September 23, 1944
Prisoners of War in the Balkans
THE AMBASSADOR
TOP SECRET
Conversation. September 23, 1944.
Present: The American Ambassador, Mr. Harriman
Mr. Edward Page, Second Secretary of Embassy
The British Ambassador, Sir Archibald Clark Kerr
Major A. H. Birse, Second Secretary of Embassy
Marshal I. V. Stalin
Mr. V. M. Molotov, People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs
Mr. Pavlov, Soviet interpreter
Subject: Prisoners of War in the Balkans.
At the conclusion of our conversation with Marshal Stalin I thanked him for the cooperation which the Red Army had extended in regard to the evacuation of our prisoners of war from Rumania. I remarked that the Bulgarians had seriously abused our prisoners. Because of this we would expect full investigation and apprehensions of those who had been responsible. Marshal Stalin readily concurred. He said that the Bulgarians were brutal people and that many of them had come under the influence of the Nazis. On the other hand the Rumanians, who were a “more simple people”, had behaved much better.
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Copy to General Deane
Harriman and Stalin discuss the Red Army's help evacuating American prisoners of war from Romania and their treatment by the Bulgarians.
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