Drau Massacre

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Opening of the Memorial in memory of the Drau massacre in 1960

The Drau massacre or Massacre on the Drau was the forced repatriation in 1945 by the British military administration of North Caucasian emigrants and refugees in Europe to the military command of the Soviet Union, returning them to the USSR, where they faced repression.

The events took place from May 28 to June 1, 1945, in the Drau river valley near the Austrian town of Lienz, where the British military organized a similar extradition operation concerning the Cossacks. The Caucasians, like the Cossacks, became victims of British diplomacy. The majority of the victims were civilians who did not participate in the hostilities of World War II.

The Camp

Mass emigration of North Caucasians to Europe began after the establishment of Soviet power in the Caucasus in 1919-1921. Another massive wave of migration began in 1943, when German troops began retreating from the occupied territories of the North Caucasus; along with them, some locals left their former places of residence, rightfully fearing Soviet repressions.

Residents of the North Caucasus who fled to European countries settled in mountain villages in the Paluzza area in northern Italy. This was a zone occupied by the British. Later, the refugees migrated to the Drau river valley in southern Austria. In Carnia, several thousand Caucasians were stationed under the command of General Sultan Klych-Girey. Nearby was a camp with tens of thousands of fleeing Cossacks. Russian researchers write about 4.8 thousand North Caucasian settlers, while Turkish researchers estimate 5-8 thousand people. Nikolai Krasnov Jr. pointed out that only 600 of the Caucasians were military personnel, while the rest were civilian refugees, including children, women, the sick, and the wounded.

The camp housed Balkars, Kabardians, Karachays, Chechens, Ossetians, Dagestanis, and Ingush, but there were only 5 communities in the colony: Balkar, Adyghe, Karachay, Ossetian, and Kabardian. Chechens, Dagestanis, and Ingush, due to their small numbers, merged into the other communities. The leader of the North Caucasian camp was Sultan Klych-Girey, who was respected among the settlers. Initially, the refugees felt relatively comfortable in the camp; the British treated them with respect and even allowed them to keep their weapons. They lived in tents and received food from captured German military reserves. The British authorities promised, if possible, to send the refugees to Muslim countries in the Middle East.

Extradition

On February 4-11, 1945, at the Yalta Conference, Joseph Stalin obtained the consent of the anti-Hitler coalition allies to hand over all former citizens of the USSR. However, the allies "overfulfilled" their obligations by handing over a significant portion of the "first wave" emigrants who had never been citizens of the Soviet Union. The agreement "On the Repatriation of Soviet Citizens" of February 11, 1945, excluded the possibility of political asylum for all subjects.

In their appeals to King George VI, Winston Churchill, and other European leaders, the Russian migrants wrote: "We prefer death to returning to Soviet Russia, where a long, systematic destruction awaits us".

The residents of the camp began to be disarmed, which alarmed the Caucasians. Russian-speaking individuals appeared who registered those wishing to return to the USSR. Becoming anxious, some secretly started to leave and hide in the mountains. Sultan Klych-Girey also calmed the North Caucasian refugees, assuring them that Western democracy would never allow forced extradition. All generals and officers were separated from the main group. On May 28, about 150 Caucasian leaders, headed by Sultan Klych-Girey, were sent to Spittal, supposedly for a meeting with the British command; there they were placed in a camp surrounded by barbed wire, and at dawn the next day, they were handed over to the Soviet authorities. On the way to Vienna under Soviet escort, many were shot or disappeared later during interrogations.

The North Caucasians learned of their fate at 5 a.m. on May 28, when they were informed that the officers had already been handed over to Soviet representatives and now it was the soldiers' turn. As K. Natkho wrote, in addition to hunger strikes, refugees ready to die on the spot dug their own graves. Suicides became more frequent in the camp. Many threw themselves into the Drau river. About 200 people escaped into the nearby forests at night, despite the presence of guards armed with machine guns. The reasons for such fear of relocation to the USSR were rumors of an existing instruction from Stalin to consider everyone (captured collaborators, Ostarbeiters, refugees) as traitors to the motherland. By June 1, the number of crushed, killed, drowned, and dead by suicide Cossacks and Caucasians amounted to about 700 people.

On the days of deporting people, 3 trains ran, each usually containing 40 railcars. The doors were not locked, just twisted with wire, causing some captives to try to escape by jumping from the train moving at full speed. A day later, the British began to pursue those who had escaped and hidden. From June 7 to 30, they caught 1,356 Cossacks and Caucasians. On June 15, 934 people were delivered to Judenburg, but Soviet representatives demanded their transportation to Graz, where they ended up the next day.

As a result, many North Caucasians were shot without trial for treason against the USSR. Those who managed to survive ended up in Stalin's camps, where they often also died. Sultan Klych-Girey was sentenced by a Soviet court to death and hanged on January 16, 1947, along with the leaders of the Cossack anti-Bolshevik movement.

Memory

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Memorial to the fallen on the Drau

• In the municipality of Irschen, Austria, in May 1960, the European Islamic Society erected a monument in honor of the deceased Muslim refugees. The inscription in German reads: "Here, on May 28, 1945, 7,000 North Caucasians with their wives and children were handed over to the Soviet authorities and became victims for the ideals of the liberation of the Caucasus"
• The North Caucasian diaspora in Turkey annually commemorates the day of remembrance of the "Drau massacre" ().
• The events were reflected in Karachay-Balkar folklore. The "Song of the Refugees", probably composed by refugees who ended up in Stalin's camps after Lienz, was published by T. Sh. Bittirova.
• Numerous memoirs of surviving participants in the events have been published.

See also

• North Caucasian Legion of the Wehrmacht
• Operation Keelhaul
• Betrayal of the Cossacks

Literature

• Bittirova, T. Sh. (2019). "Tragedy in the Austrian Alps and the work of Hamid Botash". International Research Journal (in русский) (9–2 (87)): 80–83. ISSN 2303-9868.
• Davletbey, M. (June 1953). Kantemir, Alikhan, ed. "Tragedy of the North Caucasians". United Caucasus (Vereinigtes Kaukasien). Monthly organ of the Committee for the Independence of the Caucasus (in русский). Munich (6 (23)): 23.
• Kumuk, D. (2020). "Predecessors & consequences of a tragedy: May 28 – June 01, 1945 Drau massacre" (PDF). Historical Reporter (in русский). XXXIV: 96–135.
• Sibgatullina, A. T. (May 2020). "North Caucasians – victims of the tragedy on the Drava (based on memoirs of eyewitnesses)". Journal of Caucasian Studies (Kafkasya Calışmaları - Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi) (in русский). 5 (10). ISSN 2149-9527.

External links

• "DRAU KATLİAMI (28.05.1945)". ÇERKES DERNEĞİ (in Türkçe). 27 May 2020. Retrieved 2022-06-06.

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