On 8 March 1946, International Women’s Day, the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) publishes a poster which outlines the devastating human cost of the Second World War.

In January 1945, French refugees leave Oberhoffen-sur-Moder, pushing a cart containing a few personal belongings through a street littered with debris, fleeing the fighting and seeking shelter.

On 13 February 1945 in London, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and representatives of the seven European Allied Governments sign an Agreement Concerning the Care and Repatriation of Displaced Persons.

Aerial shot taken on 25 April 1945 of a camp under the control of the US Army holding over 160 000 German prisoners of war.

Alongside managing refugees, Nazi Germany's impending defeat confronts the Allies with another challenge: the mass surrender of thousands of German soldiers. On 3 May 1945, an American soldier immortalises a section of the German prisoner-of-war camp in Rheinberg, Germany, which held nearly 89,000 men at the time.

The first mass movements begin with the advance of the Red Army westward. At the end of the Second World War, West Germany has to accommodate some 12 million refugees.

On 18 June 1945, Italian refugees at Camp Reichenau in the Innsbruck area begin a three-mile walk to the train station, from where they will travel to Bolzano, Italy, via the Brenner Pass.

On 18 June 1945, Italian refugees eat and rest at the Reichenau camp near Innsbruck, Austria. Before being transferred to Italy by train via the Brenner Pass, they receive food and undergo delousing treatment. After the Second World War, this type of highly invasive measure, implemented by the Allies in displaced persons camps housing tens of thousands of refugees, was intended to prevent the spread of contagious diseases.

On 5 July 1945, the US War Department issues an alarming report on the situation of refugees in Europe and Germany in the aftermath of the Second World War and describes the measures taken by the Allies to help displaced persons.

On 24 July 1945, the Deutsche Volkszeitung, periodical of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany, focuses on the difficult issue of the fate of German refugees.

On 21 August 1945, shortly after the end of the Second World War, British cartoonist David Low illustrates the difficulties experienced by the Allied Control Council in managing the mass movement of refugees and displaced persons in Berlin.

Poster published by the National Federation of Deported and Imprisoned Resistance Fighters and Patriots (FNDIRP) in 1945 in response to the war and deportation.

On 30 October 1945, the French daily newspaper Le Monde describes the scenes of desolation at German railway stations that have been partly destroyed by the Allied bombings.

‘Home to the Reich …' On 28 February 1946, illustrating the terrible human consequences of the Second World War, cartoonist Mirko Szewczuk employs the expression used in Nazi propaganda, Heim ins Reich, in ironic fashion to illustrate the mass exodus of German refugees fleeing the Soviet army towards the Western zones of occupation in Germany.

On 19 November 1946, the Bavarian daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung paints a catastrophic picture of the humanitarian situation in devastated Germany and launches an appeal for Christian charity.

Statistics on displaced persons housed in assembly centres in the US, British and French occupation zones in Germany in January 1947.

In February 1947, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) paints a bleak picture of the situation of displaced persons accommodated in assembly centres in the British, American and French occupation zones in Germany.

On 6 May 1947, the French daily newspaper Le Monde paints a dramatic picture of the refugee situation in a war-torn Europe and describes the resources used by the United Nations to come to the aid of displaced persons.

On 25 October 1947, the German daily newspaper Die Welt paints an alarming picture of the refugee situation in Germany.

One of the major challenges faced by post-war Germany was the accommodation of German civilian refugees fleeing from areas east of the Oder-Neisse Line and their economic and social integration.

From 9 to 14 April 1951, an international conference is held in Hanover, convened by the League of Red Cross Societies. The conference is attended by representatives from the 17 national societies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the League of Red Cross Societies, to examine the problem of the 9 million refugees in western Germany and Austria. At the conference, 17 recommendations are adopted to establish solutions that will enable refugees and exiles to build new lives.

On 25 April 1951, the Federal Government adopts a law which determines the status of foreign refugees in the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany.

On 2 November 1951, on the occasion of the departure of the one millionth displaced person from the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) to his native land, Hans Lukaschek, West German Minister for Displaced Persons, summarises the achievements of the campaign carried out by the International Organisation for Refugees in Europe.

In 1953, the Council of Europe publishes a report in which it analyses the problem of refugees and excess population in Europe.

In 1966, the West German Ministry of Refugees and Displaced Persons publishes statistical and graphical data illustrating German population movements, whether voluntary or enforced, in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Aerial photograph taken on 25 August 1944 of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, the largest of the Nazi concentration camp complexes.

On 25 August 1944, the US Central Intelligence Agency services take this aerial photo of the Nazi extermination camp in Birkenau, Poland, showing a group of prisoners on their way to the gas chambers.

On 13 September 1944, the US Central Intelligence Agency services take this aerial photo of the Nazi concentration camp in Birkenau, Poland.

Photograph taken on 12 April 1945 showing the last victims of the Nordhausen Nazi concentration camp, a sub-camp of the Mittelbau Dora concentration camp complex (Germany).

Three prisoners of Russian, Polish and Dutch origin, ‘survivors’ of the Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp in April 1945.

‘It wasn't us, Guv!' In April 1961, Fritz Behrendt, German cartoonist, denounces the defence put forward by Karl Adolf Eichmann — former Nazi Head of the Department for Jewish Affairs in the Reich Central Security Office (RHSA) and architect of the Final Solution during the Second World War — when tried for crimes against humanity before the court in Jerusalem.