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4 - The ‘Broken’ DP

‘Remaking’ the Minds and Bodies of Refugees

from Part II - Reconstructing the Body, Rehabilitating the Mind?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2021

Laure Humbert
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
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Summary

This chapter addresses how DPs’ physical and mental needs were assessed in the French zone and how relief workers responded to them. It considers what ‘rehabilitation’ meant to occupation officials and relief workers and what ‘therapies’ and ‘rehabilitative’ treatments they experimented. It focuses, in particular, on the hopes that they invested the remedial effects of the nuclear family and explores how DPs respond to these various experiments and gendered expectations. In the French zone, the emphasis was mainly placed on vocational rehabilitation, the re-education of mothers and rest in the countryside as a means to improve mental and physical health. The range of treatment offered revealed the influence of the inter-war ‘social hygiene’ crusade, occupational therapy and the professional reorientation movement. Crucially, this chapter uncovers the tensions between the utilitarian (turning DPs into productive future citizens) and recreational (providing soothing and restful activities) roles of rehabilitation, between the disciplinary (controlling DPs’ bodies) and empowering nature (encouraging DPs’ expression and initiatives) of relief activities.

Type
Chapter
Information
Reinventing French Aid
The Politics of Humanitarian Relief in French-Occupied Germany, 1945–1952
, pp. 199 - 247
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • The ‘Broken’ DP
  • Laure Humbert, University of Manchester
  • Book: Reinventing French Aid
  • Online publication: 20 May 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108916981.005
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • The ‘Broken’ DP
  • Laure Humbert, University of Manchester
  • Book: Reinventing French Aid
  • Online publication: 20 May 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108916981.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The ‘Broken’ DP
  • Laure Humbert, University of Manchester
  • Book: Reinventing French Aid
  • Online publication: 20 May 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108916981.005
Available formats
×