The Plight of Refugees from the German-Occupied Territories

Abstract

In the eastern provinces of Poland, occupied by the Soviets until the last week of June 1941, there were concentrated hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from the German-occupied territories. Some of them had arrived even before the invasion of the Soviet forces on 17 September. Others arrived in the five weeks between 17 September and 22 October — ‘election day’ for the ‘National Assemblies’, which later gathered in Lwów and in Białystok to request the annexation of the Western Ukraine to the Ukrainian Soviet Republic and Western Byelorussia to the Byelorussian Soviet Republic. During these five weeks the border between the two occupied areas — the Soviet and the German — was open for free transit in both directions, except for Jews whom the Germans did not permit to return to their homes in the western territories. Yet others arrived after 22 October, when the Soviets had closed their border to free transit. In practice the border was closed only to Jews, just when their persecution by the Germans was increasing day by day and only from among their number were there people who wanted to go over to the Soviets. For non-Jews the border remained open for legal transit in both directions by right of the agreement for the exchange of population between the two occupied areas, which had been signed in Moscow on 16 November.