From The Journal of Historical Review, Winter 1980 (Vol. [52] By contrast, Major Harold Lunghi who served as part of the British Military Mission in Moscow during World War Two and was closely involved in the talks to repatriate British POWs taken prisoner by the Germans who had been liberated by the Red Army, remained highly critical of the decision to repatriate the Cossacks. Some documents relating to this particular incident remain classified and other have mysteriously disappeared. Tolstoy is confident that the handover of Krasnov and Shkuro in particular, and the officers at Lienz in general, was no blunder committed by some hard-pressed staff officer in a moment of stress, but a carefully planned operation The motive presumably was to co-operate with Soviet forces in Austria., Military officers ordered to enforce repatriation were often surprised at the alarm expressed by the refugees when they learned that they were to be shipped eastward. Southampton. If you find our videos helpful you can support us by buying something from amazon.https://www.amazon.com/?tag=wiki-audio-201941 Odessa massacre The Odessa ma. [32] Neither the books of Mackiewicz or Naumenko were translated into English for decades after their publication and hence were almost completely ignored in the English-speaking world. Almanzora area is in Almeria province and is made up of 27 municipalities. [33] The year 1974 also saw the publication in English of Aleksander Solzhenitsyn's book The Gulag Archipelago, where he mentions that many of the prisoners he met in Gulag in the late 1940s were veterans of the Vlasov Army repatriated by the British and Americans in 1945, a policy which he portrayed as craven and self-defeating. Military Command of the mountains. Using the incident as an excuse, Romanian army units assembled 19,000 Jews in a public square in the harbor area and shot many of them. [1][5], During the Russian Civil War (19171923), Cossack leaders and their governments generally sided with the White movement. Ultimately, the fate of the Cap Arcona and its passengers was a tragic consequence of the fog of war. As a result, the majority of Cossack soldiers were mobilized against the Red Army. Indrapoera. Despite this flaw, Tolstoy has written a book which sheds considerable new light on one of the most tragic episodes of the twentieth century. The Museum of the Holocaust in Odessa was created in accordance with the decision of the Council of the Odessa Regional Association of Jews, former prisoners of the ghetto and Nazi concentration camps. Several hundred Jews who were hiding in Odessa itself also survived. Some of them hoping to find new opportunities to work and progress. When they were released, they discovered that their houses had been occupied and their property plundered. British soldiers [armed] with pistols and clubs began using their clubs, aiming at the heads of the prisoners. Many died of hunger and cold along the way. In March 1947, the Ormonde set sail from Jamaica to Liverpool to bring people hoping for a better future. [50] By contrast, the journalist Daniel Johnson wrote on 19 October 1990: "As Cowgill shows, Macmillan was telling the truth; that he had merely advised officers on the ground that Allied policy under the Yalta agreement was to hand back the Cossacks and he had, like everybody else, had been unaware that a large number of them were Russian emigres."[51]. [34] Solzhenitsyn describes the forced repatriation of the Cossacks by Winston Churchill as follows: "He turned over to the Soviet command the Cossack corps of 90,000 men. It was one of the worst massacres in the Ukrainian territory. Official Orders threatened deserters and POWs with draconian measures). The Foreign Office did what it could to suppress news of the suicides because, warned Patrick Dean, these suicides might possibly cause political trouble [in Britain]., British officers who delivered prisoners to Soviet ports, such as Murmansk and Odessa, witnessed NKVD execution squads murder Russians as they left ship. Neuengamme, near Hamburg, was largely unique within the Nazi camp system. A breakdown of efficient communication and intelligence sharing meant that frontline forces were often ill-prepared for the actual situation ahead of them. Through Britain did not join the EEC until 1973, it was Macmillan who as a prime minister first applied to have Britain join the EEC in July 1961, which was ended in January 1963 when President de Gaulle of France vetoed the British application. [39] The "one nation conservatives" such as Macmillan were often disparaged as the "wets" by the so-called "drys" who represented the right-wing of the Conservative Party. [2][3] Motivations varied, but the primary reasons were the brutal repression of Cossacks by the Soviet government, e.g., the portioning of the lands of the Terek, Ural and Semirechye hosts, forced cultural assimilation and repression of the Russian Orthodox Church, deportation and, ultimately, the Soviet famine of 193233. [13] There, they fought the partisans and persecuted the local population, committing numerous atrocities. [32], In response to The Minister and the Massacres, the British historian Robert Knight in his 1986 article "Harold Macmillan and the Cossacks: Was There A Klagenfurt Conspiracy?" In 1992, Sir Carol Mather, a veteran turned Conservative MP wrote in his memoirs Aftermath of War: Everyone Must Go Home that the overwhelming feeling shared by himself and other British Army officers in Austria in 1945 was that the Cossacks had willingly fought for Nazi Germany and had committed terrible atrocities against Italian civilians while fighting against Italian partisans in 19441945, meaning no-one had any sympathy for them. First, Britain wished to halt the Soviet advance as it swept ever further west. 1945/10/22. This group, known as Cossachi Stan migrated between southern Ukraine, Novogrudek (Byelorussia), Tolmezzo (Italy) and was forced to withdraw to Lienz in Allied-occupied Austria, at the close of the war. There will therefore be occasions when the ship appears to have travelled . ended, but before National Service began. Second, by halting the Soviets here, British forces would be able to liberate Denmark and restore the Danish monarchy. The passenger list informs us that 241 people made the journey, including eleven stowaways and six distressed seamen. As the massacres occurred, Jews from surrounding villages were interned in Odessa and Romanian concentration camps set up in the surrounding areas. Those guilty of violating this order will be punished with the death penalty, By the middle of December, about 55,000 Jews were gathered in Bogdanovka, though some of them were not from Odessa. Coverers, as well as persons who know about this and do not report, are punishable by death. During 1945, the Soviet Army overran, in two sequences, German camps that held US POWs. We knew very well what his, that is, Stalin's priority and why. Loving father of Thomas Jr. (Danielle) and Stacey Zaba (Mark). Despite stiff protests, the military was unable to prevail upon the Foreign Office to reverse its unilateral decision to return all Russians to Soviet authorities. A memorial sign was installed, along with the "Alley of the Righteous Among the World", featuring trees planted in honor of each Odessa citizen who had harbored and saved the Jews. In turn, this has led to a number of conspiracy theories about the sinking. The first book about the subject published on official documentation was Operation Keelhaul in 1973 by the Austrian-born American author Julius Epstein, which was based on U.S. sources and primarily dealt with the American role in the repatriation. [32] Tolstoy retained a loyal set of defenders consisting of the Conservative MP Bernard Braine, the philosopher Roger Scruton, the journalist Chapman Pincher, the writer Nigel Nicolson, Lord Cranborne and from farther afield Solzhenitsyn, who was living in exile in the United States at the time. On November 7, 1941, an order was issued, making it mandatory for all male Jews from 18 to 50 years old to report to the city prison. [1] The next day, the prisoners were shot, placed in the remaining two barracks, and in one of the barracks grenades were thrown.[10]. They raided the streets and markets of the city and suburbs, and people who knew nothing of the bombing were shot on sight against fences or the walls of houses. They beat them again, and threw them onto the floor of the trucks. Random House. [56] Thus, the British called the Vlasov Army "White Russians" even through General Andrei Vlasov and his men were all former Red Army POWs who had decided to fight for Germany. But as the Nazi camp system continued to contract in March 1945, it would be wrong to assume that it was the real driving force behind the evacuation of Neuengamme camp. British wartime propaganda had portrayed the USSR as being a kind of utopian socialist state and that they would behave compassionately towards these people whom we were deputed to send back. Throughout the war there had been a blackout of news unfavorable to the Soviet system, thus it was hardly surprising that the military men detailed to enforce repatriation felt that the USSR was governed by the "Four Freedoms," and that Russian refugees consequently had little to fear from their own government. [28], Thousands of Russians, many of them Cossacks, were transported at the height of armed hostilities in 1944 to Murmansk in an operation that also led to the sinking of the German battleship Tirpitz.[29]. [21][22], On May 2, 2015, the first anniversary of the events in the House of Trade Unions, a commemorative monument dedicated to the "Martyrs of Odessa" was opened at this square. But the warning arrived too late. The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed, please Add a Name to this List Records of SS Almanzora from other sources. As they made their final descent, the airmen likely believed they were attacking bona fide hostile targets. She was immediately requisitioned as a troopship and during her war service, 'Almanzora' made many voyages to South and East Africa, later taking part in the Sicilian landings. We use cookies to ensure you have the best browsing experience and to help us improve our website. On 28 May 1945 the British transported 2,046 disarmed Cossack officers and generalsincluding the cavalry Generals Pyotr Krasnov and Andrei Shkuroto a nearby Red Army-held town and handed them over to the Red Army commanding general, who ordered them tried for treason. THE VOYAGES OF HMS ALMANZORA 1915-1918 (More detailed plots follow in the text) (Maps prepared using Journey Plotter, developed by Maikel. 503 pages. From 1943 until early 1947 Western countries, led by Britain and the United States, returned nearly two and a half million prisoners of war and refugees to the Soviet Union, regardless of their individual wishes. [8], On October 23, an order was issued threatening all Jews with death on the spot and ordering them to report to the village of Dalnyk on October 24. Later, a ghetto was arranged in Odessa itself. Odessa is a purported global network set up by high-ranking SS officers at the end of WW2. The prisoners remained segregated according to nationality and religion. Additional thousands of old migrs (people who had fled Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution and the Civil War) were also forcibly sent to the USSR, along with other people of Russian descent who had never lived within the borders of Russia. 1945/10/17. [41] Macmillan seems to have been taken by surprise by Kennedy's questions, and the defensive tone of his answers certainly gave public the impression that he had something to hide. Others escaping the European wars. If an item is shown as offsite, please allow eight days for your order to be processed. An estimated 4,000 prisoners perished. 4), pages 371-376. On October 22, 1941, a bomb exploded in Romanian military headquarters in Odessa. [46] Cowgill believed that the honour of the British Army had been smeared, but Booker was a supporter of Tolstoy when he joined the committee in 1986. Features of the Holocaust in Odessa, Official site of the Museum of the Holocaust in Odessa, Book-trailer literary and documentary novel, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1941_Odessa_massacre&oldid=1138695478, This page was last edited on 11 February 2023, at 02:25. During the summer of 1944 the British began to ship thousands of Russians from POW and refugee camps to the USSR. Some claimed the protection of the Geneva Convention regarding prisoners of war. For more information about using images from our Collection, please contact RMG Images. Local politicians, in particular Nazi Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann, had developed close business links with local industrialists and supplying slave labour from the camp to nearby businesses became a profitable enterprise. The result was one of the worlds worst maritime disasters, leaving the prisoners and the ships crew struggling for survival in the icy Baltic waters. Western betrayal), for going unpublished in the West. In the absence of another option, Kaufmann made arrangements in March 1945 to requisition a passenger liner to act as a temporary holding camp for Neuengammes prisoners. In Berezivka, groups were forced to walk to Domanevka, Bogdanovka, Golta and other concentration camps. Again, they jumped out. [20], In January 2015, the authorities of the Italian town of Ceriano Laghetto, in the province of Monza-e-Brianza in the Lombardy region, named a city square "Martyrs Square of Odessa" in memory of the victims of the occupation regimes in Odessa: Jews killed October 2224, 1941, as well as anti-Maidan activists, rescuers and accidental victims who died on May 2, 2014, in the Odessa Trade Union House. Soviet Repatriation Commissions were established throughout Western Europe, staffed by agents of the NKVD and SMERSH. On October 22, 1941, in the building of the NKVD on the Marazlievskaya street where the Romanian military commander's office and the headquarters of the Romanian 10th Infantry Division had settled to occupy the city, a radio-controlled mine exploded. [33] Bethell was critical of the repatriation, accusing the British government of "intentionally over-fulfilling" the Yalta agreement by handing over people who were not Soviet citizens, but was careful in his treatment of the evidence. The Repatriation of Cossacks or "Betrayal of the Cossacks" occurred when Cossacks, ethnic Russians and Ukrainians who were opposed to the Soviet Union (such as by fighting for Germany) were handed over by British and US forces to the Soviet Union after World War II. [19][unreliable source?] The complex was completed in 2004 with the erection of a monument to the victims of the Holocaust in Odessa by sculptor Zurab Tsereteli.[18][19]. Between 1947 and 1970 nearly half a million people left their homes in the West Indies to live in Britain. ISBN: 0-684-15635-0. On July 5, 1945, the Vatican sent a plea to the British Foreign Office and the U.S. State Department that thousands of Ukrainians in the West should not be sent back. [citation needed], After the death of Stalin, a mass partial amnesty (Amnesty of 1953) was granted for some labor camp inmates on 27 March 1953 with the end of the Gulag system. Field Marshal Montgomery followed suit and in the Fall of 1945 ordered that force no longer be used for the repatriation of Soviet nationals. High-ranking officers were tried in Moscow, and then executed. The siege of Odessa, known to the Soviets as the defence of Odessa, lasted from 8 August until 16 October 1941, during the early phase of Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II.. Odessa was a port on the Black Sea in the Ukrainian SSR.On 22 June 1941, the Axis powers invaded the Soviet Union. [54] The Cost of a Reputation was a book privately printed and paid for by Lord Portsmouth, an admirer of Tolstoy. In January 1942, about 35,000-40,000 of the Jews left in Odessa were evicted and sent to the ghetto that had been created on January 10, 1942, in the poor area of Slobodka. The Cap Arcona burning. [1], Depending on the accepted terms of reference and scope, the Odessa massacre refers either to the events of October 2224, 1941 in which some 25,000 to 34,000 Jews were shot or burned, or to the murder of well over 100,000 Ukrainian Jews in the town and the areas between the Dniester and Bug rivers, during the Romanian and German occupation which took place following the massacre. Acta Musei Sabesiensis, 6, 2014, p. 529-549. [12], Although the agreement for the deportation of all "Soviet" citizens did not include White Russian emigres who had fled during the Bolshevik Revolution before the establishment of the USSR, all Cossack prisoners of war were later demanded. The agreed upon definition of a Soviet citizen was a person born or resident within the pre-September 1, 1939, boundaries of Russia (who had not acquired another nationality or a Nanssen passport, which would render the subject Stateless) By this definition thousands who had fled Russia during the Civil War and who found themselves under British control at the end of the Second World War should not have been sent to the USSR. [43] Thorpe wrote that strictly speaking the term "White Russian" described any Russian who fought on the White side in the Russian Civil War or those anti-Communist Russians who went into exile, but in British official circles in World War Two and in the British Army the term "White Russian" was used indiscriminately to describe any anti-Communist person from the territory of the modern Soviet Union, regardless if they were Russian or not. The Cossack officers, more politically aware than the enlisted men, expected that repatriation to the USSR would be their ultimate fate. When repatriating the members of the 15th Cossack Cavalry Corps, the British deceived them by telling them that they would first be sent to Italy and ultimately to Canada. Before the war, Odessa had a large Jewish population of approximately 200,000, or 30% of the city's total population. [32] In response, Aldington sued Watts for libel, and Tolstoy insisted on being included as a defendant, seeing a chance to promote his cause. The blast killed 67 people, including the Romanian military commandant, 16 other Romanian officers, and four German naval officers. [40] As Macmillan went on to serve as prime minister between 1957 and 1963, Tolstoy's allegations attracted tremendous attention in Britain while also causing immense controversy. Others hoped to be resettled in a non-Communist part of the world. [19], Cossacks were included in the hundreds who were repatriated to the Soviet Union from Marseilles in 1946. [5], The Russian Cossacks of XV Cossack Cavalry Corps, stationed in Yugoslavia since 1943, were part of the column headed for Austria that would take part in the Bleiburg repatriations, and they are estimated to have numbered in the thousands.