Allied Commission


Following the termination of hostilities in World War II, the Allies were in control of the defeated Axis countries. Anticipating the defeat of Germany, Italy and Japan, they had already set up the European Advisory Commission and a proposed Far Eastern Advisory Commission to make recommendations for the post-war period. Accordingly, they managed their control of the defeated countries through Allied Commissions, often referred to as Allied Control Commissions, consisting of representatives of the major Allies.

Italy

Under the provisions of Article 37 in the Armistice with Italy Instrument of Surrender, September 29, 1943, the Control Commission for Italy was established on November 10, 1943, and was dismantled on December 14, 1947, following the conclusion of the Italian Peace Treaty at the Paris Peace Conference in 1947.
Chief Commissioners: General Noel Mason-MacFarlane, then Harold Macmillan

Romania

The Armistice Agreement with Rumania, signed on September 12, 1944, established, among others, the following:
  • Article 1 "As from August 24, 1944, at four a.m., Rumania has entirely discontinued military operations against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on all theaters of war, has withdrawn from the war against the United Nations, has broken off relations with Germany and her satellites, has entered the war and will wage war on the side of the Allied Powers against Germany and Hungary for the purpose of restoring Rumanian independence and sovereignty, for which purpose she provides not less than twelve infantry divisions with corps troops."
  • Article 4 "The state frontier between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Rumania, established by the Soviet-Rumanian Agreement of June 28, 1940, is restored."
  • Article 18 "An Allied Control Commission will be established which will undertake until the conclusion of peace the regulation of and control over the execution of the present terms under the general direction and orders of the Allied High Command, acting on behalf of the Allied Powers". In the Annex to Article 18, it was made clear that "The Romanian Government and their organs shall fulfill all instructions of the Allied Control Commission arising out of the Armistice Agreement." and that the Allied Control Commission would have its seat in Bucharest.
  • Article 19 "The Allied Governments regard the decision of the Vienna award regarding Transylvania as null and void and are agreed that Transylvania should be returned to Rumania, subject to confirmation at the peace settlement, and the Soviet Government agrees that Soviet forces shall take part for this purpose in joint military operations with Rumania against Germany and Hungary."
In line with Article 14 of the Armistice Agreement two Romanian People's Tribunals were set up to try suspected war criminals. The Treaty of Peace with Romania was signed on February 10, 1947, and entered into force on September 15, 1947.
The commission, placed under the nominal leadership of Soviet general Rodion Malinovsky, was dominated by Red Army leaders.
The commission was one of the tools used by the Soviet Union to impose communist rule in Romania. Soviet occupation forces remained in Romania until 1958 and the country became a satellite state of the Soviet Union, joining the Warsaw Pact and COMECON.

Finland

The Allied Control Commission arrived in Finland on September 22, 1944, to observe Finnish compliance with the Moscow Armistice. It consisted of 200 Soviet and 15 British members and was led by Col. Gen. Andrei Zhdanov. As the commission was virtually entirely controlled by the Soviets, it was even officially referred to as the Allied Control Commission. Immediately after its inception, the commission required Finland to take more vigorous action to intern the German forces in Northern Finland. Finland's compliance with the commission resulted in a campaign to force out the remaining German troops in the area. Simultaneously, the commission also required Finland to demobilize.
The ACC provided Finland with a list of political leaders against whom Finland had to start judicial proceedings. This required Finnish ex post facto legislation. The ACC interfered with the war-responsibility trials by requiring longer prison sentences than the preliminary verdict would have contained. The ACC and the Moscow Armistice also required bans on a number of fascist, far-right and anti-Soviet organizations, among them the Civil Guard and Lotta Svärd organizations. Furthermore, the ACC required the forced return of all Soviet citizens, including Ingrian Finns and Estonians, to the Soviet Union.
After the war, the Finnish military placed part of the weapons of the demobilized troops into several hundred caches distributed around the country. The caches would have been used to arm guerillas in case of a Soviet occupation. When the matter was leaked to the public, the commission required Finnish authorities to investigate and prosecute the officers and men responsible for the caching. The Weapons Cache Case was followed closely until the ACC determined that the case was purely a military operation. The Allied Control Commission left Finland September 26, 1947, when the Soviet Union finally ratified the Paris Peace Treaty.

Bulgaria

The Armistice Agreement with Bulgaria was signed on October 28, 1944, and its provisions were:
  • Article 1: "On the conclusion of hostilities against Germany the Bulgarian armed forces must be demobilized and put on a peace footing under: supervision of the Allied Control Commission."
  • Article 11: property taken from United Nations territory must be returned to those territories under the supervision of the Control Commission.
  • Article 13: property belonging to the Axis powers of Germany and Hungary must not be returned without permission of the Control Commission.
  • Article 18: the commission would "regulate and supervise the execution of the armistice terms under the chairmanship of the representative of the Allied High Command.... During the period between the coming into force of the armistice and the conclusion of hostilities against Germany, the Allied Control Commission will be under the general direction of the Allied High Command."
The United States representatives on the Commission for Bulgaria were Major General John A. Crane and Major General Walter M. Robertson.

Hungary

The Armistice Agreement with Hungary was concluded on January 20, 1945, and its provisions were:
  • Article 1: "On the conclusion of hostilities against Germany, the Hungarian armed forces must be demobilized and put on a peace footing under the supervision of the Allied Control Commission.
  • Article 2: Hungary has accepted the obligation to evacuate all Hungarian troops and officials from the territory of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Rumania occupied by her within the limits of the frontiers of Hungary existing on December 31, 1937, and also to repeal all legislative and administrative provisions relating to the annexation or incorporation into Hungary of Czechoslovak, Yugoslav and Rumanian territory.
  • Article 6: property taken from United Nations territory must be returned to those territories under the supervision of the Control Commission.
  • Article 8: property belonging to the Axis power of Germany must not be returned without permission of the Control Commission.
  • Article 11: Hungary should pay for the Allied Control Commission and that "The Government of Hungary will also assure, in case of need, the use and regulation of the work of industrial and transport enterprises, means of communication, power stations, enterprises and installations of public utility, stores of fuel and other material, in accordance with instructions issued during the armistice by the Allied High Command or the Allied Control Commission."
  • Article 17: "Hungarian administrative bodies undertaking to carry out, in the interests of the reestablishment of peace and security, instructions and orders of the Allied High Command or Allied Control Commission issued by them for the purpose of securing the execution of these armistice terms."
  • Article 18: "For the whole period of the armistice there will be established in Hungary an Allied Control Commission which will regulate and supervise the execution of the armistice terms under the chairmanship of the representative of the Allied High Command... During the period between the coming into force of the armistice and the conclusion of hostilities against Germany, the Allied Control Commission will be under the general direction of the Allied High Command."
The United States representatives on the Commission for Hungary were Major General William S. Key and Brigadier General George H. Weems.

Germany

The Allied Control Council for Germany oversaw the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany. The ACC was established by agreement of June 5, 1945, supplemented by agreement of September 20 of that same year, with its seat in Berlin. Its members were Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States of America. Decisions could only be made by consensus. From the outset; proceedings were heavily compromised through systematic non-cooperation from the French representatives. The French had been excluded from the Potsdam Conference and consequently refused to recognise any obligation for the ACC to be constrained by the Potsdam Agreement. In particular, they resisted all proposals to establish common policies and institutions across Germany as a whole, and anything that they feared might lead to the emergence of an eventual unified German government. Cooperation within the ACC finally broke down completely when the Soviet representative withdrew on March 20, 1948. Until 1971, the ACC did not meet again, and the stage was set for the partition of Germany into two states.
After the breakdown of the ACC, the British, French and United States of America occupation zones and the British, French and United States of America sectors in Berlin were governed by the Allied High Commission with membership from Britain, France, and the United States, whilst the Soviet Zone and Soviet sector of Berlin were governed by the Chairman of the Soviet Control Commission, later the Soviet High Commissioner. The role of the High Commissioners ceased when the three western zones and the Soviet Zone acquired de facto sovereignty as respectively the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic .
The ACC convened again in 1971, leading to agreement on transit arrangements in Berlin. During the talks for unification of Germany in late 1989, it was decided to convene the ACC again as a forum for solving the issue of Allied rights and privileges in Germany. The disbanding of the ACC was officially announced by the Two Plus Four Agreement of September 12, 1990, effective as of March 15, 1991. The ACC last met on 2 October 1990, on the eve of German Reunification.