This workshop is part of a timely series of events organised by the Musée national de l’histoire de l’immigration to put refugees at the centre of the commemoration of the end of the Second World War in France. By considering how refugees’ bodies and minds were “reconstructed” in the aftermath of the Second World war, we will promote recent academic research on the history of displaced persons and the “violent peacetime” to public audiences looking for challenging and informed insights into the experiences of refugees and humanitarian workers. In particular, we will debunk myths about the ‘success’ story of post-1945 humanitarianism, by examining the violence of the post-war return to the (norm)al and exploring why post-1945 humanitarian actors disagreed on how to remake refugees in a context of shortages and geopolitical uncertainties.