British Operation Keelhaul - deadly aftermat of WWII

[2RHPZ]

Operation Keelhaul


Operation Keelhaul was a program carried out in Austria by British forces in May and June 1945 that decided the fate of thousands of post-war refugees fleeing eastern Europe.

One of the conclusions of the Yalta Conference was that the Allies would return all Soviet citizens that may find themselves in the Allied zone to the Soviet Union. This immediately affected the Soviet prisoners of war liberated by the Allies, but was also extended to all other persons.

The refugee columns fleeing the Soviet-occupied eastern Europe numbered tens of thousands of people. They included assorted fascists, Nazi collaborationists, anti-communists and civilians, both from the Soviet Union and from Yugoslavia. The group included around 70,000 Cossacks from the Soviet Union and Ustaše from Yugoslavia, while around 11,000 of them were women and children.

They were rounded up in Austria and forcibly repatriated to Stalin and Tito. Most were headed for the Soviet zone of Germany in the east, or for Slovenia in the south. Many of the refugees were summarily executed (as revenge for the crimes committed by fascists during the war), sometimes within earshot of the British. The killings at the hand of the Yugoslav forces are known as the Bleiburg massacre.

Link (http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jsessionid=ithggii9z68t?tname=operation-keelhaul&curtab=2222_1&hl=bleiburg&hl=massacre&sbid=lc04a)

[Para]

Britain was honouring agreements made about the return of POW's and refugee's at the Yalta Conference. If we did not return them what should have been done with them, should we have allowed this group to live in the UK, when we could not even house our own population after all the War damage. Can you think of any country that would have accepted them remembering the state of all the European Countries in 1945. Do you think that the only country that suffered very little damage to it's housing stock the USA would have accepted them. Now with hindsight if every one knew just what would happen to them then there might have been a rethink on the matter, but remembering the mood of every one at the end of the war I have my doubts. You have to remember that these people had fought hard for their German masters and had stirred up a a lot of hatred against them from their former country men.

[2RHPZ]

Sir, you sound like feeling guilty for that. I did want to bring the story because I want to remind that ppl of both sides were massacred, that is all. I am one of them who deny to judge post war events from present point of view. In addition, I am member of nation who expelled Germans in several waves of ethnic cleasing (in technically mean) and it is also stigma (for majority of us).

Regards,
CAG 147

[Para]

CAG147. No I don't feel guilty, but!!!!! it is not a glorious episode in our history. We did not shoot them and maybe if we knew they where going to be shot perhaps the powers to be just may have acted differently. There was a lot of assistance given to Germans to help them out of their problems and 48,000 German POW elected to stay in Britain after the war and were accepted into the general population with any problems. If can be a funny old world when you stand back and look at it carefully.