Paving the road to reconciliation: the training and practice of the Friends Relief Service in post-war reconciliation, 1943 to 1947

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 1943 the British Quaker organization, the Friends Relief Service (FRS), established a training programme to prepare volunteers and members for post-war relief work. Located in London, the programme centred on Quaker pacifist tradition and conviction, drew upon instances of relief work during and after the Great War, and integrated the experience and expertise of relief workers in the field. Unlike the international organizations and Allied governments who defined ‘rehabilitation’ as economic and political reconstruction, the FRS considered the rehabilitation of the community and spirit of displaced and refugee populations as essential to the process of structural rebuilding in post-war Europe. Thus, a central mandate of the FRS was to encourage reconciliation and foster internationalism among former enemies. This article examines how the FRS prepared members for post-war reconciliation work and the application of training by FRS teams in the British Occupation Zone in Germany between 1945 and 1947. This work will underscore the role of professionalization, as expressed in formal training for post-war relief work, within the FRS, while also illustrating the challenges, limitations and opportunities in cultivating reconciliation among displaced persons (DP), refugees and local German populations.