Otto Gilmore’s photographs are a “comprehensive, overall photographic study of El Shatt, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration’s refugee camp for Yugoslavs in the Sinai, Egypt”. Gilmore was the camp in September 1944 at the behest of the US Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information.
Also there was Treva Edgerton, a worker with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), an international relief agency. His snapshots add texture to the story of Europeans who rode the Sinai Express. Croats left everything behind as the Germans approached their homes. El Shatt housed 30,000 refugees from Dalmatia. These people had been evacuated by the Allies ahead of a German invasion. Created on February 2, 1944, the camp was disbanded on March 20, 1946, after the war ended. The refugees left behind 825 graves of their comrades. An estimated 650 children were born in the camp.
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