I know that we turned over all surrendered members of the Russian Liberation Army (the Russian Volunteers in the Wehrmacht), but did any of them survive post war?
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Most
Most unlikely !
.. As traitors to the cause, neither themselves or in fact their close family would have been spared.
(The family at minimum would have been deported to a gulag, the traitor executed.) -
There is a chance that some got away but it was very slim. If they got away it was to live somewhere other that the Soviet Union as they were executed sometimes within hearing distance of the Allies that turned them over to the Russians.Comment
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Some white Russians (French and Russian bi-lingual speaking cadre personnel) claimed French citizenship
(these were all Czar era refugees who re-settling in France when Russia became communist)
and no doubt quite a few of them definately managed to stay in the West. (they had proof of residency in France)
and survived that way (the ones who managed to become POW's in the West).
Others were stateless, meaning their French citizenship requests were not processed on time (prior to the German occupation)
and joined the French legion (and ROA units) hoping to obtain citizenship that way!
The stateless white Russians in Russian captivity no doubt were considered traitors as well. The majority of course were German held
Russian POW's who turned sides...no mercy was shown to them!Last edited by NickG; 08-16-2010, 02:43 PM.Comment
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What about cossacks? I heard that they turned them over to the Russians as well. Or did they meet the same fate?Comment
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Poa
I heard somewhere that when Allies were sending some of them to Russians, they put them in a train that was sent to Russian zone. Some of these soldiers must have smuggled daggers. When train arrived to its destination, all were dead from their own hands. They knew what awaits them and chose to kill themselves.
I don't if that was true, just heard about it. Makes sense however.
JackComment
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I heard stories about what happened in the Gulags, its understandable. Who ordered us to turn over Russian POWs?Comment
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Originally posted by Josh Beckett View Post
Josh,
if you can find a copy i can recommend "The last secret" by Nicholas Bethell.
This was reprinted in the UK in 1995 by "Penguin" books.
ISBN number 0-14-024344-5
This was the first English language account published (in 1974) when it was reprinted a new epilogue was added with information on more recent events.The book will give you a good overview of this woeful episode in the UK's history, a sad account of global real politik at work.
A smaller amount were also handed over by the US to my understanding.Comment
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A
An agreement to repatriate all combatants to their land of origin was taken by the allies at one of the last big meets (possibly Yalta).
More than likely instigated by Stalin, .. for obvious reasons on his part ...
Although, some did slip through the "net" ..... The Exile Poles ... and quite a few of the 14th SS Galicia surprisingly ...(Although an amount were "repatriated" from France ... to an almost certain fate !)
Originally posted by Josh Beckett View PostComment
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I know a man who is now in his 90s who was in the Latvian Army, then captured by the Red Army and pressed into service with them. He was then captured by the Germans and served in the Waffen SS until he was captured by the British. He served with them as a translator since he knew a plethora of languages. He made it to England after the war, then Canada, then into the USA. He probably fibbed to the Immigration folks about having served in the Waffen SS.
I knew him for well over 20 years and he never admitted to having served in the Waffen SS but I did find his name and picture in their files after a fellow WAF member researched it for me. He had told me that he had been awarded the Iron Cross and that turned out to be true.Comment
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Thats really cool. I knew a Japanese girl whose great grandpa fought in WWII in China for the Japanese, then after the war he fought for the Chinese Nationalists and later moved back to Japan.Originally posted by DennyB View PostComment
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I know of, and have heard of many POA , UPA and Cossacks survived the war..
Many UPA/14th SS ended up in Canada.. I've met a couple UPA and POA vets/families in Ukraine.
Many survived,,most gone now or on their way but they survived...Comment
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Actually I just remembered we deported a Ukrainian guard from one of the death camps. Im willing to bet that if Mother Russia got their hands on him, a jail sentence would be the last thing on his mind.Comment
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A lot of Estonian volunteers made to the so called free world as well. I've been in touch with some of them and they all have basically pointed out that no one wanted to surrender to French, because they handed all Baltic citizens over to Russians, as if Balts were rightfully Soviets. It was different with US and British, they didn't co-operate much with Russians in that case, especially Brits. Estonians and Latvians were freed from POW camps pretty soon, about 1 year after taking in, and let to join their country mates in DP camps as civilians. Around 1500 of both Latvians and Estonians were recruited by US troops to guard the Nürmberg tribunal inmatesOriginally posted by DennyB View Post
To illustrate the topic I add a little piece from Wikipedia:
In 1946, the Nuremberg Tribunal declared the Waffen-SS to be a criminal organization, making an exception of people who were forcibly conscripted. Throughout the post-war years, Allies would apply this exception to the soldiers of Latvian Legion and Estonian Legion. The US Displaced Persons Commission in September 1950 declared that:
"The Baltic Waffen SS Units (Baltic Legions) are to be considered as separate and distinct in purpose, ideology, activities, and qualifications for membership from the German SS, and therefore the Commission holds them not to be a movement hostile to the Government of the United States."
Sorry for my English, but I hope you understand the situation back then.Comment
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I once worked in a welding shop with the son of a member of the Russian Liberation Army. He said his dad earned an Eastern Peoples Medal, the son remembered it distinctly, even that is had a green ribbon, but it was lost when his house was destroyed in a bombing raid that they barely escaped. After that, his dad was shipped to Dachau along with his family. The son told me he was interned at the Dachau camp, his dad wore his uniform and strutted around like he owned the place, and he, the son, never saw anything bad going on in the camp, other that a bunch of displaced persons.
I asked the son several times over the years if I could talk to his dad about the war and his experiences, but he always said his dad had no interest in talking about it. So all I got was the son's reflections.
BTW, another guy that worked there was the son of a SS-Prinz Eugen member. He brought in an old family photo of him and his brothers and sisters as children with his dad in SS uniform and his mom. He was Volks-Deutsch from Yugoslavia. They had to leave and walk to Germany at the end of the war. This guy was fascinated that I was interested in the war and dug out the photo to show me, but no one else at the shop except the son of the ROA member.
So some members of the ROA for sure survived the war...
TomComment
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