Book Review: European Jigsaw, Europe's Homeless Millions
| Published date | 01 April 1946 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070204600100215 |
| Author | Karl F. Helleiner |
| Date | 01 April 1946 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
International
Jotirnal
or
thirty-five
millions.
Mr.
Fried
describes
in
considerable
detail
how
the
various
classes
of
foreign workers
were
recruited,
how
they
were
distributed,
the
-types
of
"contracts"
under
which
they
were
employed,
their
living
and
working
conditions,
their
wages,
and
the
methods
by
which the
social
insurance
systems,
both German
and
foreign,
and
the
provisions for
dependants
were
used
to
keep
the
foreign
workers
in
line
and
at
the
same
time
to
defraud
them
of
part
of
their
meagre
earnings.
The
book
incidentally throws
a good
deal
of
light
on
many
related
matters:
the
way
in
which
"Germany's raw
material
problems were
met
by
transforming
them
into
labour
problems;"
the interrelaton
of
army,
government, and
industry;
the
absorption
or
transplantation
of
foreign
industrial undertakings;
the
systematic
industrial
looting
during
the
German
retreat
in
the
east;
the
close
co-operation
between
Nazi
Ger-
many
and
Franco
Spain; the
extent
to
which
Italy
was
treated
as
a
conquered
country.
Mr.
Fried
is
not
content
with
mere
description.
In
a
short
but
important
final
chapter
on
"The
Legacy
of
the
System"
he
points
out
some
of
-the main
problems
which press
for solution:
the
situation
of
the
social
insurance
funds
(already
under
consideration
by
the
I.L.O.);
*the
enormous
debt
incurred
by
Germany
through
the
wage
transfer
and
clearing
system,
with
its
blocked
and
frozen
funds
in
German
banks
and
bonds;
the lamentable
position
of
the
dependants
of
foreign
workers
who
succumbed
to
the
hardships
they
had
to
undergo;
the
need
for
medical care,
rest,
and
rehabilitation
for
those
who
(mirabile
dictu)
survived.
He
points
out
also
that
these problems
can
only
be
satisfactorily
solved
if
there
is
a
high general
level
of
employment.
which
-in
turn
requires
not
only
national
measures
but
international
social
and
economic
co-operation.
Canadian
Congress
of
Labour,
Ottawa,
February
1946.
Eugene
Forsey
EUROPEAN
JIGSAW.
By
Samuel
Van
Valkenburg.
1945.
(New
York:
Foreign
Policy
Association.
Headline
Series,
No.
53.
96
pp.
25
cents,
U.S.)
EUROPE'S
HOMELESS
MILLIONS.
By
Fred
K.
Hoehler.
1945.
(New
York:
Foreign
Policy
Association.
Headline
Series,
No.
54.
96
pp.
25
cents,
U.S.)
Americans
and
Canadians
would
do
well
to
ponder
over Professor
Van
Valkenburg's
atlas
of
European boundary
problems.
True,
a
glance
over
the
twen-ty-five
maps
assembled
in
this
booklet
will
at
first
exasperate
the
North
American
reader.
Why,
those
insensate
people
over
there
seem
to
have
succeeded
in
creating
(or
at
any
rate
have
failed
to
eliminate)
as
many
as
twenty-five
major
trouble
spots.
twenty-five
areas
of
unresolved
political
tension-enough
to
breed
the
germs
of
more
than
one
future
war!
But
as
he
turns
to
Professor
Van
Valkenburg's
accompanying
text
the
intelligent
reader
may
be
trusted
to
suspend
judgment
on
the
inhabitants
of
that
hapless
continent.
He
begins
to
realize
that
the
ethnic,
geographical,
and
economic
complexi-
182
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