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Evaluation of Accomplishments during Second Phase

The list of accomplishments during the second phase is an impressive one. It is true, of course, that many of these accomplishments were chiefly the work of the DPs themselves and might have taken place in any event, but apart from such developments the results achieved by the team were outstanding in many respects. Their records and control of supplies were defective, but they were so at a phase in the operation when accountability was not highly developed and frequently neglected. THey gave a great deal of responsibility to the DPs, which was in line with UNRRA policy, but they failed to exercise that degree of control required to prevent some abuses and to develop the sense of responsibility towards the community as a whole which must precede a successful attempt at self government.

Considering their youth and their lack of general experience, the MMLA girls did an amazingly good job in Junkers Camp, and it is a great pity that UNRRA failed, apparently, to appreciate their services. If it was considered by higher echelons that the changing nature of the operation with its tightening of controls and increasing emphasis on accountability demanded a more mature and experienced approach, then surely such an approach could have been furnished by the appoint of a Director such as Mme. Laborde, under whose leadership the MMLA girls, completely assimilated by UNRRA at last, could have continued to give valuable service.

This content transcribes an original report of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), a separate copy of which is filed in the United Nations Archives (UNA), Reference number: S-1021-0081-05, Title: Monographs - DP-US 20 - Displaced Persons - United States Zone (Germany) - Histories of Individual Camps - History Report No. 30, Report: Baltin Camp in Bettenhausen, Kassel by D. F. McGonigal, Date: April 13, 1945. The UNA grants rights to reproduce with attribution. Additionally, this content is protected as a derivative work under Latvian Copyright Law Chapter 2 § 5 ¶ 3 and as part of a collection under Chapter 3 § 5 ¶ 1.2.
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