## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 01 Juni 2023

Exploring the Rights and Agency of Central Asian Displaced Persons in the

## FROM THE BOTTOM UP World War II Aftermath

By: Malika Shaakerimova International Cooperation on Human Rights and Intercultural Heritage

ABSTRACT: In this article special focus is given to the casefiles of Soviet Central Asian nationals as they relate to the Care and Maintenance program under the International Refugee Organization (IRO). While refugees are often portrayed as void of agency or remain invisible, incidentally, these minorities' voices and narratives are underrepresented in history of displacement and refugeedom too. The available records of this small group of refugees or displaced persons (DPs) are helpful in capturing their agency through exploring the ways they were navigating through the process of claiming assistance and protection in their particular circumstances.

KEYWORDS: International Refugee Organization, displaced persons, agency, Central Asia

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## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 01 Juni 2023

## Introduction

There is plenty of literature on the development history of international refugee protection between 1919-1951,  when  the  first  international  response  and  early  regime  was  developed  that  defined universal  norms,  principles,  and  standards  for  governing  the  modern  refugee  regime  as  well  as migration/mobility in general. However, the question about how much refugees themselves were involved in producing, or engaging with, laws, policies, humanitarian responses, and actions has not been thoroughly investigated. In addition, refugees have often been portrayed as passive victims who are dependent on humanitarian assistance. In order to delve into the institutional and social aspects of (forced) human displacement management history and examine question of the agency and image of refugee, I take a closer look at a set of documents related to International Refugee Organization's (IRO) Care and Maintenance program (CM/1 forms) for refugees and displaced persons under its mandate and the screening process of a group of applicants with origins from Central Asia within USSR at that time. While studies based on the CM/1 forms archive have primarily been dedicated to  the  Jewish  and  Eastern  European  nationalities,  the  displacement  experience  of  Central  Asian peoples is a scarcely investigated subject.

At the final stage of the Second World War, governments faced the question of the fate of millions of so-called displaced persons (DPs), who were captured by the Nazis as prisoners of war or labor force from different countries on the territory of Germany and other zones of occupation. Being misfits and de facto stateless in a state-centric world, their rights were limited too. The IRO played a central role in assisting them in the path chosen - returning to the country of origin or starting a new  life  in  a  foreign  country.  Among  these  displaced  persons  were  about  half  a  million  Soviet citizens, 1 formally  grouped  into  one  category.  As  for  the  Central  Asian  populations,  which  also participated and contributed to the Soviet war effort during World War II, it is difficult to say how many of them found themselves in this situation and did not repatriate. At the same time, the USSR did not grant Soviet citizens outside the union's territory the right to emigrate to country of their choice,  to  flee  from  potential  persecution.  On  the  contrary,  the  repatriation  of  its  citizens  was

1 See Zemskov, Viktor. N. 2013: "Returnees" and "Non-returnees" (on the fate of Soviet displaced persons in 1944-1956). Proceedings of the Samara Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 15 (1-1), 103-113.

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 01 Juni 2023

mandatory and forceful as the Soviet authorities used repressive methods in handling the refugees. In this context, some people from the Central Asian region applied for the IRO's assistance choosing the path of emigration.

The  main  scope  of  this  article  is  to  add  a  perspective  'from  below'  to  the  literature  on  the international  refugee  regime  and  human  displacement.  In  this  regard,  Peter  Gartell's  concept 'refugeedom'(Gatrell 2017), based on the idea that refugees are not simply passive victims, but rather active agents who negotiate complex legal and social systems in order to secure their safety and wellbeing, is helpful is to explore the agency of refugees in aftermath of World War II. In particular, I focus mainly on the Central Asian displaced persons or refugees and demonstrate how they exercised multiple forms of human agency in the process of negotiation of eligibility for receiving assistance from the IRO for resettlement. Based on the findings, I argue that displaced persons and refugees were not always passive, constantly suffering and brought down by misery as often described. They did make attempts to increase their chances for a successful outcome of the screening and engaged with  institutions.  Life  continued  even  in  limbo  -  the  desire  to  emigrate  was  strong,  jobs  and opportunities were sought, new families were founded.

In the following sections, I will present the source material and the main concepts relevant for the findings.  Before  shedding  some  light  on  the  Central  Asian  minorities  in  the  quest  of  seeking protection and demanding rights, I will give a legal-political overview of refugeehood, describe the context specific to the applicants' situation and give an overview of the IRO's role in the process.

## Source material and theoretical framework

The IRO's first task of registration of individual and family applications for assistance in order to determine their basic eligibility and need for aid from the organization, generated case files under the  care  and  maintenance  program  for  displaced  persons  living  in  occupied  Germany  and  other countries.  The  information found in the Application for IRO Assistance, also referred  as CM/1 forms - a five-page questionnaire - which applicants had to fill out, from 1947, in order to receive

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 01 Juni 2023

support from IRO, is the main source material in this article (Figure 1). 2 At the end of the IRO program in 1952, some of these historical records were destroyed, the rest were transferred to the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Arolsen, Germany. 3

I examine fifty CM/1 case files found on the applicants from Soviet Central Asian Republics, namely Tajik - 1, Uzbek - 10, Kyrgyz - 5, Kazakh - 9, Turkmen - 25. 4 This is a relatively small number of  records  available  of  these  Soviet  minority  nationalities  for  the  examination  in  the  archival holdings. In addition, these numbers reflect only the number of lead applicants and does not include their  families.  Yet,  it  is  important  source  material  that  offer  us  some  insights  and  patterns, inconsistencies, peculiarities, and commonalities in the files. The documents can also help to bring usually overlooked actors such as the eligibility officers and refugee applicants and their families to the fore.

My analytical approach is mainly based on the historian Peter Gatrell's concept of 'refugeedom' that points to the importance of exploring the agency of refugees and DPs as it's often missing in the historiography. Refugeedom is defined as a broad matrix of relations and practices that include 'categorical  practices,  legal  frameworks,  bureaucratic  instruments  and  humanitarian  relief  work, whilst  enabling  us  to  relate  refugees'  experiences,  conduct  and  responses  to  those  prevailing institutions and norms' (Gatrell 2017: 179). Therefore, their agency may be an important factor in understanding  their  experiences  and  the  policies  that  affect  them.  The  concept  encourages  a multidisciplinary approach bringing the parts together in order to understand the whole. Therefore,

2 The information on the forms includes personal data, family information, movement and employment over the previous 10-12 years, education and language skills, financial resources, and future plans, reasons contra repatriation, and desired emigration country. This form was filled only after the preliminary check by registrars , then eligibility officers conducted interviews based on the CM/1 forms. We can find their notes, decisions on screenings, as well as different stamps and abbreviations. The applicants could also submit supplementary sheets on dependents, and different documents. In addition, they had a right to object and have their status re-examined. In addition, Holborn's book on the history of the IRO contains valuable statistical data related to displaced persons and the organization and structure of the Organization itself.

4 These files can be found on https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search by using nationality filter option.

3 See the General Inventory for an extensive overview of the holdings: <https://www.itsarolsen. org/en/archives/overview-of-the-archival-holdings/general-inventory/> The Allies founded the ITS in 1943 for two reasons: to trace the whereabouts of Nazi victims and at the same time to be able to reject claims too (ibid; 10). The ITS re-invented itself as the Arolsen Archives in 2019, one of the world's largest historical archives about Nazi persecution and post-World War II migration.

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 01 Juni 2023

by analyzing different dimensions of refugeedom, Gatrell argues that we can gain a more nuanced understanding of the experiences of refugees and the challenges they face.

This perspective helps us to look at history from below - how people engaged with norms, rules, and what sense they made of their situation given their status. Special attention is paid to the socalled  negotiation  cases  in  the  aftermath  of  the  Second  World  War  between  IRO  officers  and refugees along with a broader discussion of status and rights, international refugee protection, within the years of early development of refugee regime that culminated in 1951 Refugee Convention.

It  is  worth  noting  that  a  broad  understanding  of  agency  is  applied  in  this  article,  seen  both  as intentional and unintentional, and not in isolation, to be able to 'think systematically about all persons involved in the IRO's care-and-maintenance project instead of focusing too exclusively on DPs and refugees' (Huhn 2021: 11).  Furthermore, historian Henning Borggräfe (2020: 8) explains that 'applicants' statements in DP records cannot simply be read as expressions of their identities and  beliefs,  or  as  authentic  accounts  on  their  previous  lives.  Rather,  the  CM/1  (Care  and Maintenance)  forms  have  to  be  understood  as  two  unequal  partners  negotiating  a  status.'  The negotiation concept encourages us to focus on more than just biographical info, but also on the conduct and response of refugees to institutions and norms. It is easy to fall into the trap of the primacy of individuals and isolate them despite the point being to include them. In this light, it is also important to describe how state and international institutions interacted with stateless refugees.

Individuals living in limbo find themself in political and legal vacuum. One Russian refugee even rejected the refugee category: 'we are living people [with] the misfortune to have been displaced, but we are human beings all the same. We long to become people once again' (Gatrell 2013: 50). Hannah Arendt (1962: 296-97) has also noted that 'without citizenship, in the world of States, a man can be denied those human rights that are in fact tied to citizenship'. Based on Arendt's ideas in The Origins of Totalitarianism , Alison Kesby (2012) observes that we live in a world where the removal of citizenship negates our rights, sense of belongingness and identity.

In this regard, it would not be wrong to interpret negotiations of eligibility as a negotiation to have rights. Undoubtedly, refugeedom is linked to human dignity, right to nationality or citizenship and IRO-N-100

BDC+ Waat

2h.r. si German- wite INTERNATIONAL REFUGEE ORGANIZATION

HEADQUARTERS GENEVA

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auratoghu

(Bitte um IRO-Unterstützung)

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14. Financial resources

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 01 Juni 2023

Poviet Cosh and Income

asylum, and many other rights such as freedom of movement, expression, and well-being. Since eligibility was a first step in obtaining a long-term status that enabled refugees to start anew as well as get legal and political protection, the question of refugee agency, and the image of the refugee, needs to be reimagined with the recognition of their resilience, capacities, and their critical role in shaping their own lives and of their communities. bekannt ist) 3. Religion: (Check one with an "x" Roman Catholio V. (Romisch katholisch) Greek Orthodox (Griechisch orthodox) her (specify) (jodisch) i Claimed Established V 6. (b) None.. (Keine) Familienatand (Kreuze durch ein „x" an) Married V. Verheiratet Single 6. (c) (Etbnio or Mational group euch as Ukrainian, Jewish, 0. (d) Nansen Status: (Check one) Yea No Jatherneuhausen am Rheinfall theingoldstr.36/Switze Lane

(Family Name in block capitals)

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living together

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Figure 1. Personal files of MURATOGLY, JOSEF and MUBARRACK, SABIR.

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## Overview of early international refugee law and policy

The need for protection and the non-refoulement principle 5 were especially important developments  in  the  World  War  Second  aftermath,  because  'the  insistence  on  individual persecution as the chief criterion for recognition represented a significant departure in legal practice,

5 International law principle of not forcing refugees/asylum-seekers to return to a country in which they are at risk of being subjected to persecution.

Date of birth APPENDIX I to Provisional Order No. 7.6

A-7

16.

Assistance

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 01 Juni 2023

and an indication that human rights were beginning to make an appearance in international law' (Metzger 2017: 116). However, even though the belief in the fundamental worth and dignity of all human life was, as Claudena Skran (1995) writes, one of the foundational grounds for a unified international response and joint efforts, the refugee crises were mistakenly thought of as a temporary, humanitarian  question.  What  started  as  a  humanitarian  project  always  had  economic,  political social, legal implications (Skran 1995; Frank and Reinisch 2014). Likewise, refugees were framed as either  a  threat,  a  financial  economic  burden,  aliens,  or  an  object  of  pity  and  embodiment  of suffering. This framing had a long-lasting effect as even at present 'rarely are refugees perceived as agents, actors, participants, or in general subjects capable of making claims and demanding rights' (Nyers 2008: 164).

Prior to the Second World War, intergovernmental efforts within the framework of the activities of the  League  of  Nations  were  focused  on  improving  the  legal  status  of  refugees  by  concluding multilateral treaties for specific groups of refugees as they emerged. Gradually, an understanding began to form that a state is an oppressor and protector in one as the 1933 Convention relating to the International Status of Refugees had 'an important addition about the explicit obligation of states not to expel authorized refugees, and to avoid refoulement' (Hathaway 2005: 87). Not only did a stateless status imply loss of political and legal protection, but also constituted a traumatic and disruptive experience that had long-lasting effects on person's life and well-being.

Depoliticizing the question had adverse consequences, especially when in practice it was nothing but political. In practice, states demonstrated unwillingness to take responsibility when it was not in their interests. T he definition of 'refugee' also corresponded to the needs of nation states and a lot  of  limitations  were  set  in  immigration  policies.  There  were  novelties  introduced  in  the categorization of refugees, e.g. the term 'displaced person' became a category distinct from that of refugee  (Razz  and  Tames  2020:  3).  At  the  beginning  of  the  relief  efforts,  repatriation  was  the preferred solution. It affected how the categories, definitions, norms, and practices were introduced between 1943 and 1951:

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 01 Juni 2023

[T]he invention of 'displaced persons' thus also represented the production of difference with regard to the already established term refugee and its implications: refugees might have to be resettled; displaced persons were to go home (ibid).

The  concept  of  'refugee'  has  undergone  changes  over  time  and  the  establishment  of  the  1951 Convention was preceded by a long process of defining two important components - refugee and the non-refoulement principle. When in 1947 more than a million stayed in Europe, still resisting repatriation, the definition of refugee was extended in favor of displaced people also based on human rights principles, since 'that group of political dissidents who were neither fascist nor war criminals should not be forced to return because of their right to asylum, which was an essential part of basic rights embodied in the charter of the UN' (Holborn 1956: 32).

In the post-World War II setting the notion of persecution along with non-refoulment were used as  a  guiding  principle  in  international  responses  to  violence-induced  mass  displacement.  Albeit, there  is  always  a  tension  between  the  national  and  international  dimensions  of  refugee  crisis management. Nevertheless, in the long history of confrontation of rights and freedoms advocates and power holders, finally, the birth of international human rights protection regime was prompted. Seemingly, world politicians were willing to adhere to human rights principles as the geopolitical tension was building between two different blocs. However, from the bottom-up perspective, the resistance of a big number of non-returners also laid the foundation for protection being extended to those who did not want to return for well-founded fear of persecution. When international legal and political protection was not sufficient, refugees had tried to pave their way for improving their situation. This agency needs to be historicized.

## The motherland calls

The historic setting in which refugees and DPs were repatriated and emigrated is important for our understanding of how Soviet refugees' repatriation and emigration unfolded. It sheds light on what kind of fate awaited repatriated DPs and the attitude the Soviet Union had with regard to the IRO's resettlement  work.  The  Western  powers  initially  agreed  with  the  USSR's  demands  for  the repatriation of Soviet citizens, as they did not expect that many of those who did not want to return would be persecuted (Fitzpatrick 2018: 327). Thus, most citizens of the Soviet Union, and Eastern

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 01 Juni 2023

European  states  too,  did  not  receive  even  limited  protection  at  first.  Later,  the  case  of  nonrepatriable  DPs  and  refugees  had  become  evident  due  to  the  number  of  people  who  under  no circumstances were willing to or could return.

As the displacement crisis was more tangible than ever - this required a 'new and comprehensive', 'international', 'civilian' type of organization with an integrated approach to work. Thus, 'one and half  million  people  [who]  refused  to  return'  became  the  IRO's  big  responsibility.  The  UN General Council decided to provide care for those who did not wish to return to their countries and widened the authority of United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), the predecessor of IRO, to assist persecuted persons and to supervise the case of DPs even without the consent of the country of origin (Holborn 1956: 23). At the time of the IRO's resettlement program, 'Soviet officials condemned the IRO as an 'employment agency' enabling 'the West to enrich itself by resettling the so-called refugees to the countries making the highest bid for their labor'' (Gatrell 2013: 109). With the beginning of the Cold War, the fate of these people also became one of the key elements of growing political confrontations and sharp disputes in the UN between the USSR and the Western powers.

The IRO was operating in this context, and even back then, the information about the sad fate of former  POWs  and  displaced  persons  who  returned  to  the  Soviet  Union  began  to  penetrate  the borders of the USSR, overcoming prohibitions and the veil of secrecy. Historian, Sheila Fitzpatrick, writes that 'far from preventing the formation of a new emigration, Soviet repatriation efforts had actually contributed to its strong anti-Soviet orientation' (ibid.:349). The Motherland called - but few answered, despite intense efforts to 'welcome' back the non-returnees.

The return was associated with unsafety and danger, few positive prospects  awaited  people  who Soviet  officials  somehow  thought  were  'helping'  Nazis  by  being  former  forced  laborers  or  war prisoners. My own great-grandfather, Saparbay, was subjected to slave labour as a war prisoner for several years in Germany. After liberation, he returned to Kyrgyz SSR to reunite with his beloved wife and children. However, he was interrogated by the NKVD on a regular basis, and even tortured on some occasions. The subject of interrogation of my great-grandfather was mainly about why he did not end his life and kept on living in the hands of enemies. It had quite a toll on his physical

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and mental well-being and he passed away in 1955. He did not live to see the moment when, decades later,  in  1995,  prisoners  of  war  were  recognized  not  only  as  participants  in  the  war,  but  also  as victims of Nazism. The experience of captivity made them second-class citizens and often hindered them from getting better jobs or enjoying political and civil rights. 6 Therefore, in order to avoid condemnation and stigmatization, they were forced to remain silent about it, conceal it, because it was  shameful  and  inconvenient  to  talk  about. 7 Though  the  need  for  labor  for  post-war reconstruction was a mitigating factor, reducing sentences and amnesties, it was widely known that those who survived after being captured were seen as enemies, traitors, or cowards.

Very  little  is  known  about  Central  Asian  non-returnees'  experience.  Yet,  despite  the  limited information  found  in  the  personal  files  coming  from  the  specific  interaction  between  IRO  and applicants  seeking  for  international  assistance  for  emigration,  they  were  presumably  seeking  to escape the less hopeful fate of their Soviet compatriots.

## General information on the selected case files

The IRO constitution set out the eligibility criteria and defined refugees as:

(a) victims of the Nazi or fascist regimes or of regimes which took part on their side in the second world war, or of the quisling or similar regimes which assisted them against the United Nations, whether enjoying  international  status  as  refugees  or  not;  (b)  Spanish  Republicans  and  other  victims  of  the Falangist regime in Spain, whether enjoying international status as refugees or not; (c) persons who were considered refugees before the outbreak of the second world war, for reasons of race, religion, nationality or political opinion.' And it defined Displaced Persons as: 'a person who, as a result of the actions of the authorities of the regimes […] has been deported from, or has been obliged to leave his country of

6 For more details see, for example, Adler, Nanci 1999. 'Life in the 'Big Zone': The Fate of Returnees in the Aftermath of Stalinist Repression.' Europe-Asia Studies , vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 5-19.

7 See, for example Polyan, Pavel 2016. " Sovetskiye voyennoplennyye: skol'ko ikh bylo i skol'ko vernulos'? [Soviet prisoners of war: how many were there and how many returned?]" Demograficheskoye obozreniye, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 43-68;

Toguzbaev, Kazis. 30 April 2017. 'Obrechennyye na molchaniye. Istoriya sem'i byvshego voyennoplennogo'. Radio Azattyk . At https://rus.azattyq.org/a/istoria-semyi-byvshego-voennoplennogo/28823206.html

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nationality or of former habitual residence, such as persons who were compelled to undertake forced labor or who were deported for racial, religious or political reasons. 8

In  addition  to  the  Constitution,  a  more  than  200-page  long  'Manual  for  Eligibility  Officers', containing the information on where refugees might be coming from, movement trajectories, and guidelines  on  specific  countries  and  regions, 9 served  as  an  extensive  guide  to  be  followed.  The determination of eligibility proceeded in three stages: belongingness to any category envisaged in the Constitution or a new category established by General Council; disqualification stage; and lastly, to provide 'valid objections' to returning - at this stage a person would be recognized as a political dissident and would acquire status as a political refugee (Holborn 1956: 204-5). If the background checks  were  positive  and  the  criteria  were  met,  comprehensive  survey  using  the  CM/1  form completed, eligibility officers would then decide whether the applicants would be included in the IRO's Care and Maintenance program and what the scope of support should be.

The applicants originating from the Soviet Central Asian Republics were mostly young males in their twenties, often deported and taken to work by force, except for few war prisoners, pre-war refugees, and a couple of victims of political repression. Holborn would probably put them under the 3rd category of postwar refugees, or so-called neo-refugees, 'comprised of persons who preferred liberty at any price to living in a country under a Communist regime' (1956: 100).

As for the reasons not to repatriate, the most common motive stated was political, then religious. Three  brave  souls  explicitly  stated  'because  of  the  communist  regime',  one  also  'dislike[d]  the undemocratic regime of his country', while another one stated 'I am alone and have no family'. Answering the question of what the reason for emigrating to a country of choice was, most of the applicants stated 'democracy' and a few pragmatic persons wrote 'for employment'. The majority of applicants were recognized as eligible and received different statuses depending on their situation. A  couple  of  Nansenites  and  some  others  were  given  refugee  status,  the  rest  were  attributed  to

8 United Nations, Constitution of the International Refugee Organization , 15 December 1946, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 18, p. 3.

9 Manual for Eligibility Officers / International Refugee Organization (IRO) No. 185, Genf : IRO.

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displaced persons, and only one person received legal and political protection (LPP) status. Based on the available records, no one was repatriated and almost everyone was eligible for resettlement.

In fact, the majority of Soviet DPs were repatriated whether voluntarily or forcedly. Overall, the post-war  period  in  Soviet  Central  Asian  Republics  was  marked  by  a  strong  emphasis  on  rapid industrialization  and  agricultural  development  -  a  continuance  of  Soviet-style  modernization marked by a new wave of repressions, the victims of which were former prisoners of war and even participants in the GPW, representatives of the intelligentsia and artists (Alymkulov 2004: 38-39). Eventually, many of the returnees were persecuted by the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs NKVD, and forced to endure condemnation, sometimes even their families rejected them because of  the  unwillingness  to  be  associated.  In  particular,  prisoners  of  war  had  bigger  prospects  to experience the worst of the repressive policies upon return (Voronovich & Samatiya 2004), but possibly that also increased their chances to receive the IRO's support. The infamous act No. 270, signed by Stalin in 1941, declared that Red Army soldiers who surrendered or were captured by German forces were to be considered traitors to the Soviet Union and subject to severe punishment, including imprisonment in Gulag labor camps or even execution. For example, according to Kazakh historians, many of the twenty-five thousand Kazakh returnees in 1947 received long sentences in prisons or experienced two camp systems - first Nazi and then Soviet (Belyakov 2017).

About  10  applicants  out  of  50  had  previously  received  support  from  the  UNRRA  or  other institutions,  and  thus  had  some  experience  dealing  with  relief  and  aid  organization  and  had undergone screening before. The choice of destination places  was  diverse.  Turkey  was  the  most popular destinations, followed by the US and Argentina. No one wanted to stay in Germany, but after employment, marriage or due to a 'mass transfer of residual cases to German economy' some stayed  for  a  local  settlement,  which,  according  to  Holborn,  was  a  'last  resort'  solution  due  to overpopulation and the economic situation (ibid.: 338).

Passing  the  screening,  most  of  the  applicants  possessed  the  Certificate  of  IRO  Eligibility.  This version of the document was usually issued to the beneficiaries outside of DP camps, to the so called 'free living/moving' outside of camps. According to the Arolsen archive e-guide, it was created by the IRO Control Centers and this enabled DPs to prove that their 'status had been reviewed in the

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context  of  the  IRO's  Care  and  Maintenance  program  and  that  they  had  fulfilled  the  necessary conditions  to  be  recognized  as  DPs'. 10 That  means  among  the  fifty  applicants  a  smaller  part  of applicants had experienced camp life. 'Free living' individuals generally had more control over their life,  living  independently  and  being  less  imposed  to  the  stricter  rules  in  camps.  Though  this certification  did  not  replace  an  identity  document,  it  'became  increasingly  important  under  the conditions prevailing during the life of the organization' (ibid.: 313) and was a prerequisite for receiving  benefits  and  simplified  issuance  of  travel  or  work  documents,  residence  permits,  and overall rights enjoyment in general.

## Social encounter

The CM/1 forms can be seen as an international and multilingual interaction platform for people of diverse backgrounds. Both sides searched for common ground in the negotiating process. The personnel of the IRO as of 1949, according to statistics counted only 2 from Turkey, 2 from USSR, and 15 stateless, out of a total of 2571 (Holborn 1956: 100). Accordingly, there were language and cultural barriers, as the Organization's staff had no prior knowledge of the Central Asian region. The applications are messy in the parts about language and nationality/citizenship, name spelling those  who  were  helping  to  fill  in  the  forms  were  apparently  struggling  with  the  task.  Though language  barriers  from  time  to  time  made  it  difficult  to  capture  how  the  applicants  defined themselves, there are some cases where applicants specifically asked for corrections in the nationality or name spelling.

As mentioned earlier, the CM/1 form offered people an opportunity to describe their own path and to define themselves. Muratoglu, Josef used this opportunity to reclaim the original version of his name. 11 The officer tried his best in understanding what constituted the name of the applicant taking note that Muratoglu could be understood as Muratson, while Muratovich was his patronymic in the Russified version of his name. However, Josef decided to reject the Russified version of his name credentials and identify himself using the original ethnic form. The process of Russification

10 For a detailed description of the individual administrative documents that AEF, UNRRA and IRO produced to register DPs and refugees and clarify their claims for assistance, see Arolsen Archives: e-Guide https://eguide.arolsenarchives.org/en/archive/details/certificate-of-iro-eligibility/

11 https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/79509172

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of  onomastic  systems  in  Central  Asia  during  the  Soviet  era  was  a  part  of  the  broader  effort  to promote Russian language and culture as the dominant culture in the Soviet Union. This included the adoption of Russian-style personal names, such as the use of a three-component system of family name, given name, and patronymic, and the addition of Russian suffixes like -ov and -yev to family names (Azhniuk 2011; 257).

The officers were also having a hard time with Turkmenistani applicants from time to time. It was a good opportunity for the Organization's employees to learn about who Turk people were. There was a remark in one form saying: "Turkish (but not from Turkey!)"; or another description for a 'Turkish  but  not  from  Turkey'  person  -  'non-Turkish  speaking  Moslem'.  Inconsistent  selfidentifications among applicants were not helpful either.

Moreover, the applicants did not always fill out their application forms themselves, especially if the applicant did not know the language. We can also find notes on the forms, where we get a glimpse into the officers' thoughts and expressions of doubts, opinions, sometimes conversation with other officers, description of an applicant. The following examples are related to the cases of the benefit of doubt, when some applicants would be characterized as 'simple', 'makes a good impression' or 'the story seems to be believable', 'man is too simple and too young to be a collaborator' - these kinds of descriptions are often used by IRO officers. Along with 'simple' the phrase 'primitive 'Kirgis'  man'  was  once  used,  perhaps  to  describe an indigenous  person, which  hints at 'underdeveloped' or 'uncivilized' labels. As if the Kyrgyz nationality was completely unfamiliar to the officer; though in the Eligibility Manual, it is mentioned under the USSR nationalities list. We may speculate that they were perceived as simple due to lack of higher education or due to humble backgrounds.  Overall,  it  seems  that  appearing  'simple'  was  beneficial  for  an  applicant's  success, especially for the ones who did not have any documents for their stories to be believable.

## 'All the time calls himself Turk(e)'

The 'I am Turk(e)'-argument was one of the most repeated narratives used by the applicants during the screening process, especially by Turkestani, as if it was somehow considered helpful to negotiate with the IRO's Eligibility Officers over assistance. There is little doubt these people were among

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 01 Juni 2023

the refugees who resisted returning and were ready to follow a certain narrative if it would save them. To illustrate, one of the cases revealed how Abdulla Turdukul, an Uzbek from Uzbek USSR, asserted that 'his place of birth and citizenship entered in the 'Kennkarte' 12 [were] wrong, because he was afraid to tell the truth from fear to be compulsory repatriated to USSR', it is unknown which country he claimed to be from, later he stated his true birthplace in the IRO application and received the assistance. 13 Prior to 1946, repatriation was considered as a natural solution as it was the easiest way to solve the problem of uprooted people, so it will not be wrong to say that some of refugees and DPs like Abdulla were trying to avoid repatriation at all costs way before the IRO started its work.

While we may assume the applicants were in most cases aware of assistance being extended to DPs who were unwilling to return and included under the IRO mandate, it did not stop people from being flexible in negotiating their national identity. For example, a person would write that their nationality was Kirgiz, but kept telling the officers he was a Turk. 14 Most likely for the same reasons as  in  the  first  example  for  passing  the  screening.  There  was  a  lot  of  inconsistencies  in  selfidentification and nationality of the applicants. A person could be a Nansenite, 'USSR', Kazakh, and Turk - all in one within a single application. The E-guide on document explanation says:

the  first  CM/1  applications  distributed  by  IRO  employees  had  a  field  for  applicants  to  write  their citizenship. However, it soon became clear that the question of citizenship was not so easy to answer. The  revised  CM/1  forms  used  from  1948  onward  therefore  distinguished  between  country  of citizenship,  country  of  last  habitual  residence  prior  to  displacement,  ethnic  or  national  group,  and whether the applicant had a Nansen passport (meaning they were stateless). In field 6(a), the applicants additionally had to mark whether they had claimed the citizenship, it had been officially established, it was a former citizenship or it was only presumed. 15

12 The basic identity document in use inside Germany (including occupied incorporated territories) during the Third Reich era. DBpedia. 'Kennkarte'. Dbperdia. https://dbpedia.org/page/Kennkarte

14 CM1-File Tölek Nisenalioglu, 3.2.1.1 / 79531399 /ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives.

13 CM1-File Abdulla Turdukul, 3.2.1.1 / 79847671 /ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives.

[15 CM/1 application. E-guide. Arsolen Archives. https://eguide.arolsen-archives.org/en/archive/details/cm1-application/](https://eguide.arolsen-archives.org/en/archive/details/cm1-application/)

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 01 Juni 2023

Territorial borders in the Central Asian region were also somewhat blurred. And it is plausible that applications  were  designed  in  a  way  that  allowed  some  space  for  self-expression  in  terms  of nationality  and  religion  (Borggräfe  2020:  6).  Nevertheless,  these  two  factors  only  added  to  the confusion; crossings by hand and corrections are proof of that, though it is unlikely that these people were having a genuine identity crisis for most of the cases. Messy nationality/citizenship section can be attributed to the officers too, as many of the applicants were not proficient in German and even Russian, especially in writing. Little to no knowledge about the region on the part of IRO were beneficial for presenting an ambiguous ethnic identity for the applicants.

Agayakov  Tolögon 16 of  Kyrgyz  nationality  born  in  Tyanshan  even  managed  to  be  eligible  for 'repatriation' to 'his' country of origin - Turkey - being neither Turkish nor born in Turkey. In this case it does not seem to be done on purpose by the applicant, but an indication of how little the IRO staff knew about people populating the Central Asian region. The first time he applied, he was recognized as a refugee and all the data was correct, but during the re-screening he became a Turk/Turkish and this time was identified as someone 'not within the mandate'. His knowledge of German was limited and most likely the officers were helping to fill in the form. Afterwards, the situation was clarified. Interestingly, his first desired destination was Argentina, which changed to Turkey to where he emigrated.

There are other examples of self-identifications known such as 'the impressive act of collective selfdefinition  of  thousands  of  surviving  Jews'  being  'the  individual  strategies  of  adaptation  to  the registration  procedure'  (ibid.:  19).  They  claimed  a  Jewish  nationality,  which  was  not  officially recognized by the Allied powers at the time. However, as the scale of the Jewish refugee crisis became more apparent, the Allies established Jewish DP camps, which provided them with their own space and  allowed  them  to  organize  their  own  communities.  Self-representation  carried  political significance  (Banko  et  al  2022;  9)  as  strategies  used  by  applicants  could  influence  the  IRO registration procedures, and consequently, resettlement programs.

16  CM1-File Agayakov Tolögon, 3.2.1.1 / 79847671 /ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives.

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 01 Juni 2023

According  to  IRO's  resettlement  policy  it  was  extremely  important  to  find  an  environment  for refugees  with  similar  culture  or  one  they  could  integrate  easily  into  (Holborn  1956:  388).  No appropriate  resettlement  scheme  existed  for  Moslem  refugees  and  DPs  until  an  agreement  was concluded between and the IRO and Turkey in 1948 (ibid.). It also applied to the examined list of the Soviet Union applicants, as most of them could be considered Moslems. Holborn shares that the Soviet government disapproved of the entry into Turkey of such refugees that brought some difficulties during the preliminary documentation of the Moslems born in Soviet territory. So, their 'eagerness to be accepted by the Turkish selection mission and fear of being rejected because of their birth-place caused some of them to false their claims and statements and allege that they were of Turkish origin' (ibid.). These considerations also could explain why the 'I am a Turk' narrative was often used by the Soviet Central Asian applicants.

Although the USSR citizens were formally united in one category, they were people not only of different  ethnic  and  social  origins,  but  of  different  political  views,  languages,  and  cultures  too. Besides an active machinery of totalitarianism, Central Asian people were going through processes of Sovietization, and the soviet policy of indigenization did not favor markers of 'otherness', such as  local  cultural  traits,  and  especially  different  religions.  The  majority  of  applicants  identified  as Muslims, which could explain the often-desired destination - Turkey. One Kyrgyz former prisoner of war, Sydyk, who like other Soviet prisoners of war heard, already in 1943, what would happen to "traitors to the motherland" and understood what awaited him and others on the other side of the front. 17 In 1945, after the victory, he met his German wife at the hospital. He decided not to return and emigrated to Turkey explaining his choice by his Muslim religion. Later he settled in the US by help of another non-returnee, Azamat, who left with the Allies and settled in the United States after captivity and tried as best he could to help surviving fellows with the same tragic fate. These are very rare accounts of people who managed to escape, but they also tell us that people emigrated using  alternative  channels  before  the  more  favorable  rules  entered  into  force.  Moreover,  it  also indicates that some social networks or diasporas could have existed, which could prompt 'exchanged

17 Radio Liberty. 1 April 2019. 'Sydyk from Batken. Fate of World War II prisoners of war'. Radio Azattyk . At https://rus.azattyk.org/a/kyrgyzstan-esimde-aldashev-nogoibaeva/29853736.html

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 01 Juni 2023

knowledge about the opportunities to access aid and support from local, national or international agencies, and about how best to navigate the refugee regime' (Banko et al; 12).

## 'German wife'

According to the available archival index data, applicants were predominantly male: '83% of the individual  applicants  and  heads  were  male  and  only  17%  female'  (Borggräfe  2020:  56);  it  also applies to the set of files in concern except one case with a female head applicant. Though, even in that case it seems to be a complicated story entailing reunification and separation of the family. 18 This does not mean, however, that there were no women refugees. They would usually go as family members or spouse dependent on a head of family and chief applicant. There were cases where the Soviet refugees and DPs would get married and often to a woman of German nationality. Sometimes they  would  get  married  or  have  kids  in  time  their  case  was  being  processed,  which  took  time, basically starting a family life they did not have before (young and single as most of them were). 19 This in part defies the image of refugees 'concerned primarily with their own tragedy' (Holborn 1956: 27) and how uncertainty was handicapping them. In some cases, when applicant was already married, it is possible to learn more about women as they also had to fill in the CM/1 form giving similar information. 20

Another gendered aspect was the line "can emigrate together with her husband only" - a big emphasis was made on this requirement. Though it's an understandable limitation for wives of German origin to follow the mandate and not to violate eligibility criteria, it also applied to women who could qualified as refugees on their own, but where the head of family typically was a man and the success of the application depended on the chief applicant. The only safeguard was if the applicant proved to be a refugee or DP but was found ineligible for reasons stated in Part II of the Annex I of the

18 CM1-File Turin Sliwinska Elisabetht Argoniiv , 3.2.1.1 / 916340 /ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives.

20 For example, Israel Hasanow met his future wife, Emka-Mule Irmgard, of Austrian nationality in Bamberg when appealing for assistance after both got liberated. Prior to that she was a jail prisoner after getting arrested by gestapo and he was a forced laborer at farm. https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/de/document/79167561

19 It was reflected in the IRO status change documents attached to the application.

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 01 Juni 2023

Constitution (for example, being war criminals). In such cases the rest of the family could still be assisted. 21

In  another  case  an  applicant  stated  as  a  reason  for  not  to  be  repatriated,  the  fact  that  he  had  a German wife, as this would be seen in a bad light in the USSR. 22 Stalin, indeed, banned marriages with foreigners in the USSR with the issuance of the 1947 Decree "On the prohibition of marriages between citizens of the USSR and foreigners", which was cancelled only in 1953. 23 In other words, the applicant's concern was exceedingly valid. There were at least two cases in which being married to a German was explicitly stated as an amplifying factor for eligibility.

Another way to look at marriage to a DP or refugee is to suggest that women too were trying to navigate 'the legalities and politics of refugee status and immigration' (Balint 2021). Could it be another  strategy  as  a  way  for  German  women  to  receive  assistance  and/or  to  emigrate  with  the indirect assistance of the IRO? There is no evidence found in the examined files; however, the notion of 'political' persecution and historical DP narratives in general were male-centric assuming that women were apolitical: for them 'gaining legitimacy on their own terms was already severely limited by the definition of what constituted persecution and for their relegation to the domestic sphere as dependents' (ibid.; 75-6).

## IRO's narrative

The IRO had to balance between their mandated purpose and policies of receiving states. As an international organization operating in 25 countries all over the world, it surely did contribute to the spread of the idea of non-refoulment. At the same time, receiving countries were reluctant to grant asylum. On one side, the IRO with its emigration care and maintenance program, which was specifically designed to help build the skills, provided healthcare, counselling and so on in order to prepare  refugees  and  DPs  for  easier  resettlement  (Holborn  1956:  2)  and  also  correspond  to  the desired profile, - 'a young, single, healthy male workers who would help the country's economy,

21 Holborn, 'IRO', Eligibility Chapter.

22 CM1-File Muratoglu Erna, 3.2.1.1 / 79509172/ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives https://collections.arolsenarchives.org/en/document/79509172

23 Politburo resolution 'On the prohibition of marriages between Soviet citizens and foreigners,' February 15, 1947, in Stalin i kozmopolitizm: Dokumenty agitpropa TsK KPSS, 1945-1953 (Moscow, 2005), 107-8.

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 01 Juni 2023

but  would  not  be  a  burden  on  it'  (Borggräfe  2020:  18),  -  to  facilitate  the  process.  While  it  is important to keep in mind that the IRO was in a position of power in relation to refugees and DPs, as a temporary international organization designed for the specific project, the organization was not more powerful than all states together. There was a limit to what it could do. Nation-states still defined who belonged and who did not, how many people and what kinds of persons could enter country for settlement. For instance, Ahmetcan Omerhan was either supposed to go to France or be returned from France, because he was rejected due to the absence of desired job opportunities (in agriculture).  In  any  case,  under  the  IRO's  assistance  he  later  completed  some  courses,  got recommendations, and tried his chances with Pakistan as a history teacher. 24

Based on the set of  documents examined (and the rare health reports included), it  appears  that health condition (having missing limbs, terminal diseases; being 'unfit for heavy physical work', or 'bedridden') was not a disqualifying factor. Moreover, they were sent to their desired destination (at least in two cases they were known to be sent to the US with more expensive oversea transfer). Hospitals in Germany were in a very bad condition (Holborn 1956: 205), and, certainly, better health facilities or rehabilitation programs were necessary for those beneficiaries. This fragmentary example does not show the whole picture and it is necessary to always question how the IRO was balancing between raising its beneficiaries' chances of being qualified for a new life and appealing to or influencing the attitudes of the receiving countries. And, most importantly, how it affected the negotiation process.

## Conclusion

The available records in the Arolsen archives depict how Central Asians, who chose to live free from fear and persecution by refusing to be repatriated, and risk to leave behind their previous lives for a chance to have a new beginning, were expressing their agency in negotiating their future in different ways. For them, receiving a certificate of IRO eligibility was the first stage for acquiring a citizenship status  in  the  future,  which  often  implied  an  access  to  the  other  rights  and  opportunities,  and becoming 'humans' again. In the end, one of the reasons why non-refoulement emerged as a norm

24 https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/de/document/79547637

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 01 Juni 2023

was  because  'the  last  million'  resisted  repatriation  after  the  end  of  the  war-  it  was  a  collective response to rules and policies that did not recognize their fundamental rights.

This group of applicants were small in number and likely they had fewer nationalist sentiments in comparison to the larger refugee nation groups. Rather they could be seen simply as political refugees for whom any other country where there would be no persecution and opportunities to build a new life was a good destination. The findings also reflect a desire among people in the region to reclaim their cultural heritage and assert their own identities. Likewise, the cases of strategic national identity narratives or concealing information, presenting either a specific or ambiguous image, can be seen as an expression of refugees' and DPs' agency. There is a gender aspect in the application processing too - the process was male-centered placing women in a disadvantageous position in claiming rights. These negotiations also tell us something about the social encounter not just of an international institution/state with a stateless person of ethnic minority, but also somewhat of different cultures - western and non-western.

The fear was genuine, and prospects of persecution were real: negative attitudes towards prisoners of war and captivity experience on its own, lack of opportunities at home, fear for their newfound families. Those who had families back home had to make a very difficult decision and not be in touch  or  contact  anyone  for  their  own  sake.  They  were  also  people  of  different  backgrounds; ordinary people whose lives were altered by the forces outside of their control. They continued to adapt to the new life circumstances - one of the applicants was a camp leader, some worked during and after the war, led independent lives, learned new languages and skills. They were engaged in local  economies;  even  though  involuntarily,  they  moved  around  different  places  like  Poland, Ukraine, Austria, France. They met different people - sometimes their life partners. While it's true that their possibilities were limited, and there is also not much information about the war experience or trauma, hardships they had endured, we see that were not completely clueless and passive about negotiating their future.

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 01 Juni 2023

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