In 2012 workers at the National Archives preparing an exhibition of the records of immigrants discovered a 1951 document concerning teenaged Holocaust survivor Michael Pupa. Michael, whose parents died in the Holocaust, was one of many war orphans who came to the United States following World War II. Because of relief efforts made by the United Nations (UN) after the war, Pupa became a U.S. citizen in 1957.
These relief efforts were the result of the humanitarian crisis the United States and its allies faced after World War II. Millions of persons who had been forced to leave their homes needed to be resettled. The United States heavily supported and funded the creation of the International Refugee Organization (IRO) in 1946 by the United Nations, which was founded a year earlier [1945].
Michael Pupa arrived in the United States in May of 1951. After living for six months in a United Nations home for refugee children, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he was raised by a foster family and began his life as an American.
Chronological Order
Arranging events in the order they happened, from earliest to latest. Key words: "a year earlier," "after," "in [year]," "following."
The Holocaust
The systematic genocide of six million Jewish people and millions of others by Nazi Germany during World War II (1939–1945).
United Nations (UN)
An international organization founded in 1945 by 51 countries to maintain world peace, security, and humanitarian cooperation.
Refugee
A person forced to flee their home country due to war, persecution, or disaster. After WWII, millions of Europeans were displaced refugees.