Following the end of World War II, the resettlement of Ukrainians—who found themselves among the displaced persons in Western Europe—to the United States began. The struggle against forced repatriation, changes in U.S. immigration legislation, and the activities of Ukrainian organizations and the church played significant roles in this third wave of Ukrainian immigration to the United States between 1949 and 1954.
Ukrainians in Displaced Persons Camps
After the war ended, approximately 2 to 3 million Ukrainians found themselves in Western Europe—primarily in Germany and Austria—in camps for displaced persons, known as "DP" camps.
This was reported by M. Kuropas.
Some of these individuals had been forcibly taken to Germany for labor. Others were refugees who had experienced life under Soviet occupation and had therefore left Ukraine alongside the retreating German forces. The displaced persons also included former prisoners of Nazi concentration camps, prisoners of war, members of German military formations, and political refugees from the 1920s.
The majority of those taken for forced labor returned to Ukraine, either voluntarily or under compulsion. With few exceptions, they ended up in Soviet labor camps upon their return. Others refused to return due to the brutality of the Soviet system. Soviet authorities viewed this refusal as an affront and claimed that those unwilling to return were Nazi collaborators.
Forced Repatriation
British and American military authorities initially accepted Soviet allegations and initiated a forced repatriation process known as "Operation Keelhaul." By November 1945, Western commands had repatriated 2,037,000 people to the Soviet Union.
On November 2, 1945, the USA, Great Britain, France, and the USSR signed the Yalta repatriation agreement. It provided for the mutual return of displaced persons belonging to the Allied nations.
Under the agreement, refugees who had lived within the territory of the USSR prior to 1939 were classified as Soviet subjects. However, the agreement did not apply to Ukrainian refugees who had lived before the war in Galicia and Volhynia—regions then part of Poland—or to residents of Bukovyna and Transcarpathia. Nevertheless, Soviet authorities regarded all Ukrainians with displaced person status as their citizens and demanded their return, using force if necessary.
Forced repatriation met with resistance from the refugees. Some offered physical resistance while being loaded onto trucks or railcars. There were also recorded instances of suicide among those unwilling to return to the Soviet Union. On September 4, 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, prohibited the use of violence during repatriation.
Ukrainian Organizations Oppose Repatriation
The forced return of displaced persons became a major issue for the Ukrainian-American community. Under the leadership of the UUARC, Ukrainian organizations opposed repatriation and sent appeals to the White House, the U.S. Congress, and the War Department.
American communists supported Soviet allegations, claiming that all Ukrainians in displaced persons camps were "Nazis" and should return to the Soviet Union to stand trial.
In 1946, the War Department officially informed the UUARC that "Ukrainian displaced persons will not be repatriated to their country of origin without their consent." The exceptions, as the Department noted, would be "those Ukrainians subject to repatriation under the U.S.-Soviet Yalta Agreement—that is, those who were USSR citizens as of September 1, 1939"; those "captured in German uniforms"; and those who were members of Soviet military formations on or before June 22, 1941, and had not been discharged; "...those accused, based on substantiated evidence, of collaborating with the enemy and who had voluntarily provided assistance to the enemy.”
Despite these assurances, the UCCA remained skeptical. The community believed that permanent settlement in the United States was the surest way for displaced persons to avoid returning to the Soviet Union.
Changes in U.S. Refugee Policy
In December 1945, President Harry Truman issued a directive stipulating that, within established quotas, priority be given to refugees who had a sponsor in the United States. The sponsor was required to sign an affidavit pledging to assist the newly arrived immigrant.
Approximately 42,000 displaced persons arrived in the United States, including a small group of Ukrainians. The expansion of criteria for displaced person status was significant, as the definition began to encompass not only victims of Nazi persecution—such as forced laborers and concentration camp inmates—but also people who had suffered under communist subjugation.
Truman’s decisions did not receive unequivocal support from the American public. The White House received letters opposing the arrival of displaced persons at a ratio of seven to one compared to those favoring it. Representatives of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars publicly opposed the settlement of displaced persons in the U.S., fearing they would take jobs away from returning veterans.
President Truman continued to advocate for the admission of refugees. In his 1947 State of the Union address to Congress, he urged lawmakers to "turn their attention to the solution of world problems and assume responsibility for thousands of homeless and suffering refugees of all faiths."
Both houses of Congress considered bills addressing this issue. After debate, a compromise was reached: in June, a bill was sent to the President providing for the admission of 205,000 refugees to the U.S. over a two-year period.
On June 25, 1948, the President signed the Displaced Persons Act. Between 1946 and 1957, approximately 80,000 Ukrainians arrived in the United States.
Candidate Screening and Resettlement
Under the Displaced Persons Act, every candidate for refugee status was required to find a sponsor in the United States. To prevent the entry of war criminals, candidates underwent screening by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the U.S. Army Provost Marshal General in Germany, the fingerprint center in Heidelberg, Germany, the Department of Justice’s Immigration and Naturalization Service, and specially trained advisory personnel.
Displaced persons from communist-occupied countries underwent an additional final investigation.
The resettlement of displaced persons was a complex process in which representatives of the first and second waves of Ukrainian immigration actively participated. The United Ukrainian American Relief Committee (UUARC) established an organizational network to assist the resettlers. By June 30, 1952, the organization had helped 33,000 Ukrainians resettle.
The process involved several stages: finding a qualified Ukrainian sponsor residing in the U.S.; the work of the UUARC’s organizational network in Europe, which transmitted sponsorship documents and prepared prospective immigrants for life in the U.S.; establishing a network in the U.S. to transport displaced persons from the port of entry to the sponsor's family; and organizing temporary housing facilities where new immigrants could receive lodging and meals until their sponsors could provide for them.
The Ukrainian Catholic Church also played an active role in the resettlement process.
Assistance from the Ukrainian Catholic Church
In 1946, the Ukrainian Catholic Committee for Refugees was established under the leadership of Bishop Ambrose Senyshyn.
At the behest of Bishop Senyshyn, Father John Stock spent six years in Europe, working closely with the National Catholic Welfare Council.
In 1952, Bishop Senyshyn reported that the committee’s efforts had facilitated the resettlement of approximately 175 priests, 300 orphans, and 45,000 other individuals.
We have previously written about the first and second waves of Ukrainian immigration to the USA. Read the article:From miners to political emigrants: how the Ukrainian community in the USA was formed."
Photo: M. Kuropas.
Author: Danylo Pievchev