The Last Million

Exhaustive (and somewhat exhausting) account of the million displaced persons after WWII who couldn't return to their home countries. I thought Jews who survived the Holocaust comprised most of the displaced persons, but in fact they were outnumbered by non-Jews including Poles, Estonians, Latvian and Lithuanians, most of whom were fleeing the Soviet communist rule and many of whom had sympathized with or even helped the Nazis. This led to a situation in which rabid American anti-Communist fervor facilitated the immigration of hundreds of thousands of non-Jews (and some Nazi sympathizers) while eschewing Jews who were feared to be Communists or even Soviet spies. Anti-Semitism cloaked in various forms (we can't let them into the US, they might be Communists; we can't let them into Israel, they might upset the Arabs and we need their oil) was pretty upsetting. The book made me understand the desire for a Jewish homeland more than ever before, at the same time it pointed out ironically that the cost of that homeland was thousands of displaced Arab refugees who remain stateless to this day .

The book is surprisingly readable for an academic tome, although I agree with other reviewers who noted it would have been improved with more personal stories from displaced persons. The book did include illuminating correspondence and legislative testimony; it was a little startling to hear a US Senator claim that “everyone knows they are Communists” without any facts to back it up; apparently “truthiness” was part of politics long before 45's administration.

If you want to be horrified at humanity's cruelty and ignorance, but also hopeful about our ability to persevere through years of frustration and uncertainty, this is the book for you.