A Short History of Junkers Camp, Bettenhausen, Kassel

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Resettlement

There has been very little accomplished so far towards resettlement; one person has gone to Sweden and a second expects to go; three are going to join relatives in the Argentine; four have applied for visas for the U.S.A. with some prospect of success, and twenty-one men indicated their intention to take advantage of the offer of the Belgian Government to accept 20,000 miners from the DPs in the American Zone.

The representatives of all the Latvians in Germany and Den­mark who held a three-day conference in Junkers Camp in February (see next page), reached certain conclusions concerning resettlement which were stated in their report of the meeting as follows:

"In discussing labor possibilities outside of Germany, the Central Committee is asked to set regulations for emigrating to countries in Europe. Essential consideration should be paid in preserving our national unity (spiritual life, family life, social insurance), as Latvians are an agricultural people, such labor offer as work in coal-mines (Belgium) is not the most suitable. Everybody has to consider such an offer indiv­idually and reacy an individual decision.

The delegates have unanimously come to the conclusion that the Latvians cannot remain in Germany.
To make a decision in favour of one or other country as the emigration goal, two facts should be borne in mind: -

1) Latvians are an agricultural people

2) It is necessary for us to preserve our national unity. In case of emigration, a possibility should be found to emigrate together with one's relatives, independently from the fact, where those relatives would reside at the moment of emigration (French, British or American Zones in Germany, Austria, and Denmark).
Taking into consideration the facts which have come to our knowledge as regards the political, social and geographical con­ditions, the assembly are of the opinion that the most suitable overseas countries for Latvians are Alaska, Canada, but even such countries as the Union of South Africa, Australia and New Zealand are mentioned. Prospects to emigrate to the above mentioned countries are vague at the present, and there is little hope that they will improve in the near future. There­fore the necessity arises to find a suitable country for emi­gration in Europe.

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