Short answers, pulled from the story.
The term refugee was first applied to French Protestant Huguenots after the Edict of Fontainebleau in 1540. This historical application occurred when these Protestants sought safety against Catholic persecution.
Article 1.A.2 of the 1951 Convention defines a refugee as any person owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. Such a person must be outside their country of nationality and unable to avail themselves of protection.
About five million German civilians fled the advance of the Red Army from the east during the last months of World War II. These refugees became displaced in Mecklenburg, Brandenburg and Saxony before more than two million perished during the expulsions.
Palestinian refugees who fled between 1947 and 1949 are assisted by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. UNRWA was created in the aftermath of the war in 1948 which led to displacement of 700,000 Palestinian refugees.
A study by Boston University School of Medicine demonstrated twenty percent of Sudanese refugee minors living in United States had diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. This figure highlights the mental health challenges faced by this specific refugee population.