Online Webinar – Europe’s WW II Displaced Persons

Join us on February 6th from 12-2pm EDT for our next “Members Helping Members” webinar!

Our topic will be “Europe’s WW II Displaced Persons (DPs): Their Little Known Story“.

Following the end of WW II in Europe in May 1945, there were more than eleven million displaced persons (DP) in Germany alone with several million other DPs in neighboring countries. Yet by the end of 1945, more than 95% of these DPs had been repatriated (both willingly and unwillingly) back to their original homelands. Less than one million DPs remained, either unable or unwilling to return to their homelands. Ultimately, the majority of these DPs were able to emigrate to other countries for resettlement and to begin new lives.

Topics to be covered include:

• The Role of Refugee Organizations including the IRO and UNRRA
• Repatriation of DPs to the East
• Ethnic Cleansing of Germans from Eastern Europe
• Life in the DP Camps
• How DPs were Screened and Processed for Emigration to their New Countries
• How the DPs Were Transported to Their New Countries By Ship and Plane
• Impact of Displaced Persons Act of 1948
• Processing & Resettlement of DPs in the United States
• What DP Records Are Available & How to Access Them
• How These records Can Aid Your Genealogy Research
• Useful Books and Related Websites

About Our Speaker:

Tom Sadauskas, PGSCTNE member, has been actively conducting genealogy research since 2000, with a special focus on Eastern Europe. All four of his grandparents and his father were born in Lithuania. He has made several trips to Lithuania and Germany to do genealogy research and has been successful in reestablishing contact with relatives in Lithuania as well as making contact with newly uncovered ones. Tom has made numerous presentations at various genealogy conferences including those organized by the Polish Genealogy Society of Connecticut & the Northeast Inc. (PGSCTNE), the Washington D.C. Family History Center and the Baltimore Family History Center. He is also a frequent contributor to the monthly Polish genealogy ezine Gen Dobry!

NOTE:  Current PGSCTNE members will receive a link to the webinar in a separate email. If you do not receive the link please email membership@pgsctne.org

If you are not a member of the PGSCTNE and would like to join to be able to participate in members only activities, please click on the button below. It’s easy to join online. We will then send you a link to the upcoming webinar.