I’m reading the story of a refugee, the mother of a friend of mine. The mother was a child during World War II. Her family was fairly well off on their Latvian farm in the Baltic region of Europe before the war. Then they fled, as armies churned toward them.

She was wounded from nearby fighting. They fled further with millions of other civilians. Some estimate the number of displaced persons during the war as high as sixty million.

Finally the war ended, but they could not return to Latvia, now under Russian control. Europe was devastated from the war. They were placed in a “displaced persons” camp with thousands of others from different countries. They remained in the camp about four years.

Eventually, the family emigrated to the United States. She became a nurse, and her family entered the American mainstream.

Now we are again facing the greatest civilian displacement since that other war. They come from the fighting in Syria, Iraq, Lybia, Afghanistan and some sub Saharan countries. Economic refugees join the surge, making it more difficult to identify true refugees.

Families grab what they can carry and flee to any country that promises safety. They pay life savings to human smugglers, who, once paid, don’t care whether they reach safety or not. Thousands die en route.

Perhaps we can learn lessons from that other time. Obviously, the chaos that ensues when thousands of people surge into small countries calls for a more orderly process. The fact that the European Union, or the rest of the world, was not prepared for this exodus is water under the bridge. Better to work on the immediate situation.

Perhaps displaced person camps can be set up, especially for families. They could be cared for in a more humane setting while proper vetting of the applicants is carried out. We would expect all democratic nations, including the United States, to take in refugees, as the U.S. did following World II.