761.6211/286: Telegram
The Chargé in Germany (Kirk) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10:08 a.m.]
1943. My 1739, October 18, 1 p.m.64 DNB announces the conclusion yesterday of an agreement between the German and Russian Governments which will grant all Germans from the western areas of the Ukraine and White Russia the right to resettle in Germany and which will grant all Ukranians, White Russians and Ruthenians from Germany’s sphere of interests in the territories of the former Polish State the right to resettle in Russia.65 It is stated that the wishes of the persons affected shall be decisive in the matter and that certain safeguards have been provided for the protection of the personal property values involved. According to the DNB announcement the agreement was concluded in the spirit of friendship which marks the relations between Germany and Russia.66
- Not printed.↩
- Following appeals by the “elected” National Assemblies of the Western Ukraine and Western White Russia, in the territories taken from Poland after its defeat, the Supreme Council of the Soviet Union acceded to the petitions and incorporated these areas into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the White Russian Soviet Socialist Republic, at the beginning of November 1939. See telegram No. 826, October 28, and telegram No. 850, November 2, from the Ambassador in the Soviet Union, Foreign Relations, The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, pp. 785 and 790, respectively.↩
- In his telegram No. 916, November 20, the Chargé in the Soviet Union reported that a Commissariat for Foreign Affairs communiqué confirmed the signature on November 16, 1939, of the agreement implementing the confidential protocol of September 28, 1939, between Germany and the Soviet Union in regard to the exchange of nationals in the German and Russian occupied areas of Poland. (761.6211/300) For text of protocol, see Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–1945, Series D, vol. viii, doc. No. 158, p. 165.↩