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Operation Keelhaul; The Story of Forced Repatriation from 1944 to the Present.
1 HARDCOVER BOOK WITH DUST COVER
255 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1965
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 6, 2022
In Operation Keelhaul: The Story of Forced Repatriation from 1944 to the Present published in 1973, author Julius Epstein documents, in great detail, “Operation Keelhaul,”* the code name applied by the U.S. Army to the involuntary, forced repatriation of upwards of five million anti-communist defectors and refugees of Russian origin to Stalinist Russia from areas in the European theater of World War II under U.S Army and British Army control.
These defectors and refugees, including expatriated “White Russians” who had emigrated from Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution, Russian Red Army POWs, civilians captured by the Nazis, and members of General Andrei Vlasov’s Russian Liberation Army who fought on the side of Germany against the Russian Red Army, had fled from Stalin’s tyranny. In fact, many of the defectors and refugees had surrendered to American and British forces based on the promise of asylum in the West. Indeed, millions of American leaflets had been dropped from Allied airplanes promising these individuals that they would not be sent back to Russia against their will if they surrendered to American or British forces.
However, from 1944 to 1947, in violation of our promises of asylum as well as international law, the American and British Armies, under written orders from General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe, rounded them up and turned them over to the Russians against their will, sometimes using guns, clubs, and bayonets to do so. Knowing that they faced certain death, torture, or slave labor camps if returned to Russia, tens of thousands committed suicide. The Russians considered them as traitors and persecuted them. Most were condemned to lengthy terms in Siberian slave labor camps and many were indeed executed.
The author also documents similar atrocities occurring after 1947, specifically by Austria and Italy, in the forced repatriation of anti-communist refugees to Yugoslavia and other Iron Curtain countries without so much as a protest by the United States.
Although much about World War II and the subsequent Cold War as been documented in articles, books, movies, etc., this is my first exposure to the horrors committed by the United States and Great Britain with respect to the forced repatriation of individuals seeking asylum in the West from the evils of communism. These events do not cast favorable light upon General (and later President) Dwight D. Eisenhower, nor upon the Roosevelt and Truman administrations during which time these events took place. This is certainly a dark chapter in the history of the United States.
Operation Keelhaul: The Story of Forced Repatriation from 1944 to the Present is written in a very detailed manner and is most suited to a serious student of history rather than the casual reader.
______________________
* The word “keelhaul” refers to the cruelest torture used in 18th century navies. It meant throwing a man overboard and hauling him by ropes under the bottom of the ship. Few survived the punishment.
These defectors and refugees, including expatriated “White Russians” who had emigrated from Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution, Russian Red Army POWs, civilians captured by the Nazis, and members of General Andrei Vlasov’s Russian Liberation Army who fought on the side of Germany against the Russian Red Army, had fled from Stalin’s tyranny. In fact, many of the defectors and refugees had surrendered to American and British forces based on the promise of asylum in the West. Indeed, millions of American leaflets had been dropped from Allied airplanes promising these individuals that they would not be sent back to Russia against their will if they surrendered to American or British forces.
However, from 1944 to 1947, in violation of our promises of asylum as well as international law, the American and British Armies, under written orders from General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe, rounded them up and turned them over to the Russians against their will, sometimes using guns, clubs, and bayonets to do so. Knowing that they faced certain death, torture, or slave labor camps if returned to Russia, tens of thousands committed suicide. The Russians considered them as traitors and persecuted them. Most were condemned to lengthy terms in Siberian slave labor camps and many were indeed executed.
The author also documents similar atrocities occurring after 1947, specifically by Austria and Italy, in the forced repatriation of anti-communist refugees to Yugoslavia and other Iron Curtain countries without so much as a protest by the United States.
Although much about World War II and the subsequent Cold War as been documented in articles, books, movies, etc., this is my first exposure to the horrors committed by the United States and Great Britain with respect to the forced repatriation of individuals seeking asylum in the West from the evils of communism. These events do not cast favorable light upon General (and later President) Dwight D. Eisenhower, nor upon the Roosevelt and Truman administrations during which time these events took place. This is certainly a dark chapter in the history of the United States.
Operation Keelhaul: The Story of Forced Repatriation from 1944 to the Present is written in a very detailed manner and is most suited to a serious student of history rather than the casual reader.
______________________
* The word “keelhaul” refers to the cruelest torture used in 18th century navies. It meant throwing a man overboard and hauling him by ropes under the bottom of the ship. Few survived the punishment.
January 27, 2020
As WWII drew to a close, tens of thousands of Russian POWs sat in POW camps in Germany. They did not want to return to Russia. They knew that they would be killed upon returning as punishment for having surrendered to the Germans. Despite their desire to stay in the West, the American government forced them to return to a miserable fate.
The book provides details and specific examples of Russian soldiers being rounded up and even forcibly loaded on to ships as they fought frantically to stay alive. These scenes played out not only in Europe but in the US as well.
The author uncovered an apparent US policy of returning Soviet defectors and refugees to the Soviet Union against their will, culminating with the story of a sailor that jumped ship in the 1970's, only to be forcibly handed back to the Soviet navy - an incident resulting in a Congressional investigation. The author's work included detailed research and reference to State Department documents. The policy applied only to Soviet bloc defectors and not to those fleeing other countries.
The book is well written and researched. The narrative flows easily. The research helps explain incidents that occurred long after publication - including the Ladmilla Vlasova and Elian Gonzalez affairs.
There remains much to be learned about the Cold War. Much was glossed over by the media and academia during the 20th Century. Operation Keelhaul goes a long way toward filling in some important blanks.
The book provides details and specific examples of Russian soldiers being rounded up and even forcibly loaded on to ships as they fought frantically to stay alive. These scenes played out not only in Europe but in the US as well.
The author uncovered an apparent US policy of returning Soviet defectors and refugees to the Soviet Union against their will, culminating with the story of a sailor that jumped ship in the 1970's, only to be forcibly handed back to the Soviet navy - an incident resulting in a Congressional investigation. The author's work included detailed research and reference to State Department documents. The policy applied only to Soviet bloc defectors and not to those fleeing other countries.
The book is well written and researched. The narrative flows easily. The research helps explain incidents that occurred long after publication - including the Ladmilla Vlasova and Elian Gonzalez affairs.
There remains much to be learned about the Cold War. Much was glossed over by the media and academia during the 20th Century. Operation Keelhaul goes a long way toward filling in some important blanks.
September 24, 2015
I spent a while on this book today since not only the subject interests me (I've done a bit of Soviet history research in my time), but when I was small the baddie in my RPG was named Keel'alla. I was verifying whether there could be any tie.
Hmm, seems that this book has made a difference on current references! Um, to forced repatriation. Maybe I should read Victims Of Yalta next, if I am honestly that serious about this kind of historical research.
Hmm, seems that this book has made a difference on current references! Um, to forced repatriation. Maybe I should read Victims Of Yalta next, if I am honestly that serious about this kind of historical research.
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March 20, 2025"The very first book to expose the betrayal of thousands of anti-Communist Russians, sent to their deaths in the USSR by Churchill and Truman." [That honour actually goes to Robert Welch's The Politician https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... in 1963]
IHR Revisionist Bibliography 1981
https://archive.is/LWkOQ
IHR Revisionist Bibliography 1981
https://archive.is/LWkOQ
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews