Over one million refugees could not be repatriated to their original countries and were left homeless as a result of fear of persecution . These included : The agreement reached at the Yalta Conference required in principle that all citizens of the allied powers be repatriated to their home country . The Soviet Union insisted that refugees in the American , British , and French sectors who were or at some point had been Soviet citizens be sent back to the Soviet Union . A large number of refugees resisted this , fearing that their fleeing Soviet rule had condemned them as traitors
Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
Displaced persons camps in post-World War II Europe