In February 1945 the Allied armies began their full-scale invasion of Germany and on 9 May 1945, after the unconditional German surrender, declared that the war in Europe had come to an end. A month later the Allied Control Commission began administering the country and divided it into four occupation zones in accordance with the principles agreed upon at the Yalta Conference earlier in the year. Germany was in almost total disarray: its large cities had been laid waste, vital services were paralyzed, transport and communications were virtually non-existent and governmental activity had ground to a halt. Returning these vital public services to a minimal level of operation placed an enormous burden on the Allied forces and seriously hindered them in giving their full attention to more than 9 million forced laborers from various countries and 80,000 concentration camp inmates they liberated as they advanced into Germany.

The Allies were fully aware of the large number of forced laborers they would uncover with the conquest of Germany and prepared in advance for the complex problems they expected to encounter. The forty-four states that comprised the United Nations set up UNRRA in November of 1943 and its leaders were party to the discussions of the Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) as it planned the invasion of Europe. In November 1944 General Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of SHAEF, and Herbert Lehman, the Director General of UNRRA, agreed to a division of labor between the two bodies in overseeing the treatment of displaced persons.