Operation Keelhaul facts for kids

Operation Keelhaul was a special action after World War II. It involved forcing many Russian civilians and Soviet citizens to return to the Soviet Union. Even people who were not Soviet citizens, like those who had fled Russia long before, were sent back. This action also included POWs (prisoners of war) and members of the Russian Liberation Army. Forcing people to return to a place where they might be in danger is called Refoulement. This is against human rights and international law. Because of this, Operation Keelhaul has been called a war crime. Many people were sent to Soviet work camps called Gulags, even if they had never been Soviet citizens.

This operation happened in Northern Italy and Germany. British and American forces carried it out between August 14, 1946, and May 9, 1947. Some anti-communist people from Yugoslavia and Hungary were also forced to return to their home countries. This included members of the Ustaše, a fascist group from Yugoslavia.

Records about this operation, titled "Forcible Repatriation of Displaced Soviet Citizens-Operation Keelhaul," were kept secret by the U.S. Army until recently.

Why Did Operation Keelhaul Happen?

The Yalta Conference Agreement

One important reason for Operation Keelhaul was an agreement made at the Yalta Conference. This was a meeting between the leaders of the main Allied countries (the U.S., UK, and Soviet Union) near the end of World War II. They agreed that the Western Allies (Britain and America) would send all Soviet citizens in their areas back to the Soviet Union. This included Soviet prisoners of war who had been freed from German camps. It also included other Soviet citizens, even if they did not want to go back. In return, the Soviet government agreed to send back thousands of Western Allied prisoners they had freed from German camps.

Who Was Sent Back?

People Fleeing from Conflict

After the war, many people were fleeing from parts of Europe that the Soviet Union now controlled. These groups included people who were against communism, regular civilians, and some who had helped the Nazis during the war. They joined a large group of "displaced persons" from the Soviet Union already in Western Europe. Most of these were Soviet prisoners of war and people who had been forced to work for Germany (Ost-Arbeiter).

Soldiers and Civilians Repatriated

Soviet people who had joined the German Army, like the Ostlegionen or Waffen SS units, were forced to return. This included Cossack soldiers from the XVth SS Cossack Cavalry Corps and their families. They were moved from British and American zones in Allied-occupied Austria and Germany to Soviet-controlled areas.

Among those sent back were "White émigré-Russians." These were Russians who had left Russia before the Soviet Union was formed and had never been Soviet citizens. Some of them had fought for Nazi Germany against the Soviets. For example, General Andrei Shkuro and Ataman Pyotr Krasnov were sent back. This happened even though the British government had said that only Soviet citizens from after September 1, 1939, should be forced to return.

The Last Forced Repatriation

The actual "Operation Keelhaul" was the very last forced repatriation. It involved choosing about one thousand "Russians" from camps in Italy. People who had served in the German Army were chosen to be sent back. This started on August 14, 1946. The transfer was called "East Wind" and happened in Austria on May 8 and 9, 1947. This operation marked the end of forced returns to the Soviet Union after World War II.

Why Some Were Not Sent Back

The Soviet leaders found out that British intelligence was keeping some anti-Communist prisoners. This was against Stalin's demands. The British, under orders from Winston Churchill, wanted to use these people for future actions against the Soviet Union.

For example, the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division was made up of Ukrainians from Galicia. They were not sent back. The official reason was that Galicia had been part of Poland before September 1939. But the real reason was that British intelligence (MI6) wanted to use these soldiers later.

Fitzroy Maclean, an officer who checked this division for war criminals, later said that it was "fairly clear that there was every probability that there were war criminals amongst them." However, he argued that during the Cold War, these men were needed to fight against the Soviet Union. On March 23, 1947, the United Kingdom allowed the entire 14th Division to stay. Its members later settled in the UK, Canada, and Australia. The Soviet government protested, saying many of these men had been involved in war crimes. But the British Foreign Office denied this, based on a report from an officer in the division.

What People Said About It

Witness Accounts

Nigel Nicolson, a former British Army captain, spoke about his experience. In 1995, he wrote: "Fifty years ago I was a captain in the British Army, and with others I supervised the Jugoslav (Yugoslav) 'repatriation', as it was euphemistically called. We were told not to use force, and forbidden to inform them of their true destination. When they asked us where they were going, we replied that we were transferring them to another British camp in Italy, and they mounted the trains without suspicion. As soon as the sliding doors of the cattle-trucks were padlocked, our soldiers withdrew and Tito's partisans emerged from the station building where they had been hiding, and took over command of the train.

The prisoners and refugees could see them through cracks in the boarding, and began hammering on the insides of the wagons, shouting abuse at us for having betrayed them, lied to them, and sentenced at least the men among them to a grotesque death. There is now no doubt about their hideous fate, and to those of us on the spot there was little doubt then. Shortly after the first trainloads had been despatched, we heard the stories of the few survivors who escaped back to Austria, and thousands of manacled skeletons have since been disinterred in Slovenian pits."

Ghinghis Guirey, an American who helped screen people for repatriation, reported: "The most unpleasant aspect of this unpleasant business was the fear these people displayed. Involuntarily one began to look over one's shoulder."

Historian's View

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a famous writer and historian, called Operation Keelhaul "the last secret of World War II." He helped raise money for a legal defense fund for a historian named Nikolai Tolstoy. Tolstoy had written about the operation and faced a lawsuit for saying that a British lord, Lord Aldington, was involved in war crimes related to it. Tolstoy lost the case in British courts.

See also

In Spanish: Operación Keelhaul para niños