Casualties Controversy
Canadian troops landed unopposed on Texel on 20 May 1945, effectively liberating the island. Over a two day period the Canadians disarmed 1,535 Germans. Soviet SMERSH forces arrived on Texel and took charge of 228 Georgians still alive. A Canadian report prepared for the commander of the SMERSH contingent numbered 470 Georgian and 2,347 German casualties on Texel.
In 1949 the German War Graves Commission disinterred on Texel 812 bodies (including the 400+ killed in their sleep by the Georgians in their shared quarters) for reburial at Ysselsteyn military cemetery. The numbers given by the Texel district list "565 Georgians, 120 Texel islanders and approximately 800 Germans killed"; followed by "other sources ... speak of more than 2,000 Germans killed." The "other sources" comment in all probability refers to the Canadian report to SMERSH that lumped together under "casualties" the 1,535 disarmed Germans with their 812 dead. The last casualty was ironically a Dutch supporter of the uprising, the local baker Theo Smit, who was accidentally killed by a Georgian.
Read more about this topic: Georgian Uprising On Texel
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