"In May of 1945, German forces surrendered to the Allied powers, effectively putting an end to World War II in Europe. But the aftershocks of this global military conflict did not cease with the signing of truces and peace treaties. Millions of lost and homeless POWs, slave laborers, political prisoners, and concentration camp survivors overwhelmed Germany, a country in complete disarray. British and American soldiers gathered the malnourished and desperate foreigners, and attempted to repatriate them to Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and the USSR. But after exhaustive efforts, there remained over a million displaced persons who either refused to go home or, in the case of many, had no home to which to return. They would spend the next three to five years in displaced persons camps, divided by nationalities, temporary homelands in exile, with their own police forces, churches, schools, newspapers, and medical facilities. The international community couldn't agree on the fate of the Last Million, and after a year of fruitless debate and inaction, an International Refugee Organization was created to resettle them in lands suffering from labor shortages. But no nations were willing to accept the 200,000 to 250,000 Jewish men, women, and children who remained trapped in Germany. In 1948, the United States, among the last countries to accept anyone for resettlement, finally passed a Displaced Persons Bill - but as Cold War fears supplanted memories of WWII atrocities, the bill only granted visas to those who were reliably anti-communist, including thousands of former Nazi collaborators, Waffen-SS members, and war criminals, while barring the Jews who were suspected of being Communist sympathizers or agents because they had been recent residents of Soviet-dominated Poland. Only after the passage of the controversial UN resolution for the partition of Palestine and Israel's declaration of independence were the remaining Jewish survivors finally able to leave their displaced persons camps in Germany."--

"In May of 1945, German forces surrendered to the Allied powers, effectively putting an end to World War II in Europe. But the aftershocks of this global military conflict did not cease with the signing of truces and peace treaties. Millions of lost and homeless POWs, slave laborers, political prisoners, and concentration camp survivors overwhelmed Germany, a country in complete disarray. British and American soldiers gathered the malnourished and desperate foreigners, and attempted to repatriate them to Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and the USSR. But after exhaustive efforts, there remained over a million displaced persons who either refused to go home or, in the case of many, had no home to which to return. They would spend the next three to five years in displaced persons camps, divided by nationalities, temporary homelands in exile, with their own police forces, churches, schools, newspapers, and medical facilities. The international community couldn't agree on the fate of the Last Million, and after a year of fruitless debate and inaction, an International Refugee Organization was created to resettle them in lands suffering from labor shortages. But no nations were willing to accept the 200,000 to 250,000 Jewish men, women, and children who remained trapped in Germany. In 1948, the United States, among the last countries to accept anyone for resettlement, finally passed a Displaced Persons Bill - but as Cold War fears supplanted memories of WWII atrocities, the bill only granted visas to those who were reliably anti-communist, including thousands of former Nazi collaborators, Waffen-SS members, and war criminals, while barring the Jews who were suspected of being Communist sympathizers or agents because they had been recent residents of Soviet-dominated Poland. Only after the passage of the controversial UN resolution for the partition of Palestine and Israel's declaration of independence were the remaining Jewish survivors finally able to leave their displaced persons camps in Germany."--

A woman enters a room. The phone rings. A male voice on the other end of the line seems to know everything about her, down to the most intimate details. Someone is watching. The woman has just fled her homeland, but the whereabouts of her lover, Martin, remain a mystery. Is Martin in danger? Can the voice on the phone be trusted? Is she telling the truth? Has Martin betrayed his country, or his cause, or her? A tense, political allegory that inevitably challenges our assumptions about character, the foundations of our knowledge, and the making of history, Konfidenz stands as Ariel Dorfman's most fully realized fiction to date.

This book was written in 1940, but never published. The authors had held, until May 1940, responsible positions in the Czech Refugee Trust Fund, which brought political refugees (including large numbers of communists) to Britain. In May 1940 they were dismissed from their posts by the Home Office due to their political affiliations. The introduction (pp. ix-xxvi) relates the history of the authors and their book, which is a critique of British prewar and wartime immigration policy. 65,000 refugees from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia immigrated to Britain in 1933-39; 90% of them were "racial refugees" - i.e. Jews or part-Jews. Describes the events that impelled these people to leave the Reich. Dwells on the hardships and social discrimination which confronted the refugees in Britain both before and during the war. In April 1940 an internment campaign was launched; many refugees were interned in camps in the country or in the dominions. Discusses the legal aspects of the reception of refugees in Britain. Compares the ordeals of refugees in Britain with those in France, where the situation was much worse.