3 Mansfield Road
Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1
UK
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SPEAKER
Dr Gerhard Wolf (University of Sussex)
In anticipation of a demographic crisis in Europe in the aftermath of the war, US President Roosevelt set up the M(igration)-Project in 1942. Convinced that demographic problems had heavily contributed to, and were further exacerbated by the two world wars, radical solutions were sought to prevent Europe from driving the world into the abyss again. Solutions proposed included the establishment of an International Settlement Authority to oversee mass emigration of those who could not be integrated into, and were thereby threatening, the stability of the envisaged European post-war order that was taking shape at Potsdam: refugees, ethnic minorities and surplus populations. This paper will analyse the work done by the M-Project, situate it in the context of US demographic policies towards Europe and European refugees, and look at how these plans affected population policies in Europe until 1950.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dr Wolf studied German-Jewish Studies at Sussex (MA in 2000), political science at the Free University in Berlin (2001), and history at the Free University Berlin, the University of Hamburg, and the Humboldt University Berlin (PhD in 2010).
His research focuses on modern German and European history, in particular the history of European population policies, migration, National Socialism, the Holocaust and genocide.
He is Deputy Director of the Centre for German-Jewish Studies at the University of Sussex.