Almost 60 million individuals across Europe, North Africa, and Asia were forcibly displaced before, during, and after World War II because of international conflict, the Holocaust, and ethnic and political persecution. This database clearly and powerfully chronicles the factors that gave rise to migration and resettlement, the logistics of the migrations and resettlements, and the political challenges faced by refugee populations, relief agencies, and national governments.

 

The resource examines the incredible hardship experienced by refugees: civilians from Burma, Egypt, Thailand, and other nations stopping off in India, then a British colony; Jews arriving in Palestine following World War II; Greek and Polish refugees sent to east Africa; among others. Gale covers voluntary evacuations, displaced persons camps, forced laborers, and more, capturing the complexity of the topic.

 

The archive contains 590,000-plus pages of pamphlets, ephemera, government documents, relief organization publications, and refugee reports spanning 1935 to 1950. Records cover a wide range of countries and territories. The database draws on six major collections from four libraries: the UK National Archives, the British Library, the U.S. National Archives, and the World Jewish Relief.

 

The design of the homepage is simple but highly functional. At the top of the landing page is a stark black-and-white photograph of refugees with luggage, bags, and other belongings. Front and center is a basic search box; underneath is a link to “advanced search.” “Collections,” “about,” “search history,” and “get link” tabs are on the right side. “Collections” is a gateway to the six major parts of the archive, including Archives of the Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief, 1933–1960, and Refugee Files from the Records of the Foreign Office 1938–1950.

 

“About” describes the database in detail, and “search history” lists recent queries. The “get link” tool generates a permalink that will take users back to whatever page they’re on (search results, individual articles, etc.).

 

On the homepage, under the search bar and tags, users will find a description of the resource with links to the topic finder and term frequency tools. Topic Finder visualizes connections among search terms, topics, and relevant articles, while Term Frequency graphs how frequently a given term appears. “Help,” “terms of use,” and “accessibility” are located at the bottom of the page.

 

Users can enter a term into the basic search box with immediate results. With advanced search, they can refine searches by keyword, entire document, document title, subject, author/creator, manuscript number, or Gale document number. “And,” “or,” and “not” Boolean terms can also be applied. An “allow variations” box will retrieve imperfect matches to accommodate spelling variations—potentially an issue with historical documents. Users may also narrow results by publication date, refugee population (Argentine, Czech, Latin American, etc.), place of departure or destination, current location, collection, document type (chart, file, letter, etc.), illustrated works (cartoon, map, graving, etc.), and source library.

 

Users can also explore the database by selecting any of the six collections from the “collections” tag on the homepage. A description page pops up, and users are given the option of doing a search for a given term within the entire collection or viewing all documents.

 

Retrieved documents can be sorted by relevance, oldest, newest, and document title. Users can filter by source library, document type, or publication date; they may also search within the document. Users will find document type especially helpful in narrowing results. Other features include “broaden your search,” which lets libraries that subscribe to other Gale Primary Sources cross-search among those archives.

 

To view a result, users can select between a scan of a document or plain text; they can also conduct further searches within the document. Entries contain related resources. Documents can be cited, emailed, sent to Google Drive or OneDrive, downloaded, and printed. APA, MLA, and Chicago citations are available for all content on the platform. Citations can be exported to RefWorks, Easy Bib, Noodle Works, Google Drive, and One Drive, EndNote, ProCite, Reference Manager, and Zotero via a RIS file.

 

Users can zoom in or zoom out of individual entries, adjust brightness and contrast, and view the citation full screen. The quality of the images and text is outstanding, with an optical character recognition rating for each image.

 

Navigating within a document is quick and fluid. Using the previous and next paging arrows allows users to move the document one page at a time; they can also jump to another page within an article by typing a number in the page image number box. Returning to the homepage is simple, and a new search is possible from any page in the database.

 

Fees start at $29,095 and are based on an institution’s full-time enrollment and other institutional variables; public library pricing is determined by population served. Bundle discounts are granted for institutions making multicollection purchases.

 

The archive beautifully details the complex history of forced migration before, during, and after World War II across three continents with a wealth of impressive, comprehensive primary resources. It is laid out clearly, with excellent searchability, high-quality visuals, and in-depth content. The collections support refugee, Jewish, European, Asian, and African studies; global, diplomatic, and military history; and public health, sociology, economics, and political science. It will be indispensable for migration and World War II scholars and students.