[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Migrations of people--Camps run by Allies ?

[Nancy Gertner]

Nelson, I wonder if you meant to say Allies instead of NATO, since  
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formally established in  
1949.  I don't think NATO ever controlled camps for refugees or  
displaced persons.

Reference: http://www.nato.int/docu/update/45-49/1949e.htm

Nancy

"February 1945. After six years of fighting and destruction, the  
Second World War is coming to an end. The future of Europe will be  
determined by the outcome of the Yalta Conference, which brings  
together US President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister  
Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Agreements are  
reached on such major issues as the creation of a United Nations  
Organisation, the post-war administration of Germany, new frontiers  
for Poland, and a commitment to the establishment of democratic  
governments in all liberated countries.

But there are already signs that cooperation forged in time of war  
between the Western democracies and the Soviet Union is coming under  
strain. Negotiations designed to broaden the provisional Polish  
Government quickly become stalled and so Poland is not represented  
when the UN Charter is signed in June 1945.


March 1946. Winston Churchill warns in Fulton, Missouri, that "From  
Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has  
descended across the Continent." A year later, attempts by the  
American, British and Soviet Foreign Ministers, meeting in Moscow, to  
draw up peace treaties for Germany and Austria end in failure. To all  
intents and purposes, the war-time cooperation has collapsed."


On Apr 22, 2006, at 5:32 PM, Nelson Itterman wrote:

> This discussion has turned from Migration of people - Germans to  
> Volhynia =
> to = Migration of people - Germans to the West - Germany - Canada etc.
> It was obvious why they wanted out of Russia. They had survived  
> Stalin's
> forced famine, Communist Controlled Collective Farms where  
> starvation was
> very real.
> Karl Krueger was interested in reasons for people to escape Communist
> Controlled Germany and found that even though they had escaped into  
> NATO
> controlled territory they were still not safe. I'm told that General
> Eisenhower took the view that a german was a german even if they were
> refugees out of Russia. When the Russians reviewed the list of  
> people in US
> NATO controlled camps, these refugees from Russia were turned over  
> without
> question. These refugees went straight to Siberia. (I know of 4 direct
> relatives (families) that faced this ordeal) I'm also told that in  
> British
> controlled camps, the refugees were asked if they wanted to be  
> returned
> before they were turned over.
>
> This should keep the discussion going some more.
> Nelson
>