Page from Earl G. Harrison's Notebook

Earl G. Harrison, former Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization, toured the newly formed displaced persons camps in the summer of 1945. This page, taken from the notebook he kept while on his tour, shows his impressions of Linz, Austria.

In June 1945, the Department of State arranged for Harrison to conduct an inquiry into the current and future needs of displaced persons in Germany and Austria who were unable or unwilling to return to their homelands. President Truman gave Harrison's mission his stamp of approval. 

Harrison's report of August 1945 harshly criticized the US and British treatment of Jewish DPs, called for major changes to Jewish DP policy, and recommended steps to resettle DPs in the United States and to increase Jewish emigration to Palestine.