The Allied crime against humanity WW2 (Operation Keelhaul E1)

Operation Keelhaul was the code-name given to the forced "repatriation" of millions of Soviet and non-Soviet citizens to the USSR between the years 1944 and 1947 (if not beyond). At least three major Western powers were responsible for this crime against humanity - Britain, the United States, and France - with others (Canada?) potentially also taking part. This is the first video in a multi-part series where we'll be diving into the details of what happened, and trying to figure out the motivations behind the various actors. Today, we'll look at who the people were that didn't want to go back to the Soviet Union, why they didn't want to go back, why the Soviet Union wanted them back, and what the Allies did to send them back.
To the KZbin censors: I'm NOT a Nazi, nor a Fascist, nor a Marxist, nor do I believe in any other evil totalitarian ideology. The purpose of this video is to study history so that we can avoid repeating the same mistakes in the future. If we deny history, it will repeat.
- - - -
📚 BIBLIOGRAPHY / SOURCES 📚
The Operation Keelhaul specific bibliography:
docs.google.co...
The full list of all my sources: docs.google.co...
- - - -
🔔 Subscribe for more History content: / @theimperatorknight
⏲️ Videos EVERY Monday at 5pm GMT (depending on season, check for British Summer Time).
The thumbnail for this video was created by Terri Young. Need graphics? Check out her website here www.terriyoung...
- - - -
⭐ SUPPORT TIK ⭐
This video isn't sponsored. My income comes purely from my Patreons and SubscribeStars, and from KZbin ad revenue. So, if you'd like to support this channel and make these videos possible, please consider becoming a Patreon or SubscribeStar. All supporters who pledge $1 or more will have their names listed in the videos. For $5 or more you can ask questions which I will answer in future Q&A videos (note: I'm behind with the Q&A's right now, and have a lot of research to do to catch up, so there will be a delay in answering questions). There are higher tiers too with additional perks, so check out the links below for more details.
/ tikhistory
www.subscribes...
Thank you to my current supporters! You're AWESOME!
- - - -
📽️ RELATED VIDEO LINKS 📽️
The Fate of Soviet Prisoners of War in German hands • The Fate of Soviet Pri...
The Debate over German POWs in Soviet Hands WW2 • The Debate over German...
My “Why I'm Passionate about HISTORY and What Got Me Into it” video
• Why I'm Passionate abo...
History Theory 101 • [Out of Date, see desc...
- - - -
ABOUT TIK 📝
History isn’t as boring as some people think, and my goal is to get people talking about it. I also want to dispel the myths and distortions that ruin our perception of the past by asking a simple question - “But is this really the case?”. I have a 2:1 Degree in History and a passion for early 20th Century conflicts (mainly WW2). I’m therefore approaching this like I would an academic essay. Lots of sources, quotes, references and so on. Only the truth will do.
This video is discussing events or concepts that are academic, educational and historical in nature. This video is for informational purposes and was created so we may better understand the past and learn from the mistakes others have made.

[@Legio__X]

Lets go. This is for all the people who say TIK is biased and wouldn’t cover allied crimes. Proof he’s a legit historian, and a good one.

[@TheImperatorKnight]

Yeah, I'd love to hear from all those people saying I wouldn't talk about Allied crimes. I wonder what they'll say now.

[@johnwolf2829]

@@TheImperatorKnight The Neo-Commies will probably say you did it for the exact same reason THEY would; to cover your rear and deflect any such criticism. They will also say it is a one-off and wouldn't count unless you ONLY talk about the crimes of the Western Allies for the rest of your life ... once again, just as they themselves have to do. Wait and watch it happen, probably right here in this very thread.

[@TheImperatorKnight]

@@johnwolf2829 You're right, that's what they would argue. There's no way to win with their Hegelian emotionalism. Doomed if you do, doomed if you don't...

[@julianshepherd2038]

BENGAL

[@nikolaibukharin5308]

(Copy Paste) They (fascists and collaborators) knew what they did to the "untermenschen" on the East and what punishment is gonna be... that's why they all tried to escape to the West.

[@winghungyuen2726]

Never heard of Operation Keelhaul before this. Thank you for bringing this to light and can’t wait to see you continue to cover this topic.

[@abuseofmainstreammediacanh5713]

This was, just as many, many more, rated a "conspiracy theory" and "fake news" for decades before becoming proven fact by declassified documents.... - something to meditate about.

[@Alte.Kameraden]

Also the background story of Alec Travelyan from the James Bond film Goldeneye. He was adopted by the British government after his parents were sent back to the USSR in which of course they died. So despite becoming an MI6 Agent ie 006 Alec Travelyan held a long lasting hatred for the British Government, and schemed on a way to get his revenge.

[@aleksazunjic9672]

Lot of propaganda in the video. Truth is more simplistic. Of those "repatriated" majority were in fact simply enemy combatants. They fought for the Germans against USSR, and many committed war crimes against civilian population, since they were mostly anti-partisan troops. Indirectly, they fought against Western Allies too, because they tied up Soviet troops that could be used against Germans. @TIK should learn not to take "truth" for a face value from someone called Epstein ;) And not to give them his hardly earned money.

[@Sedgewise47]

@@aleksazunjic9672 🤨You didn’t view the whole video, did you? (Either that or your viewing comprehension leaves *something* to be desired…)

[@davidperrier6149]

@@aleksazunjic9672 The truth is never simple. It's always complicated.

[@lenjapita]

A similar thing happened in Yugoslavia. The British set up camps for Yugoslav refugees in northern Italy. In 1945 they handed over more than 200,000 people (mostly Serbs and Montenegrins) to the partisans. In today's Slovenia, which borders Italy, it has been confirmed that there are 581 mass graves with over 100,000 bodies. Yugoslavia does not exist for 30 years, but no state security agency of all the new states has disclosed how many people were shot by partisans at the end of the war.

[@robertdubois3448]

They might not know. I don't imagine partisan bands kept records of who, or how many, they shot as traitors..

[@dontworryaboutit2701]

Yabem te peachka

[@PhantomLordOG]

Sounds like the British knew all along they’d send them back to their deaths. Shit is Messed up

[@luckabuse]

Why did they killed them? They should've give them medals for killing children and women, right?

[@ИгорьПищулин-ю7э]

if they were killed, there was a reason. And the reason was most likely just that they were the collaborationist bastards who deserved this bullet.

[@t5ruxlee210]

Keelhauling was a particularly rare, harsh, mostly illegal, form of punishment/execution at sea from the earliest times up into the age of sail. Whoever chose such a code name in WW2 must have been in no doubt as to its appropriateness.

[@damienflinter4585]

The offender was tied up, a rope was dropped on the windward side of the ship and retrieved on the lee side with a boathook, tied to the victim, who was then thrown overboard and hauled under the keel back to the windward (or tidal current) side (depending on conditions). The barnacles on the hull inflicted lacerations. If you survived you might be allowed recover...or the excercise might be repeated, depending on the 'offence' and level of sadism of the officers. Rum, sodomy and lash...but then ye olde Brutish navy ruling the waves evolved from the original pirates of the Caribbean pillaging the Spanish main looting the 'new world' in turn under the KKKristian 'white man's burden' to redeem the souls of the 'heathens' of choice. Monkey business.🤑🤑🤑

[@louise_rose]

These days they call it stuff like "Operation Iraqi Freedom" - a codename that was more public than secret even at the time.

[@damienflinter4585]

@@louise_rose Operation Iraqi Looting might have made a more fitting acronym, O.I.L.

[@SirPunch2Face]

@@damienflinter4585 BuT tHe DuByA eM dEeZ!!!!

[@damienflinter4585]

@@SirPunch2Face Indeed...I'll have 2 putt dat 2 d Fallujahns...if there is one left.

[@jordana.6874]

TIK I don't give a shit what anyone says you are the best online historian out there. The level of detail in your videos is fantastic. Stop listening to these clowns criticizing you, you challenge their pre conceived notions of history and it makes them butt hurt.

[@TheImperatorKnight]

I'm not taking what they say to heart, I'm just frustrated by their cognitive dissonance and cultist belief in the disaster that is Socialism despite the mountain of evidence that leaves no shadow of a doubt about the true nature of their ideology. The only counter they have is to fire off a string of dishonest questions or accusations that have either already been answered or are easily disproven, and are simply there to distract and dismiss. They're not interested in the reality, they're more concerned about not having their feelings hurt, which is why they'll never admit they're wrong even when you prove it definitively.

[@cronoros]

The fact they even called it Operation Keelhaul is pretty bad

[@juliantheapostate8295]

Maybe it's an admission of how brutal it was

[@CantusTropus]

Keelhauling is supposed to be a brutal punishment designed to force violent, strong men back into line. If that's actually how they thought of this, that's messed up. Though in fairness, they likely didn't put that much thought into it.

[@Raskolnikov70]

They were more honest about what they did in those days. Now we get stuff like MOAB carpet-bombing drops being called "Operation Fluffy Kittens" while Orwell spins in his grave even faster.

[@alphax4785]

WW2 was as brutal as any war in history and a direct result of WW1's failures... one of which was (fairly and unfairly) the 'allowance' of ethnicities and nationalities to remain mixed in areas and thus creating the conditions for handing over the Sudetenland. In response the W. Allies + Soviets created the ethnic cleansing policies that would make sure the national borders they set up would stick much harder than they did post WW1. My guesses as to the mindset is the soldiers who carried out these orders were fighting units who possibly either saw the people they were handing over as Nazis / Nazi allies AND probably had no idea what they were handing even the women and children over to since comprehending Stalin's Russia is difficult. Eisenhower, Churchill and etc., OTOH had made their agreements with Stalin and the Soviets, probably gotten some superficially false 'they'll be treated with the same respect you treat refugees / POW's' and in any and all cases weren't interested in getting into a fight with the Soviets over people who weren't British / American / French and so on. That they called it Operation Keelhaul probably means they understood the deal they'd made.

[@cronoros]

Another layer to it is that for all the accounts of soldiers being angry or upset over carrying this out, it was established that "only following orders" doesn't exculpate the soldiers carrying out the actions. FYI to anyone whose never heard of it, it was even a plot point Goldeneye but even with that it's not someting widely recalled or thought about in the west

[@jayteegamble]

Imagine setting up a system of government so ineffective that you have to fear that people who were prisoners of the nazis (!!) would be able to tell their neighbors how much better things are outside of the Soviet Union.

[@greyone40]

... as slave labourers!

[@louise_rose]

Well, it was also that Moscow suspected that some of their POWs could have been "turned" by the Nazis and trained as agents, infiltrators or spies/members of secret networks, which wasn't such a corny idea even if the response was heavy-handed. The Britiosh levelled similar suspicions against refugees from Germany, Netherland and Belgium in 1939-40, even when these refugees were clearly anti-Nazis. many of those were placed in internment camps when they arrived in the UK.

[@Blox117]

USA: bombs civilians, took land from the natives Britain: colonizes and enslaves natives, sends innocent ppl to the russians USA and Britain: GERMANY BAD!!!! War history is written by the victors.

[@scottmaclaren4695]

Joe Biden s regime of criminals and functionally retarded people comes to my minds eye

[@gregorgerzson1767]

Imagine western democracies and liberals helps this system to survive

[@Lagassejames]

As a high school student we were told this story by our civics teacher who served under General Patton, it wasn’t as vivid but he spoke of the shame of many US soldiers. He said they were told it was only collaborators that were being sent back but they soon realized it was anyone who had been in the USSR before the war. They knew in their hearts that all would be punished and many executed.

[@louise_rose]

Yes, I've heard about some of this from reading around here and there in Nordic and Central European history. Didn't know the general codename pof Keelhaul,. but I was aware of the general policies.

[@rtmclean484]

1.) General Patton was a racist pschopath who had sympathy for the Nazi's. 2.) Britain and USA sure made sure to protect certain Nazi's such as the entire waffen SS 14th division (aka the ukrainian nazi division) who were all rehomed and protected in britain. Just chekc the wiki page for operation Keelhaul

[@alexeygarmash5819]

Not even in USSR. Also there were people who never had Soviet citizenship, and left the country after bolshevics came to power.

[@lorenzbroll101]

My father told me that there were lots of Russians who 'disappeared' from Normandy once they were captured, and he always wondered what happened to them. This is really good stuff you have unearthed here!

[@233kosta]

You mean they _were disappeared_ once captured... like dissidents in communist regimes even to this day...

[@musclecarbear4704]

This has been pointed out many times in history books and documentaries, as a result of the Yalta Conference and the agreement s signed at that conference. That said, it was much earlier than this, these actions were secretly agreed with.

[@dfgggg89]

One of my history teachers was an OSS officer during the war and he participated in operation keelhaul. He told me a horror story about it. He was to escort a train full of former Soviet prisoners of war. When the train stopped before the border to take on water and coal, he went to open the train cars to let the soldiers stretch their legs. A deluge of blood poured out of the doors. The soldiers in mass took their own dog tags and used them to cut their wrists. They were that desperate not to go back.

[@swiftbobber]

When you realize the elite scum parasite freemason pricks control all countries it will make sense

[@Dani92670]

I learned of similar incidents regarding this. Many chose to commit suicide over going to Soviet Union. Many weren't even from there & sent there.

[@harukrentz435]

Were they traitors of what?

[@dfgggg89]

@@harukrentz435 By our standards no. By Stalins standards anyone surendering to the NAZIs or spent time with other allied forces were traitors.

[@Jamespwickstromw]

@@dfgggg89 in Stalins mind you were just cattle or a beasts who had seen to much, the same thing happend to Soviet Soldiers who entered europe for the first time, after seeing houses,paved roads and private property they had been 'tainted' in Stalins eyes and send to the gulags.

[@agat882]

As a russian - thank you so much for surfacing this topic! I am familiar with it, but, alas, especially with Putinism, idealisation of WWII and craking down on opposition, it is largely forgotten and shunned in "modern" russia. Thank you so much for your work!

[@233kosta]

Make no mistake, Putin is just as much a bolshevik as Stalin was. He was bred in the KGB and wants "his" old vassals... err... _republics_ back. That's why he's given himself totalitarian power in Russia. The only real difference is that he doesn't outwardly pretend to care about his people. Back in those days, party members at least wore a thin veneer of "caring for the nation". To that end, expect censorship, propaganda and persecution of anyone who disagrees with his narrative. 😞

[@agat882]

@@233kosta Absolutely agree! Sad to say, but even I didn't think, that he will start such an open war. Now I only hope and do what I realistically can in here, that this bloody madness would be the end for him and his outright fascist regime... If you live in a free contry, please consider talking to your government representative to support Ukraine now and hopefully - liberation of Russia in future...

[@233kosta]

@@agat882 Hmm... He comes across as more of a nazi than a fascist to me 🤔 ... Not sure... As for free countries, I'll let you know when I find one 😞 Realistically though, the only solution to this insanity, at least as far as Russia is concerned, is to depose him from within. Trouble is that just like in Bulgaria (where I'm from) and every other supposedly former "people's republic", after 70 years of totalitarian socialism, the Russian people are completely defeated. This makes an uprising of the required magnitude highly unlikely. Only other hope is a military coup, and to be honest I don't see how the new regime that follows would be any better than the current one ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Running out of ideas here 😶 I get your point about getting the west to step in, but that creates further problems of its own. For instance, among the many reasons the Ukrainians are able to put up a fight, this isn't the kind of war Russian soldiers were trained to fight. This is the same problem the west had in Iraq and Afghanistan - strategy and tactics wholly incompatible with the realities of that particular war. They're at a further disadvantage because they've been ordered to invade their own friends and neighbours. The propaganda may have worked in the training camp, but reality tends to be a pretty good cure against that and they're getting a hefty dose of that every day. The west entering the conflict changes that in two ways. First, it gives Russian soldiers a real enemy to fight, and one which wasn't invented a few months ago. Second, now the war is regular army vs regular army, where their strategy and tactics are infinitely more effective. That runs the risk of the west underestimating their true effectiveness (as usual) and losing the whole country in a matter of weeks. Short of offing the dicktator (and whoever is behind him), the best the west can do is supply the Ukrainians with every weapon they can take.

[@rammusannus5364]

@@agat882 Consider emigrating

[@chico9805]

@@agat882 "Liberation of Russia", lol.

[@chrisdaley4897]

The memory of this played must have played a strong role in the negotiations to end the Korean War. The repatriation of POWs was a major sticking point in the armistice talks and was one of if not the major reason the war dragged on an extra year after it was clear that neither side was going to win a decisive victory. The Chinese and North Koreans insisted that all POWs be returned and the UN side said it should be up to the individual prisoners. Ultimately an India proposal was adopted that set up a neutral body that would handle the return of POWs and as a result more than 22,000 Chinese and North Korean POWs refused to be returned.

[@DawnOfTheDead991]

Good point

[@luckabuse]

Were they trialed for what they did to citizens of Korea?

[@johnhasley8008]

A "current history" that I read maybe 30+ years ago said exactly that. That the Allies had repatriated various "Russian" POW's and had not been happy at the way that turned out. At the time that was the first I had heard of it, and I didn't look further.

[@commissarkordoshky219]

Always remember, lads. The goverment is NEVER your friend.

[@maude7420]

The history classes I receive all do the same pro statist propaganda stuff and I felt disgusted all the way through But what can I do about it ,I'm French and the country is king for that

[@johnseppethe2nd2]

@@maude7420 >the country is king for that Ironic since France is a republic

[@Wallyworld30]

@@johnseppethe2nd2 France is a trip. They will put tracking devices on Immigrants but also feed them and give them shelter. I do know African immigrants love France compared to their other European countries.

[@DrCruel]

The difference between Bolshevism, National Socialism, Maoism and other forms of socialism is the brand name.

[@maude7420]

@@DrCruel They all want the same thing out of you,they just do shady shit in the same of whatever suits their theory

[@General_Rubenski]

You should do more topics on Allied War Crimes during and post WW2. Its not something a lot of western audiences know or learn about but I do think its extremely important that we do so. They may not be on par with Nazi or Soviet atrocities, but they still are crimes against humanity and they should also be discussed to understand why and what we did in order to learn and teach people that anyone is capable of such crimes. And hopefully to avoid such crime in the future.

[@gregpaul882]

The real trick is to teach everyone that war crimes aren’t a real thing.

[@mariag3605]

History is written by the Victors... If you told people what the allies did to German civilians, both during and after the war, they would never believe you - they'd have a severe case of cognitive dissonance...

[@stevelawrence5123]

The classic movie "The Third Man" set in post war Vienna, deals with this horrible period and the allied officers; distaste for their orders. Sweden fearing a Soviet invasion "repatriated" civilians from the Baltic states and there was a book about 16 people escaping in an old leaky 30 foot wooden sailboat crossing the Atlantic to the US because they knew the Russians would kill them. Danna West also deals with it in her book "American Betrayal" and points out absurdity of the USSR sitting in judgment of the Germans at Nuremberg accused of starting the war because both Germany and the USSR acting together started the war.

[@Worrun]

Recently discovered your channel and have been enjoying ever since. Love the detailed and passionate explanations/research. Best of luck to you Tik and thank you very much!

[@TheImperatorKnight]

Welcome! Glad you've enjoying the videos and I hope to see you getting stuck into the debates in the comments 👍

[@chalsfo]

now pay the Genies!

[@bakters]

@@TheImperatorKnight "debates in the comments" Okay, let's debate why those people preferred the suicide over the return to the Soviet Union. You seem to argue, that they simply loved the free world so much, aka communism is worse than death, which suits your narrative and political views (mine do not differ by much, just to be clear on this). I argue, that they knew what they have done, so they expected a fate worse than death, therefore they chose to escape it by more painless means. Sending them off was not a crime against humanity. Sending off the innocent, and I'm sure there were quite a few of those mixed in the broad stroke of global politics, was a crime, at worst. However, not a crime against humanity. To fall into that category, the Allies would need to purposefully oppress some populations and commit atrocities against them. I argue that nothing of the sort happened here.

[@billd2635]

Thats a supposition tho. Would it hold up in court? I think you may have a point to some degree. But I'm not a lawyer.

[@bakters]

@@billd2635 What is a supposition? That there was no systemic oppression against a population here? I find it hardly debatable.

[@kaiserconquests1871]

You deserve much praise for your detailed explanation of many events in history that do not receive enough attention. Well done.

[@justinevert1504]

Guten tag, mein Kaiser!

[@AFGuidesHD]

26:08 "Life as slave labourers in Germany had been better than life in Commie Russia" lmao

[@therealspeedwagon1451]

Both absolutely suck but I’d never want to be even associate with Nazis.

[@AFGuidesHD]

@@therealspeedwagon1451 I suspect a lot of these slave labourers were accommodated quite well, living with normal civilians in a first world country. But then again I'm only basing that on a photo I saw of well dressed Polish labourers in a German city after Allied conquest and the quote TIK used in this video.

[@therealspeedwagon1451]

@@AFGuidesHD they were not even close to well accommodated. They were literally tortured, experimented on, dehumanized, only given 400 calories a day and were gassed and burned after all of that.

[@3dcomrade]

@@AFGuidesHD thats why even the Czechs. That got the best treatment still sabotages production. Just like the slaves on camps

[@SVASH-hz5ji]

Better dead than red

[@AFGuidesHD]

20:29 imagine the outrage if someone made a movie with this scene.

[@o-matt3570]

That would go crazy😭😭

[@ArcticTemper]

Oh please, nobody cares when they're portrayed as bad guys.

[@FiveLiver]

Sounds like pure invention. Don't tell Mel Gibson he will make a movie out of it.

[@nnass262]

​@@FiveLiverpure invention are the allied fairy tales of 1 dude stopping a German battalion and a pilot shopting a zero and killing its pilot

[@apendragon53]

I might not always agree with you on some topics, but I highly respect you. Especially great effort you put in making your videos. I really like how you show different POVs on things and don’t make statements like “dis good, dis bad”. And you cover a lot of different topics as well. All in all, TIK, you are doing amazing job, please carry on doing high quality content.

[@OrixDalgrath]

Ever since I read Victims of Yalta, I was hoping for more people to start talking about this topic. Great work as always, TIK.

[@TheImperatorKnight]

It's a good book!

[@joethegeographer]

I'm glad to see someone finally tackling this very painful subject, which has been neglected for far too long in my humble opinion. Thanks!

[@BeyondTheGrave84]

This reminds me of a story my grandfather told me years ago: During The Continuation War here in Finland, Soviet prisoners of war were used as laborers at the farms. This was allowed to ease the manpower shortage and to decrease pow mortality rates. Grandpa remembered there being at least a couple of these pows working near his home. They were allowed to move freely arround and to visit other pows, even though this was officially not allowed. When the war ended in 1944, they were forced to return back to the USSR, even though they wanted to stay and continue to work and live in that town they were stationed. Nobody knows what their fate was after they were fetched by the officials. Finland also received a lot of "ethnic finns" and estonians and their families from german pow and consentration camps during the war and integrated them to our society as citizens. Just like with those russian prisoners, these people had to be returned to the USSR against their will. Some escaped and made it to Sweden, but the rest went to gulags. After the collapse of the USSR in the 1990s, were these people allowed to come back to Finland. Excellent video about a topic that tends to get swept under the rug, can't wait for part 2.

[@ИгорьПищулин-ю7э]

"This was allowed to ease the manpower shortage and to decrease pow mortality rates." Yes, very. Of the 67 thousand soldiers and officers of the Red Army who went through the Finnish captivity, more than 20 thousand died in the Finnish camps. And that's not counting civilian deaths, because according to the recollections of eyewitnesses, the Finnish occupation was no better than the German one.

[@SmotritelMayaka29]

@@ИгорьПищулин-ю7э There are photo documents of Finnish concentration camps. I saw a few, there were photos of civilians and children who looked like skeletons suffering from malnutrition. And although this information is easy to find on the Internet, Finns still prefer to play the victim.

[@popsey72]

@@SmotritelMayaka29 hahaha, you left children, old, sick and other weak pepole without Food in the harm of the enemy and, i know thoses picture, the kids looks healthy

[@popsey72]

@@ИгорьПищулин-ю7э complete BS 1/3 if the Finns captuted by UssR where also killed so Finland treated there POW as good or bad as USSR.

[@ИгорьПищулин-ю7э]

@@popsey72First, let's count the number of Finnish prisoners and how many of them returned home. And secondly, the Soviets did not hand over Jews to the Nazis.

[@s.31.l50]

I hope this is going to be a series! Absolutely eye-opening stuff!

[@TheImperatorKnight]

It is going to be a series. There's at least two more videos planned.

[@royalsmak6997]

@@TheImperatorKnight When can we expect the next video, Tik? This was one of the best videos you've made, and I've pretty much seen all your videos.

[@markotisovic8233]

@@TheImperatorKnight You could also do part on Yugoslavs returned to Tito's Yugoslavia. Brits told them "we are goint to transport you to Italy" loaded them on trains and british guard dissapeared and was replaced with Tito's troops.

[@yzmey42113]

@@TheImperatorKnight Please do a video on the Russian Protective Corps, they were Russian emigres, or children of emigres, many of them participated in Russian civil war, and were Russian cadets (military school in Russia before the bolsheviks). They emigrated to Serbia with Pytor Wrangel, and during WW2 they were fighting against the communists. When the Soviets came, a lot of them luckily managed to escape, and lots moved to western countries. Those who did not escape, were shot by the Soviets and thrown into a big ditch, it happened in the Serbian town of Bila Cerkva. To this day, there's a big Orthodox cross near that place to remind everyone of what happened. In the 90s, a lot of the former cadets came back to Russia, to restore Russian culture, Orthodoxy and Russian cadet military culture. God bless them!

[@heijimikata7181]

@@TheImperatorKnightI’ve read that British general Sir James Steele saved commander Anatoli Rogozhin and elements of the Russian Protective Corps that were due to be repatriated under Operation Keelhaul. He was a stand-up man, as these people had not faced any trial at the time!

[@berndf.k.1662]

It would be also interesting to learn how much of the statistical Soviet POW victims in German captivity in fact lost their life after repatriation to the USSR.

[@namesurname624]

Eventually 100%

[@AtlasAugustus]

The non-partisan scope of history you provide TIK is one of the most important parts of watching this channel for me. In the beginning as with all channels I expected to find yet another set of bias viewpoints but was ultimately proven differently

[@TheImperatorKnight]

I have got a bias (everyone has), but I try to overcome that by examining all the various points of view, then seeing which arguments are the best. I'm glad you stuck with the channel to find out that I'm not pushing the agenda of a particular 'side' though 👍

[@mickcraven980]

@@TheImperatorKnight I'm a longtime listener, though I can't bring myself to watch your (critical?) treatment of Gen. Stillwell as I think the Burma theater presented a unique set of formidable military and political challenges. My first trip to Burma was in the 90s, by the way. Anyway, thanks for a thoughtful, challenging, and informative body of work.

[@AtlasAugustus]

In comparison though your work is refreshing, thanks TIK.

[@grandoldgamer2842]

@@TheImperatorKnight *This may be a long comment but please read to the very end and perhaps reply your thoughts on this.* This comment is not meant to defame you or insult your intelligence. I truly like your historical videos,. I sincerely believe they are the best on KZbin. (I enjoy it so much that I go on your channel everyday just to see if you uploaded some more content to watch). However what I don't like are people like what your doing now, defending traitors and collaborators, such are very vile people. I know you are not stupid and know the many collaboration units in WW2 from France to Scandinavia to the Balkans all the way to Russia. Either working under the Wehrmacht or the SS, with such units being too many to count as there were thousands of such people. And as you know with collaboration units doing sometimes even worse than the Germans and even the SS, such as how the Croatians fascist Ustaše. A few days before Yugoslavia's capitulation, Ante Pavelić's Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was established as an Axis-affiliated state, with Zagreb as capital. Between 1941 and 1945, the fascist Ustaše regime carried out government-led collaboration with Nazi Germany, as well as extensive persecution independent of them. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum this resulted in the murder of approximately 30,000 Jews, between 25,000 and 30,000 Roma (also known as Gypsies), and between 320,000 and 340,000 ethnic Serb residents of Croatia and Bosnia, in camps like the infamous Jasenovac concentration camp. They even created special contration camps for children, and committed such heinous crimes that even the SS were shocked. These were the only axis country to kill more non-Jews than Jews. Soldiers that came home from fighting against the Soviet Union would be often wondering where their families were, not knowing that they were already killed. So if the SS were shocked by the level of crimes against humanity their collaborators were doing, then you know that what they were doing was very very bad. And I understand, starvation is bad and can lead people to very dark places and practices such as cannibalism. And I would understand why some leapt to collaborate with the Germans (am talking about those that joined because of starvation and not for anti-communist reasons) But, after all of that: the 2.8 million Soviet civilians that were enslaved by the Germans, the 5.7 million Soviet soldiers that surrendered to the Germans in which 3.1 and 3.7 million murdered by the Germans, the Nazis could only bring out just 800,000 to 1 million collaborators. That just shows the adversity and tenacity of the Russians and the Soviet peoples as a whole. Collaboration with Nazi Germany in German-occupied Ukraine took place during the occupation of what is now Ukraine by Nazi Germany in World War II. Even when the Germans conquered all of the Ukraine only 80, 000 Ukrainians joined as collaborators, while some 7 million Ukrainians served in the Red Army, including over 350 Marshals and Generals, a fifth of the Soviet Army. By the time the Red Army returned to Ukraine, a significant number of the population welcomed its soldiers as liberators. More than 4.5 million Ukrainians joined the Red Army to fight Nazi Germany, and more than 250,000 served in Soviet partisan paramilitary units, dwarfing the numbers of Hiwis and occupation troops and other anti-Soviet soldiers, even in the early years of the war. Even Stalin's own son got locked up in prison and he didn't save his life. Yes, Stalin's son, Yakov Dzhugashviliwas was captured on 16 July during the Battle of Smolensk. Stalin reacted negatively to the news: he had previously ordered that no soldiers were to surrender, so the idea that his own son had done so was seen as a disgrace. Stalin even refused for a prisoner exchange, after Kurt Daluege offered Stalin back his captured son if General Paulus was returned to the Germans and commented "A Lieutenant is not worth a General!" So in Stalin's eyes, as well as almost every Soviet solider of the Red Army that surrendered was a coward and a traitor. He also commented that "there are no Soviet prisoners of war", to him they were as good as dead, even his son. He, of course had to set an example, for the rest of Soviet society to follow. He could not bring his son back good and healthy while people were losing whole families to the war, some of which you could find such a Soviet woman who had to burry her third and last child who was a general, and the famous female sniper who had basically her whole family dead. And he could not think of all the sacrifices the Soviet people had went to, from the starvation in Leningrad, to the defence of Moscow and battle waging on in Stalingrad that people would stand up and surrender and not fight to the death, even if they had no bullets. Such a thing is unforgiveable, which is why he said that "you would have to be very brave to surrender in the Red Army." Numerous military groups composed of ethnic Russians were formed under Nazi command , such as the notorious Waffen-Sturm-Brigade RONA, infamous due to its atrocities in Belarus and Poland, and the 30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS. As I said before, some collaborators behaved worse than the Germans did, because the Wehrmacht soldiers was given orders to not target civilians, the collaborators had no such orders and such committed very bad crimes. Literally ask any Byelorussian who was a citizen at the time they will tell you very harrowing stories of such events. In fact, most of the collaborators in WW2 in the eastern front were done out of opportunism. Some may have genuinely be anti-communist, but most wanted to save themselves without caring for the lives of others. Even when the war was basically almost lost, some collaborators switched sides and fought against the Germans hoping that they would be treated better, but such opportunism is not tolerated by Stalin who had strong and firm convictions in what he believed and the actions he conducted. To those white Russians and former Soviet soldiers and civilians turned collaborators is obviously the gulag for them, except for the top people and officers. For them it is a show trail and execution. Everyone knew their sentence for treason is execution so whether the court was fair or not does not matter, they will be executed either way. The Slavic peoples were perceived as "racially inferior" by the Nazis. It was only when, in view of the difficulties faced in their invasion of the Soviet Union, the Nazis attempted to harness the anti-communist sentiment of civilians in Soviet Union for political gain. Those that did collaborate were idiots, even if the Germans had won the war, they would have been either enslaved or killed them. His plan wasn't to simply occupy the Soviet Union like he did in France, Belgium or any other part of Europe, instead the Soviet Union was going to be different. They were going to systematically exterminate the population, and the few that remained was to be their slaves, while their land was repopulated by the German colonial settlers. That is why he did not declare an independent Ukraine, or was reluctant to allow Slavs in his army. I could say much more, but I will leave you with that. If you want more information I would gladly give you. When World War II just broke out, the Germans didn’t expect at all their enemy would resist so much. Their soldiers, brave, initiative and dedicated, faced the great endurance and incredible strength of the Russians. But not only these qualities helped the latter win the war…. Even Adolf Hitler (recorded on 28.1 1942) had said: “When I remember that Frederick the Great confronted the enemy possessing the twelvefold superiority in strength, I seem just a simpleton to myself. At this time we do have the superiority in strength! Is not that a shame?” General Eric Rouse had said: “The fact that the Red Army soldiers continued to fight in the most hopeless situations, totally unconcerned about their own lives, can be largely attributed to the brave behaviour of commissioners. The difference between the Russian Imperial Army during World War I and the Red Army in the days of the German invasion was simply colossal. During the last war the Russian army was more like an amorphous mass, physical inactive and devoid of individuality. This time, the spiritual uplift caused by the ideas of communism already started to affect them in the summer of 1941.” And after all of this I will leave you with this quote: "World War II was fought for the abolition of racial exclusiveness, equality of nations and the integrity of their territories, liberation of enslaved nations and restoration of their sovereign rights, the right of every nation to arrange its affairs as it wishes, economic aid to nations that have suffered and assistance to them in attaining their material welfare, restoration of democratic liberties, and destruction of the Hitlerite regime." -Joseph Stalin

[@AtlasAugustus]

@@grandoldgamer2842 *revels in civilizational collapse and decay* ^^

[@ShinSheel]

Thank you a lot, TIK. As Ukrainian I rarely hear about the scale of forced repatriations and never about numbers. Even people very critical of communists talk about some other cases, since repatriations are just not connected to any modern political issue.

[@floydlooney6837]

FDR had some fascist-leanings himself, emulating Italian economics and such. Keelhaul sounds like a political decision not a military one.

[@jic1]

FDR was also the driving force behind the internment camps for Japanese-Americans. Of course you can have some bad policies and dubious principles and still be a good president, but I really wonder if FDRs high reputation is actually justifiable in any way.

[@royalsmak6997]

@@jic1 He stepped all over the consitution and broke tradition with his 4th term. He was a disgraceful president who prolonged the depression with his new deal, the only credit I'm willing to give him is that he was pretty hands off when it came to the war. He more or less let the generals do their thing.

[@floydlooney6837]

@@jic1 FDR was terrible on many fronts

[@natekaufman1982]

@@royalsmak6997 He also helped rig local elections in Tennessee.

[@petarmiletic997]

@@jic1 He was probably the worst US president in the last 100 years (minus last 9 months)

[@Jemson]

This video prompted me to archive all your videos on a hard drive, all in full quality. Great video and courageous of you to publish about such subject. Love your content, keep up the good work, cheers

[@shogomakishima7224]

I actually never heard of Operation Keelhaul. Well done Tik.

[@jamesmortimer4016]

It´s not repatriation, it´s extradition. The soviet state declared them criminals afterall

[@Serby665]

I'm going to watch this now, in the off chance it gets censored in the future. Respect for TIK for documenting the dark corners of history.

[@nicholasconder4703]

TIK, I remember my mother telling me about this horrendous episode some 40+ years ago. How Russian and Polish ex-soldiers were sent back to the USSR and Communist Poland. How Russian emigres who had been living in France since the 1920s were shipped back to Russia. The men and women crying as they were loaded or sat on the trains. I am not sure if she saw this first-hand after the war while she was stationed with the British Army in Germany, or if she heard about it indirectly. I never asked (but I should have), but from her descriptions I suspect she must have witnessed some of this happening in person. I also remember her saying it was one of the greatest criminal acts that she knew of, and how upset she was about it. And this from someone who had visited Bergen-Belsen two weeks after the camp had been liberated.

[@DaveSCameron]

A clear skid mark on the Allied crusade for Jewish freedom..

[@Mtlmshr]

I have watched a few of your videos on different topics and I must say that I do like the way you approach each topic and you appear to be very fact oriented based on on the reference material you show at the time along with being honest about how things may change when new facts may come to light. This is a breath of fresh air in today’s society, so thank you.

[@timothybrady2749]

I have never known about this tragedy. Simply outrageous!! Not surprised this information remains sealed in archives to cover the complicity of Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Marshall, and their British counterparts. This shameful episode needs to be disseminated widely. German POWs held by the Allies speak about the former Soviet citizens held prisoner with them disappearing. Absolutely shameful.

[@charlesnelson5187]

When I was at Warwick University in the mid 1970s I met another working class student who came from Liverpool. He told me a story of how his father...a dock worker in Liverpool during the 1940s...witnessed a ship being loaded with prisoners being sent back to Russia. According to my friend's father one of the prisoners...rather than be sent back... cut his own throat with the barbed wire used to prevent escape. My friend had no cause to fabricate this...it was told to him by his father...and now I am telling it to you.

[@abeaboud272]

I could have sent you a PDF copy of that book and saved you 400 pounds my good man! This is good stuff, so back to the video!

[@TheImperatorKnight]

Really!? Nuts! 😢

[@juliantheapostate8295]

@@TheImperatorKnight Don't worry, the value will if anything, go up in future. I can't see it being republished with the way the world is going

[@Raskolnikov70]

If you haven't already, submit that PDF to places like Project Guttenberg and other free online libraries. I'm sure there are other people who would be interested.

[@abeaboud272]

@@Raskolnikov70 The edition I have was published in 1975. I think it's probably under copyright still. US sites have gotten stricter about copyright books and videos. I had to delete some of my teaching materials as a result of that. You need "permission".

[@diatonicdelirium1743]

TIK likes books, the raw stuff ;)

[@אלכסנדרהברעקוסטי]

This should be interesting.

[@TheImperatorKnight]

FIRST!

[@HolyShitNew]

second

[@sof5858]

Third

[@vesalaaksonen8015]

Fourth!no metalli.winners make history

[@johnwolf2829]

FDR, a Democrat.... just as Ho' Biden is today. Makes what is happening now in Afghanistan easier to comprehend, doesn't it?

[@theowlfromduolingo7982]

And that’s the second crime: no public discussions, no discussions in parlaments, no so called justice for the victims and no mentioning in history books. We just don’t know about it

[@tonysplit9488]

Not to speak about the English post WW2 war crime against Croatian POWs and civilians in Bleiburg/Austria handed over to the Yugoslav Communist butchers violating Geneva Convention

[@Boxmediaphile]

This is content I expect from Mark Felton. Good to see I’m subbed to other great channels like TIK

[@randyhavard6084]

I think you do a great job explaining these historical events. It's hard to see how these horrible governments managed to stay in power for so long.

[@aww2historian]

Exactly how is this different from the Holocaust? It would be incredible to see a big cinema production team make a historically accurate film of these events to the degree of intensity seen in Schindler's List, the Pianist, the Boy in Striped Pajamas or Come and See. That may be the only way for the public to become more conscious of the true nature of our institutions. Thank you for this video. Let's hope one day those archives are opened up to the public.

[@maude7420]

It would probably get censored for being "too offensive" or "controversial"

[@ianto1150]

I read "Victims of Yalta" many years ago. I still have the copy of the book. It is tragic and very moving. It is good that you are bringing this subject to public attention again. Excellent video. Many thanks.

[@BigMeechEJ25]

26:05 Jesus, what a line. Really makes you think what some of their lives were like. Thanks for covering this TIK, I have heard of just general repats but nothing to this extent. Great work.

[@TheEvilmooseofdoom]

Yeah, the most I had heard was that prisoners were repatriated and some against their will. No details and no numbers.

[@jimcronin2043]

Not long ago I would have been skeptical of this account because I would have been sure that my country (USA) would not have been responsible for such a thing. But now that we can see what is happening in Afghanistan, I am sure that it occurred just as stated. It is a bitter shame done in the name of people who would never had consented to it.

[@hernerweisenberg7052]

You mean after americans massmurdered millions of (american) Indians to take their land, after massmurdereing thousands of civilians in the Philippine-American war, after dropping nukes on cities just so the japanese would surrender to the west and not to the Soviets, after their war crimes in Korea and Vietnam, it took recent events in Afghanistan to reveal to you that the white knight in his shiny armor may have a rotten heart? (not ment as US bashing, but as we say in germany, everybody got corpses in their cellar)

[@jimcronin2043]

@@hernerweisenberg7052 As a German I would have thought that you would be more grateful to a nation who (along with other nations) saved the German people from themselves.

[@hernerweisenberg7052]

@@jimcronin2043 That has nothing to do with that. More like as a german, im used to foreigners pointing their fingers at us so much that they don't look back at whats hidden in their past ;)

[@Nightfighter82]

@@hernerweisenberg7052 LOL The US did not drop bombs on Japan to get them to surrender to use and not the Soviets. Stop your revisionist history. One of the dumbest things I've heard. The Soviets weren't even involved in the Pacific.

[@Nightfighter82]

@@jimcronin2043 We, the US, continue to guarantee German Sovereignty and Safety all while Germany refused to pay what is necessary to maintain their own security.

[@lutherdorn2206]

Only eight minutes in and had to stop to give praise. Excellent as usual. Now back to the the video.

[@salokin3087]

Thanks for covering this, previous I only saw bizzaro nazi-apologists bring this up so seeing it finally covered and backed by sources is really helpful.

[@TheImperatorKnight]

It's funny how they would bring this up even though the evidence for it is sparse due to most of it being under lock and key, yet dismiss the mountain of evidence we have for the H. (Not saying the full H word due to KZbin censoring my comments.)

[@yodwichalanna3880]

@@TheImperatorKnight They cannot accept the funding of AH by the banksters either, or the incessant little details like Kurt Eisner, Erik Jan Hanussen. Doubt you can accept these things either. Best way to win a war is to own both sides, that includes the Axis... around which the revolution takes place. Who created the Bolsheviks again? Suddenly the Dodd Report to the Reece Commission starts to make a whole lot of sense. Though perhaps not to you old bean.

[@TheImperatorKnight]

@@yodwichalanna3880 "They cannot accept the funding of AH by the banksters either... Who created the Bolsheviks again?" I have Sutton's books on the funding of Hitler and the Bolsheviks. While I know central banks are a crime against humanity, I'm not convinced by the argument or the evidence that Hitler was funded by the West. I may end up doing a video on the topic, so I'll explain then. - "or the incessant little details like Kurt Eisner, Erik Jan Hanussen. Doubt you can accept these things either. Suddenly the Dodd Report to the Reece Commission starts to make a whole lot of sense." Honestly I don't know what you're referring to with these.

[@industrialman8296]

Mountain of evidence such as the population of Jews actually being larger after the war compared to the beginning as per the Red Cross?

[@CantusTropus]

@@industrialman8296 Source? And besides, expecting a headcount in a ruined country to be accurate is idealistic at best. What would have to happen for you to be wrong? One organisation would have had to make a mistake. What would have to happen for me to be wrong? Nearly everything we know about the H would have to be fabricated. One is far more likely than the other.

[@28ebdh3udnav]

Thank you for covering this. Back when I was a sophomore in High school, I had to stop the whole class for one minute, quickly searched up pictures on Google, and proved to everyone in my class that even my own country committed in WW2

[@66kbm]

Is there no way of obtaining the Official British Records of this, i will use the word Atrocitiy, through the "Freedom of Information Act" through Parliament? Records only have a limited, hidden life span. As mentioned below, probably the best and meaningful video done to date. Quite a shocker.

[@TheImperatorKnight]

Unfortunately, the "Freedom of Information Act" and similar don't apply to all records - such as those in the Secret Service Archives, or the Royal Archives etc.

[@LawrenceTimme]

The only information that's free is the information they want you to know

[@crasher303]

Well done for bring this terrible incident back into the light. I can remember a libel trial back in 1970 about one of officers responsible for the transports.

[@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623]

Considering that Allied soldiers carried out these orders this shows how easy it is for authorities to turn decent people into people willing to carry out unspeakable acts. It's not just totalitarian government that can make people do bad things and so If you think this could never happen here, think again.

[@michaelkovacic2608]

Thanks for making this, will watch it later! Did you know of the Bleiburg repatriations? They happened basically next to where I live, a very beautiful and prosperous region today.

[@TheImperatorKnight]

That was actually mentioned in one of the books (think it was Epstein's book), and I may cover that later in the series.

[@picklejarmonsterfanboy9367]

But those in Bleiburg were actual traitors and deserved to be shot for the genocide they commited.

[@powerfly777]

Oh, WW2 in balkans, this is toxic to the max.

[@picklejarmonsterfanboy9367]

@@Tony-zh1kz oh no, they killed literal monsters, who cares about the literal hundreds of thousand Serb civilians, these 1000 nazis are the real victims.

[@Kintabl]

Boo hoo! Those Ustashe were some serious war criminals. They got what they deserve. So don't equate someone that was POW or was fighting for tsar with literal murderers of men, women and children.

[@mcdonie1975]

This video is another great reason why TIK deserves support on Patreon. Well done sir

[@kevinbrown4073]

really respect you Tik for addressing less known topics including Allied war crimes

[@robertyang4365]

What a coincidence, I was reading the Gulag Archipelago and just got to the bit where Solzhenitsyn was recounting how the British beat Cossack villagers (if I remember correctly), trying to round them up for forced repatriation (much to my surprise and horror), despite them not wanting to return to their Fatherland. Thank you for doing a video on this, haven’t watched it yet, but knowing your content, I’m sure it will be interesting and enlightening.

[@ИгорьПищулин-ю7э]

of course they didn't want to. They will have to answer there for collaboration and massacres in the USSR, Poland, Yugoslavia and Italy.

[@Kipkat13]

Very glad to hear you discuss this topic. Have you heard of Helmuth von Pannwitz? He was the Feldataman (Germanization of the Cossack term for "the big cheese") of Germany's Cossack forces. He too was betrayed by the allies despite bringing his forces to them for safety. Despite his German citizenship providing him with an opportunity to escape, he chose to stay with his men and was executed by the Soviets.

[@ESCAPEGOAT.]

TIK does not fear to touch anything regarding WW2, nice :). It is becoming more and more apparent, even to the general public, that no participant of the war did heroic things, rather the opposite. I hope that someday it will be known to most, that all wars of greater scale are manipulated from beginning to the end. And thank you for the ´recommendation´ of the book ´Hitler was a british agent´. You were right, the writing style is terrible, which in total undermines the already partly (or mostly) controversial content heavily.

[@macblackadder93]

Ok, now that makes Golden Eye a bit more logical. Only that I never knew it had an actual name of said Operation. Thanks for clearing that one up.

[@martialphantom362]

This whole story makes my stomach turn. What unbelievable treachery.

[@mikebellis5713]

Thank you for this unbiased story - very refreshing. The allies have a lot to answer for, especially Roosevelt. How about Hess, and why the Hess papers have still not been publicised, 80 years on. What did Churchill want hidden?

[@gumdeo]

Probably some high-level support for peace with Germany.

[@generalleedle6883]

Hey Tik, I just want to point out that before his capture Vlasov wasnt really anti communist. In his letters to his wives he praised Stalin, and he was praised by 'Pravda' for his actions during the battle of Moscow. However his experince at Mysnoi Bor might have changed his thoughts on the soviet union. Personally the more I read into him the more I see, a person who is faking it till he makes it, in this case saving his own skin.

[@TheImperatorKnight]

He doesn't appear to have been anti-Communist before his capture (although it is debated), so I agree with you there. But by the time we get to the two manifestos, it's pretty clear that he had become more liberal in his outlook.

[@Raskolnikov70]

@@TheImperatorKnight Seems like it would be hard to prove he (or most Soviets, for that matter) was anti-communist while he was still under Soviet control. Because of the Red Terror going on in the 30's any sort of anti-Soviet statement or expression would have meant a prison sentence - at best. And plenty of people who weren't against communism were rounded up as well, so most people just kept their heads down and mouths shut regardless of their personal politics.

[@filterrunner9964]

*"In his letters to his wives"* Letters that were likely to be read by _other people_ - and with him being aware of that - you mean:)

[@ИгорьПищулин-ю7э]

Vlasov had no motivation for betraying his country, except for a personal selfish desire to live. He was in good standing with Stalin and the central committee. He had everything. But in a difficult situation, he chose to be a coward. In fact, he is the antipode of General Dmitry Karbyshev, who, after being captured, rejected all the proposals of the German, for which he was severely executed by the Nazis.

[@ИгорьПищулин-ю7э]

@@Raskolnikov70 what is Vlasov's personal motivation to be an anti-communist? He, the thirteenth child of a poor peasant, owed absolutely everything to the communists.

[@DukeExeter]

Thank you TIK as always for uncovering history thats brand new to me. Its amazing how much history from just the past century gets brushed under the rug. It's these painful truths that we all need to learn to help us better understand why the world is like what it is today.

[@SCjunk]

Don't know if it is mentioned in next part but Harold Macmillin (later Lord Stockton) and head of the Macmillin press -the PM mentioned in the compensation claim was actually a senior liasion officer who over viewed the handing back of Cossaks that had surrendered to the Allies in Italy in 1945, not that he would have gotten his hands dirty like the major mentioned at Lens (major is hardly a high rank). The likes of Macmillin would never get there hands dirty they are above that in class but the blood stain on their hands should be made known to the world.

[@markkelly9621]

Apparently former Ukrainian member of the SS Galician division were not repatriated as we thought they might be useful in the cold war. So we sent back prisoners of war to face retribution but not likely war criminals.

[@gerulais]

A great Oscar winning movie can be made about this operation. It was so awful and so tragic. Thank you Tik for talking about controversial topics like these that lots of established historians are reluctant to talk about.

[@Doramian]

I'm just shocked by what I discover with this video. Thank you for once again an incredible history job.

[@oberstul1941]

For a while there I thought TIK was DM-ing or reading from some alternative steampunk history account; had no idea about this operation and I honestly thought there aren't any aspects of the war that I didn't know. Cheers, mate, for proving me wrong.

[@ben101uk3]

Covered in the fim "Before Winter Comes (1969)" staring David Niven, I remember being horrified by the story and finding out it was based on "Operation Keelhaul" but it doesn't do justice to the full horror of what happened.

[@michaelreimer951]

I saw this at the end of the movie Hurricane about the Polish pilots that were sent back after defending at the Battle of Britain and through the rest of the war (pretty disturbing feeling when you do not expect that). I didn't realized it was such a huge operation as it was or performed in such a covertly and horrific manner. Good information and much appreciated.

[@Fanakapan222]

Not so much the Poles ? The RAF had considerable numbers of Polish members after the war who'd transferred into the service. So much so that in the filming if the 1956 film The Dambusters, the two of the three or so pilots lent to the production were Polish Lincoln pilots from RAF Helmswell, who'd no doubt been Lancaster pilots during the war.

[@TheADPOL]

And this is how we ended up with GoldenEye.

[@patrikkalus5567]

Ok I knew about crimes done by Red Army in "liberated" countries , but I was under impression that outside special cases like ROA , Western Allies just look the other way and let it happen.I didnt know they actively took part in it. Thank you for talking about it.

[@alancranford3398]

When I learned about Operation Keelhaul during the 1970's I read that the excuse was Allied prisoners that were being held hostage--er, ah, rescued--by Joseph Stalin. Thanks for bringing this to light. Of course, this does paint President Truman as if he were this character: Lil Abner - Jubilation T Cornpone - KZbin

[@lasentinal]

My late father could have confirmed these atrocities. He was born of Russian parents who were exiles from the Soviet Union, in the then Nation of Yugoslavia. My grandfather was murdered by communists in Yugoslavia in the early days of the Nazis occupation. My father was later taken to Germany during the war, to be used as forced labour. At the end of the war he was only 16. He was in the Soviet held area of Germany, but made his way the the US occupied area by foot, through Austria. As he was under age, he was advised by some sympathetic US army officers to put his age up so as not to be sent back to Yugoslavia or The USSR. He became a member of the US occupation forces.

[@basswars7060]

My grandparents spent 3 years in a Soviet run gulag in Hungary. Their crime was owning a farm. My grandmother died and my grandfather was broken physically and emotionally.

[@someonesomebody7195]

20:21 The plot thickens. The "11th British Tank Division" (normal nomenclature would be '11th British Armoured Division') was ~500 miles away, on the Baltic coast of Germany. However, the 11th US Armored Division was in Austria at the time, so is far more likely to be the supporting tanks. Although this does assume the number and unit size is correct. If not the tanks could be from the 6th British Armoured Division, the 21st Army Tank Brigade or some other formations. Obviously this does nothing the change any of the points made in the video, although it does imply a stronger level of Anglo-American cooperation in Operation Keelhaul if I am correct about the tanks being from the 11th US Armored Division.

[@jussim.konttinen4981]

I'm pretty sure this happened in every country neighboring the USSR. In Finland, conditions were similar for the so-called tribal battalions, which were assembled from various Soviet nationalities. Battalion No. 3 Included even one platoon of ethnic Finns who had served in the Red Army. At least 172 soldiers fled to Sweden. They were hunted until the 1950s.

[@TheImperatorKnight]

Good point! I guess I now need to look into the history of the 11th Armoured Division and see if we can figure that out. But perhaps it was elements from the division, rather than the whole division?

[@someonesomebody7195]

It's possible, but generally if you form a detachment you use it to support nearby units within the same Army. This would be sending a detachment to a completely different Army Group.

[@chubtoad157]

What is your source?

[@larsrons7937]

Good point, could very well be true. Sending some tanks for far away from their division for a single operation any other tank unit could do doesn't seem likely. However since this operation is already a huge conspiracy I am ready (though not inclined) to believe anything. I hope TIK can provide the answer in a future video.

[@jannowak711]

Many of the "soviet" citizens were in fact citizens of Lithuania, Romania, Estonia, Latvia. And however they might be considered (wrongly) "German alies", there were also many citizens of Poland and Czechoslovakia. The faith of Polish Army officers repatriated into Stalin's hands is also worth mentioning .

[@elcyrano]

Story of Don Cossacks that you mention was beautifully described by Józef Mackiewicz in his "Contra" book from 1957. It is not a history book but rather history inspired story. It does include source material and is very accurate tho. I have a feeling that you may enjoy his work. The saying he is famous for is "only truth is interesting".

[@arthurleardi5555]

I eagerly anticipate the complete series. In many of his works, WFB made reference to "anti-anticommunism." TIK, I believe that you're on to something that could enrich our understanding of that term.

[@littlebrookreader949]

That is a sick story. What horror. What unspeakable betrayal of innocence and of senseless tragedy. WW2 is now a greater mystery to me than ever, nothing as it seemed to be. I see no conquering heroes or defenders of justice in the lot. So many victims. Sick and depressing. Infuriating.

[@Matt_The_Hugenot]

I heard Churchill personally ordered the repatriation of the Cossacks as he had promised them to Stalin. My father told me this and he heard it from his father who was one of the British soldiers ordered to take part in the operation many of whom hated having to do so. Hopefully you can sell the book on.

[@tedarcher9120]

You can tell they fully knew what they were doing just by the name itself

[@jaquequinn7780]

I have never heard about this. It makes my blood boil for what the supposedly saint-like allies did to those people. I am so tempted to buy the book myself but it costs so much. Regardless, great work TIk!

[@pietikke5598]

They also starved more then a Million German soldiers to dead on purpose after the war.

[@radovidv7973]

Could we expect a discussion about British/U.S. war crimes against German civilian population, such as Dresden incident?

[@crimony3054]

Nah. Dresden was bombed because Germans were retreating to it from the east, and Churchill wanted to create a calamity.

[@jussim.konttinen4981]

@@crimony3054 Interestingly, my comment was removed even though it did not contain any swear words or historical inaccuracies

[@radovidv7973]

@@crimony3054 It was bombed during some festival and around 130000 civilians died. It was not an industrial center so why was bombardment conducted by carpet bombing with incendiary magnesium casings. Dresden is the biggest war crime committed by allies in ww 2. As for fat bastard known as churchill i know for a fact that he said that there will never be peace until in Balkans Serbian chauvinism isn't destroyed. TIK talked about chetnik movement and saw that GENERAL DRAZA MIHAJLOVIC refused to put Serbian people to torch by attacking germans in 1941. I think that his response to Churchill made the fat bastard realise he is dealing with someone smart. Serbia lost about half of male population in WW1 and made the first breakthrough on SOLUN FRONT. Never again! was GENERAL DRAZA MIHAJLOVIC philosophy. It explains why Belgrade was bombed before partisans entered it. To kill Serbian population. Why wasnt Zagreb bombed. Ustasha movement were till the end fighting alongside Germans. As for Serbian chauvinism I really dont understand how forming a chetnik movement to defend Serbian civilian population against Ustasha i Muslims who joined them in NDH's (independent state of croatia) systematic ethnic cleansing is considered extreme nationalism on part of Serbs. Simply because DRAZA refused FAT FOGSUCKERS order to attack germans in 1941 when entire europe trembles before them we are branded chauvinistic.

[@mariag3605]

​@@crimony3054what about the other German cities/civilian areas purposefully bombed... Or, the horrendous acts of torture, rape and terror committed against civilians and POWs alike, by the allied forces when they 'liberated' Germany?

[@crimony3054]

@@mariag3605 It was only the Communists who did that. Google it yourself. Germans were running to surrender to the Americans instead of the Commies. Don't you watch any television?

[@neilreynolds3858]

All I knew about this was what I read in Solzhenitsyn and I knew it was bad and suspected it would be worse but this is even worse than I imagined. I had Russian friends who worked for the Germans when they invaded because they hated the Soviets. They were untermenschen but the Germans treated them better than their own government. They ended up working for the Americans at the end of the war and didn't get "repatriated". They were damned lucky that mom spoke 5 languages and was needed as an interpreter. They did exactly what Stalin feared - they told the truth about life in the USSR. I was raised on wonderful Russian food and Russian horror stories.

[@VADemon]

4:45 Question: There's a strong movement in Russia (like a subculture) to discredit anything and everything about the soviet past. Many organizations are government-funded. Why then would the FSB not (be ordered to) disclose archives and documents related to such criminal activities? Afaik Hitler's death documents are too still withheld from the public.

[@ebusitanus]

I had heard about the tragedy of the Cossacs and their families. Yet what shocked me even more, and I did not know about, was how even exiled russians going back to 1919 were also given the same treatment. As you say, they were not even soviet citizens.

[@DD-qw4fz]

For the Soveit Union everyone having any connection with lands inside USSR while not under the control of Moscow, was a threat to the regime, and a "traitor".

[@tedgalacci8428]

I had to stop watching out of anger even though I understood the hard, stark reasoning behind it all. The allies knew the communists would be deceitful about returning westerners if all the easterners were not handed over. Any reason anyone was allowed to remain in the west would be mirrored back at the allies for why westerners were not returned. It was either all for all or westerners left to the tender mercies of Stalin's gulag.

[@TirarADeguello]

"R's" by the soldiers = Thank you KZbin Censorship, even though you still can post Pornographic links in the video comments section using robot accounts without any recourse to stop them, on KZbin.

[@rhettbutler289]

Stalin treated his own son with the same callousness as he treated other Russians. When offered an exchange for his son for Hitler's nephews captured at Stalingrad he refused.

[@thefrenchareharlequins2743]

Nothing like a bit of war crimes to end of the day with, eh?

[@samsonsoturian6013]

Technically this was after the war with repatriations but it certainly was awful. I wonder if this had anything to do with how in the Korean War the US insisted that refugees and POWs be repatriated wherever they wanted and not to their hometowns.

[@TheImperatorKnight]

@@samsonsoturian6013 The forced repatriations started in 1944, and involved prisoners of war, so technically it was a war crime. I stuck with the "crime against humanity" slogan partly to get around the KZbin censors, but also because it wasn't just prisoners of war who were affected.

[@Jimmyhoffa_1234]

Great video TIK! I’m just a little confused about something. You mentioned a quote that Russians believed that German enslavement was better then being a Soviet citizen. But in your POW videos being in Soviet captivity was much better than the Germans genocide policy. THANKS!

[@auo2365]

My best speculation is survivor bias. Those who survived were usually the ones that had slightly better treatment in the Reich labour camps. Course those who starved and worked to death had it worse but their tales were silenced by their deaths.

[@overdose8329]

When the Germans finally moved the surviving Soviet prisoners to the Reich as slave labour, the prisoners were given enough food to survive plus many (not sure if all) stayed with German civilian families (some of which treated them well).

[@hisdadjames4876]

Thanks again TIK, for unveiling this appalling sequence of events, bringing it to attention of a larger and different audience than the 1970’s book reader. We learn more from such exposées of Allied crimes than we do from further reinforcement of the evil Axis caricature. It challenges our complacency and keeps us on our guard from the real enemy of evil within us, ourselves, and our institutions.

[@trpggames2162]

Thanks for the constant fact digging and truth finding, Tik. Its a lot of work to be intellectually honest, but you earn it.

[@jakublulek3261]

Operation Keelhaul says me the same thing my Polish great-grandfather said long time ago: "West never understood Russia. West always underestimated Russia. And West thought that Russia operated with the same rules as them. Poor, naive souls."

[@neilreynolds3858]

Western intellectuals are fools.

[@Hurtin_Albertan]

What did your polish grandma say about Ukrainians?

[@jakublulek3261]

@@Hurtin_Albertan Grandma was Scottish, so she had no opinion on them. If you mean great-grandma, she was Czech and died in 1950, so I don't know.

[@ArcticTemper]

I knew a guy who worked on one of these ships, said the morale in the crew wasn't high because they knew what'd happen to the guys they were transporting, but also felt like they were being a good Ally to the Russians and hoped it would help ensure peace between East & West following the war.

[@miguelservetus9534]

And by repatriation of the criminals who fought for the Nazis, Allied POWS got to come home.

[@kiankier7330]

TIK is a good example of a very good history enthusiast, who do his research Also keep up with the good work. ( I hope at some point you will get to operation safari)

[@kiankier7330]

@@Edax_Royeaux which episode was it in?. Compare to most others on KZbin, he is better as he has done source criticism in a way, that is a textbook example of source criticism. He has admit to having a bias, which is something no one can get out of.

[@kiankier7330]

@@Edax_Royeaux I agree, and he is not alone with that problem, as many other KZbinr, who deal with history have the same problem with mixing history and modern poltitics. It showed that we should not take stuff at face value and be critical of sources and of historian/youtuber

[@TheImperatorKnight]

@@kiankier7330 Believe Royeaux and do not question him. He is the ultimate truth, just like Glorious and Heavenly Manstein. I am 100% wrong in everything I do and say. And he is 100% right and can walk on water. You should definitely not read any books written by Austrian economists, even if a lot of them are available for free online because they're trying to promote the truth rather than make a profit. Thou shalt not read them because He has pronounced them "WRONG". You should remain holy in ignorance. Praise be.

[@itsKarlDesigns]

@@TheImperatorKnight 😎

[@kiankier7330]

@@TheImperatorKnight ​ @TIK what kind of response is this? I am not gullible to believe him at face value, as we should be critical of what facts/persons are telling and determine if we found them trustworthy. Also, if you have read what I have written, then you will see that I am praising you for your great use of source criticism and you have before ( can't remember when) you have said you have a bias (something we all have, no matter what some think, there is no "true" view) The thing with manchester police, I must have missed, and it doesn't diminish the value of what you are talking about in those videos. I may give those economists a try when I get some free time. To the content of this video. The Swedes did a similar thing with the Estonian SS Volunteers.

[@steeltrap3800]

This issue made it into an episode of "Foyle's War", an excellent series. I knew of it from years ago, but was surprised to see it in such a show even if the name of the operation wasn't used explicitly (at least I don't remember it being stated).

[@kryts27]

I read a book that indicated that more than a handful of committed German communists had defected from Germany to the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s. Many of these were skilled industrial workers, who became valuable to the Soviet war effort, working in Soviet munitions factories and training Soviet workers. However, after the invasion of the Soviet Union by the Wehrmacht in June 1941, these German-Soviet workers became suspected enemy agents (despite their clear political alligences and defection to the Soviet Union well before the war broke out), and were thrown into gulags and GPU concentration camps, despite their skills and production awards while working for years in Soviet factories.

[@SynapticTransmission]

WOW! Never ever thought anyone would speak to Op Keelhaul on a KZbin channel, never mind know about it in the first place. Bravo!