From bestselling author David Nasaw, a sweeping new history of the one million refugees left behind in Germany after WWIIIn May 1945, German forces surrendered to the Allied powers, putting an end to World War II in Europe. But the aftershocks of global military conflict did not cease with the German capitulation. Millions of lost and homeless concentration camp survivors, POWs, slave laborers, political prisoners, and Nazi collaborators in flight from the Red Army overwhelmed Germany. British and American soldiers gathered the malnourished and desperate refugees and attempted to repatriate them. But after exhaustive efforts, there remained more than a million displaced persons left behind in Germany: Jews, Poles, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, and other Eastern Europeans who refused to go home or had no homes to return to.The international community could not agree on the fate of the Last Million, and after a year of debate and inaction, the International Refugee Organization was created to resettle them in lands suffering from postwar labor shortages. By 1952, the Last Million were scattered around the world. As they crossed from their broken past into an unknowable future, they carried with them their wounds, their fears, their hope, and their secrets. Here for the first time, aclaimed historian David Nasaw illuminates their incredible history and, with profound contemporary resonance, shows us that it is our history as well.Story Locale: Europe, America

TERRIFIC TRADE RECEPTION: The NYT wrote "One of the many virtues of 'The Last Million' is the author's ability to make vivid sense of a bewildering moment…s his calmly passionate book makes plain, however, one would need to be willfully covering one's eyes not to see how then bleeds into now" and tNPR.org called it "insightful and eye-opening."NATIONAL MEDIA COVERAGE: Nasaw was interviewed for Fresh Air, featured on the NYTBR podcast, widespread reviews all praised him for his work in bringing this story to life.MASTER HISTORIAN, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER: David Nasaw is a magnificent biographer and historian, whose studies of Andrew Carnegie, William Randolph Hearst, and Joseph Kennedy were received with popular praise and critical acclaim. THE LAST MILLION will be no different.SIGNIFICANT YET RARELY TRAVERSED HISTORY: For millions of people across Europe and the USSR, the end of WWII was only the beginning. Unable to return home, Jewish survivors, political prisoners, forced laborers, and others were for years contained in displaced persons camps. It is more than time to write their rarely discussed history and to recognize that it is our history as well.MODERN DAY RESONANCE: More than seven decades later, we find ourselves in a similar place, but now the White House is adamantly opposed to admitting immigrants. History repeats itself, but Nasaw proves it is imperative we be on the right side of it.