Harrison Report

The Harrison Report, which sharply criticized the Army for its treatment of Jewish survivors, was the work of Earl G. Harrison, Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, former Commissioner of Immigration, and American envoy to the Inter-Governmental Committee on Refugees. At the urging of Treasury Secretary Henry J. Morgenthau and other Jewish leaders, Harrison was commissioned by President Truman to investigate charges of maltreatment of "unrepatriable" DPs by the U.S. Army. After inspecting thirty Jewish DP camps, Harrison submitted a preliminary report on August 3, 1945, that set the basis for American policy toward Jewish DPs. The report called for the creation of all-Jewish camps and the evacuation of Jews from Germany, but also mentioned that Jews were being kept under American armed guard, behind barbed wire, and in former concentration camps. The Harrison Report became the single most significant document of the DP era and had repercussions that reverberated throughout the American government and Army for months after its publication. It prompted the War Department to issue an order to General Eisenhower to investigate and improve the situation. With its public embarrassment of the Army and widespread attention in the American media (it was released to newspapers on September 30, 1945), the Harrison Report caused a groundswell in the government. Policy changes were swiftly accomplished during the remaining months of 1945, when conditions in the camps improved with the opening of all-Jewish camps, the closing of concentration camps, and transfer of the care of DPs to the UNRRA. However, several of Harrison's other suggestions, most notably that Palestine and the United States admit considerable numbers of Jewish DPs, were not implemented until several years after the report was released.