As a conscientious objector prior to World War II, author Howard Wriggins joined the American Friends Service Committee, a non-governmental organization that, with its British counterpart, would receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947 for their many years of refugee relief work. A young idealist who left his graduate studies in political science to assist refugees fleeing Hitler's madness, Wriggins batted out daily letters on an ancient Underwood portable to describe the cruel events he witnessed. He shares his experiences as he came to know numberless refugees and prisoners in Portugal, internees in Algiers, Yugoslavs fleeing in transport ships, refugees and Vatican officials in Italy, anguished French colleagues after years of Occupation, and Palestinians jammed into Gaza camps. Wriggins reviewed these letters five decades later after he retired from Columbia University as the Bryce Professor of the History of International Relations. In them he discovered a world far from the market-driven prosperity and political peace Europe enjoys today. Professor Wriggins has used his letters to tell a riveting personal story about the horrors of governmental persecution and a war to end it, in the midst of which idealism nevertheless persisted.

An original perspective on the experience of refugees and relief workers.

Early efforts by peacemakers in the worlds longest refugee crisis

Mary Elmes is the great unsung heroine of modern Ireland. Risking her life to save Jewish children during the Holocaust, she turned her back on a promising academic career to help others. She is the only Irish person to be honoured as Righteous Among the Nations by Israel for this work. In 1937 she travelled to Spain as an aid worker, where she ran children’s hospitals, moving from one bombed-out building to the next in the midst of a horrific civil war. Moving to France after Franco’s victory, she continued to work in the wretched refugee camps hastily thrown together by the French authorities for 500,000 escaping Spanish Republicans. Soon, Jews fleeing the Nazis were also imprisoned in the internment camps. Mary initially sought to relieve the suffering of all the inmates but when the deportations to the east began she worked to save hundreds of Jewish children from the death camps, going so far as to smuggle children out of the camp in her own car. Eventually her actions came to the notice of the collaborationist Vichy government and in 1943 she was arrested by the Gestapo and jailed for six months. The Extraordinary Story of Mary Elmes tells the gripping story of one woman’s heroism during two of the twentieth century’s bloodiest conflicts. It includes a number of interviews with some of those who owe their lives to Mary Elmes, as well as photographs and a wealth of archival material.

The Lisbon Route tells of the extraordinary World War II transformation of Portugal's tranquil port city into the great escape hatch of Nazi Europe. Royalty, celebrities, diplomats, fleeing troops, and ordinary citizens desperately slogged their way across France and Spain to reach the neutral nation. As well as offering freedom from war, Lisbon provided spies, smugglers, relief workers, military figures, and adventurers with an avenue into the conflict and its opportunities. Yet an ever-present shadow behind the gaiety was the fragile nature of Portuguese neutrality.

This book examines the leading role of the Quaker American Friends Service Committee in the United Nations relief program for Palestine Arab refugees in 1948-1950 in the Gaza Strip. Using archival data, oral histories, and biographical accounts, it provides a detailed look at internal decision-making in an early non-governmental organization.

Out of the Shadows is a full account of post-authoritarian democratic Portugal (1974 to Present) following the Carnation Revolution which began on April 25th 1974 and based on documentary sources, personal accounts and unpublished documents from the National Archive in Kew. 'Lisbon and Portugal's best days are behind them' is a common theme put forward by writers who focus their attention on the golden era of Portuguese discoveries, the Empire and the role of Lisbon as a major Atlantic power. Neill Lochery's book demonstrates that Portugal is not suffering from such inevitable decline. In 1974 a dramatic overnight coup led to the fall of the 'Estado Novo' dictatorship in Portugal - in Lisbon the events became known as the Carnation Revolution. As the colonies collapsed, the United States helped airlift 13,000 refugees from Angola back to Portugal as US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger maneuvered to advance the moderate side of the government in Lisbon over the radicals and thus guarantee US interests. As Neill Lochery argues, one of the major misunderstandings of the post-revolution era in Portugal has been the concentration on domestic over international factors in helping to shape its story. Having emerged from its twentieth century financial crisis and bail out and thus 'out of the shadows', he argues that Portugal is a country of huge relevance to the present day and of great future significance to the European continent. Indeed, the strengthening of bonds between Portugal and its European neighbours can be seen to be more important than ever, given the heightened tensions in European politics, the refugee crisis and the prospect of a changing European Union.