Refugees

Historian David Nasaw tells the story of more than a million people stranded in defeated Nazi Germany after World War II. Some felt they couldn't return to their home countries under Soviet control. Others were Jewish survivors who had no homes to return to. Nasaw's book is 'The Last Million.'

In her new memoir chef Lidia Bastianich recalls growing up on a family farm, escaping the communists, becoming a refugee and immigrating to the U.S., starting her own restaurant in Queens, and getting her own cooking show.

The new Italian documentary "Fire At Sea" won top prize at this year's Berlin Film Festival for its look at today's refugee crisis. The newly translated novel These Are The Names won the Dutch equivalent of the Booker Prize for its look at the refugee crisis. Our critic-at-large John Powers says each offers an original way of looking at something it's easy to think you know all about.

The Danish film In a Better World won the 2011 Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film. Director Susanne Bier explains how stories from her family's escape from the Holocaust inform her work.

Since the U.S. invasion, 4 million Iraqis have had to leave their homes. An additional 2 million have left the country entirely, and many are still outside its borders. NPR's Deborah Amos tells the story of these displaced Iraqi citizen in her new book, Eclipse of the Sunnis.

Randy Ackley is a Public Information Delegate for the ICRC. He talks with us from a refugee camp in Macedonia. He talks about the conditions in the camp.

Maarten (mar-tin) Merkelbach is head of Tracing Services for the International Committee of the Red Cross. He is directing the use of a newly designed computer system to match up family members of Kosovo refugees separated during the exodus. We talked with him from Skopje, Macedonia.

Our first Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues, David Scheffer. As such, he looks into violations of international humanitarian law anywhere in the world. He's just returned from Macedonia where his mission was to see what conditions the Kosovo refugees were exposed to, and to determine the nature of the crimes committed against them. Scheffer is a senior aide to U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Photographer Fazal Sheikh. (Fuz-ill) (Shake) In his new book "The Victor Weeps: Afghanistan" published by Scalo, Sheikh weaves portraits and stories together to document their experience. His 1996 book "A Sense of Common Ground,"(Scalo) presented a series of photographs taken of African refugees.

We discuss the situation in Kosovo with Miranda Vickers, Britain's leading historian of the Albanian people in general and Kosovo in particular. The conflict continues between Serbs and Albanians for control of the region. Vickers is an Albanian analyst for the International Crisis Group set up after the Dayton accords. Her new book is called "Between Serb and Albanian: A History of Kosovo." (Columbia University Press)

Guest host Marty Moss-Coane speaks with two experts about the refugee crisis in Rwanda and Zaire. Chris Cushing is Regional Emergency Coordinator for Care International in Zaire. Journalist Philip Gourevitch is based in Rwanda. He writes frequently on the region for The New Yorker and is currently working on a book about Rwanda and the aftermath of the 1994 civil war.

Restaurant-owner and chef, Mai Pham. Born in Vietnam and raised in Thailand, Pham came to the United States in 1975 and became the first Vietnamese journalist in this country. Her first cookbook, "The Best of Vietnamese and Thai Cooking" (Prima) is a collection of recipes coupled with memories and reflections of life and food in South East Asian culture. Subtitled, "Favorite Recipes from the Lemon Grass Restaurant and Cafes", the book includes 150 of Pham's recipes that have drawn accolades for her three Sacramento restaurants

We'll hear from Iqbal Riza, Assistant Secretary of General for Peace Keeping Operations for the United Nations. He talks about the UN's role in Rwanda.

Alison Des Forges is a consultant to Human Rights Watch Africa. Last month, the Rwandan Patriotic Army opened fire at a refugee camp. Human Rights Watch says 2000 people were killed. Des Forges visited the camp following the massacre. Des Forges is also the Co-Chair of the International Commission on Human Rights Abuse in Rwanda. She is a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Susan Walker is refugee specialist working with Physicians for Human Rights, an organization of health professionals which investigates and tries to prevent violations of international human rights law. She was recently a member of a team that conducted an "early warning" assessment of Burundi, the country which borders Rwanda. The team warns that Burundi may soon face a bloody civil conflict similar to Rwanda's.

Executive Director for the human rights group Asia Watch, Rakiya Omaar, will talk to Terry about the situation in Somalia where war and famine are killing thousands of people. Omaar has just returned from visits at refugee camps in Somalia and Ethiopia, where resources and services are scarce.

Drakulic's recent book is called "How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed." Now we'll talk to her about living in Zagreb, the capitol of Croatia. Refugees from nearby Sarajevo are flowing into the city from their civil war-torn country.

Physician and photographer David Heiden. Heiden worked in the refugee camps of eastern Sudan during the Ethiopian famine of 1985. His book, "Dust to Dust," chronicles the experience using his personal journal entries and photographs. Heiden has also been a medical relief worker at refugee camps in Thailand and Somolia. (published by Temple University Press, Philadelphia).

Poet Li-Young Lee. He was born into a family of political refugees from China. They traveled throughout Asia for years to escape persecution. In the mid-60's his family moved to Pennsylvania. Lee's poems reflect his struggle with his Chinese heritage - a heritage to which he is bound but in which he never lived. His poems also reflect Lee's attempt to come to terms with the powerful and mythic figure of his father, who was alternately imprisoned and revered for his beliefs.

Journalist William Shawcross says that countries in the West are often fatigued by the perpetual struggles of refugees around the world. He recently wrote the introduction for the book Forced Out; an earlier book of his own, called The Quality of Mercy, covered Cambodians fleeing the American bombing and the Pol Pot regime.