operation keelhaul was carried out in northern italy by british and american forces to repatriate soviet armed forces pows of the nazis to the soviet union between august 14, 1946 and may 9, 1947. the term has been later applied â specifically after the publication of julius epstein's eponymous book â to other allied acts of often forced repatriation of former residents of the ussr after the ending of world war ii that sealed the fate of millions of post-war refugees fleeing eastern europe. ==yalta conference== one of the conclusions of the yalta conference was that the western allies would return all soviet citizens who found themselves in their zones to the soviet union. this immediately affected the liberated soviet prisoners of war, but was also extended to all eastern european refugees. in exchange, the soviet government agreed to hand over several thousand western allied prisoners of war whom they had liberated from german prisoner of war camps. on march 31, 1945, soviet general secretary joseph stalin, british prime minister winston churchill, and u.s. president franklin d. roosevelt concluded the final form of their plans in a secret codicil to the agreement. outlining the plan to forcibly return the refugees to the soviet union, this codicil was kept secret from the us and british people for over 50 years. ==treatment of prisoners and refugees== the refugee columns fleeing the soviet-occupied eastern europe numbered millions of people. they included many anti-communists of
Aftermath_of_World_War_II_in_the_Soviet_Union_and_Russia Aftermath_of_World_War_II_in_the_United_Kingdom Aftermath_of_World_War_II_in_the_United_States People_extradited_to_the_Soviet_Union Post-World_War_II_forced_migrations Soviet_UnionaUnited_Kingdom_relations Soviet_UnionaUnited_States_relations