During the war they'd been forced from their homes and taken to work in the factories and farms of Germany -- men, women and children, some as young as twelve -- and when the fighting stopped they didn't want to go back to live under Soviet occupation. The Displaced Persons camps became 'cattle-markets' where countries desperate for workers came to select those they wanted. Some went to Canada, Australia, France or even Brazil, but tens of thousands chose Britain. They were the largest group of 'refugees' ever to come here. They had to sign a contract (initially for twelve months) and they came as 'unfree labour'. They talk of how dark and dank Britain seemed, of how they were welcomed by many, but also of resentment and hostility against them as 'aliens'. Landladies turned them away, and some trade unionists refused to work alongside them. Left-wing MPs denounced them in Parliament as 'Fascists'. Many were professionals and intellectuals, but the only jobs on offer were manual ones. Mental health became an urgent problem among the European Volunteer Workers.

The programme uses readings from letters, official documents, debates and newspapers from the time to set their memories in the context of a Britain struggling to re-build after the war. And it reflects the still vibrant social and religious life of the communities the Volunteer Workers created in West Yorkshire.