic Church to the refugee crisis.
Standard 3: Historical Analysis and Interpretation
These documents reveal the ways members of the Catholic Church hierarchy viewed the refugee populations in Europe, how they compared different groups of Catholics, and how they viewed communism as a threat to such populations. Views of different members of the church leadership can be compared, and the documents reveal the variety of influences on the opinions of various individuals involved in refugee work.
Standard 4: Historical Research Capabilities
This site promotes historical research capabilities in that it presents users with digital primary sources, then presents them with document-based questions toward promoting understanding of the sources.
Standard 5: Historical Issues Analysis and Decision-Making
The materials on the site reveal a mindset that differs in many ways from today's. Firstly, there were no formal Catholic organizational channels through which Catholic refugees could be assisted. Hence, church leaders needed to recognize the problem, assess it, then act to address it. The materials here also present early responses to a problem that would intensify in the later twentieth and early twenty-first century, that of individuals displaced by wars and political upheavals. The documents also reveal an early response to communist ideologies, as well as to Nazi ideologies.
Thes materials can also be used to teach U.S. History Content Standards, http://www.nchs.ucla.edu/Standards/us-history-content-standards
Particularly Era 8: The Great Depression and World War II
Standard 1: The causes of the Great Depression and how it affected American society.
Standard 2: How the New Deal addressed the Great Depression, transformed American federalism, and initiated the welfare state.
The documents assembled here are international in scope, but many are compiled by American church leaders operating in the U.S. to address the European refugee problem. They worked within the U.S. legal system to attempt to bring refugees to the U.S., and the documents here reveal the ways in which they dealt with the U.S. system. Also revealed here is the way church leaders approached the lay Catholic population in order to educate them and solicit funds and service on behalf of the refugees.
And Era 9: Postwar United States (1945 to early 1970s)
Standard 2: How the Cold War and conflicts in Korea and Vietnam influenced domestic and international politics
Standard 3: Domestic policies after World War II
Standard 4: The struggle for racial and gender equality and the extension of civil liberties.
This era and these standards can be addressed using these materials, particularly those dating from 1946-1951. The materials here frequently discuss the impact of communism on global affairs, on refugee populations, and on members of the faith. The documents also detail the work that went into attempting to bring refugees into the country legally.
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