Europe
Ukraine: Refugees Who Became U.S. Diplomats
From Ukraine to the service of the United States.
Forced labor and displacement
During World War II, Nazi Germany took millions of people from occupied Ukraine to work as forced laborers. After the war, many refused to return to Soviet rule and lived in displaced persons camps in Germany and Austria.
The diaspora returns
Ukrainian displaced persons resettled in the United States in large numbers after 1948. When Ukraine became independent in 1991, the first U.S. ambassador to Kyiv was a man born in one of those camps.