July 1945. Germany lay in ruins, defeated, occupied and partitioned by the allies. Traveling through the bombed out landscape, a determined man with a commanding presence and indisputable integrity toured 30 Displaced Persons camps filled with thousands of Jewish Holocaust survivors. He wanted to see conditions for himself.

This envoy, on special assignment from President Truman, recoiled at what he found : serious overcrowding, with some people stuffed into small rooms which lacked enough beds; widespread malnutrition worsened by the absence of fresh foods; inadequate clothing and unsanitary quarters. Many Jews languished behind barbed wire, just as they had in concentration camps; in at least one instance, they lived in horse stalls. What’s more, these refugees had to endure the sight of Germans, some of whom had been their tormentors, living in relative comfort, much like they had before World War II.