Volksliste
Encyclopedia
The Deutsche Volksliste (German People's List) was a Nazi institution whose purpose was the classification of inhabitants of German occupied territories into categories of desirability according to criteria
systematized by Heinrich Himmler
. The institution was first established in occupied western Poland. Similar institutions were subsequently created in Occupied France and in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine
.
Volksdeutsche
(ethnic German
s) were people of German ancestry living outside Germany. Though Volksdeutsche did not hold German or Austrian citizenship, the strengthening and development of their communities throughout east-central Europe was an integral part of the Nazi vision for the creation of Greater Germany (Großdeutschland).
(Foreign Organisation of the Nazi Party), whose task was to disseminate Nazi propaganda among the German minorities living outside Germany. In 1936, the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle
(Ethnic German Welfare Office), commonly known as VoMi, was set up under the purview of the Schutzstaffel (SS)
as the liaison bureau for ethnic Germans and was headed by SS-Obergruppenführer
Werner Lorenz
.
When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, they annexed the western part of the country (basically the Gaus of Danzig/West Prussia, the Wartheland, and Silesia), and placed the rest of the country under the administration of the General Government
.
The plan for Poland, as set forth in Generalplan Ost
, was to "purify" the newly annexed regions to create a Germanized buffer against Polish and Slavic influence. This entailed deporting Poles from these areas to those under General Government control, and bringing in ethnic Germans from various places along with Germans from Germany proper to settle the area.
To further its objective of Germanization, Nazi Germany endeavoured to increase the number of Volksdeutsche
in the conquered territories by a policy of Germanising certain classes of the conquered people, mainly those among the Czechs, Poles, and Slovenes who had German ancestors. Thus, the Nazis encouraged the Polish offspring of Germans, or Poles who had family connections with Germans, to join the Volksdeutsche, often applying pressure to compel registration. Those who joined enjoyed a privileged status and received special benefits. Registrants were given better food, apartments, farms, workshops, furniture, and clothing—much of it having been confiscated from Jews and Poles who were deported or sent to Nazi concentration camps
.
Determining who was an ethnic German was not easy in regions that had Poles, ethnic Germans, and individuals of German ancestry who had been Polonised
. There were many in western Poland who claimed German ancestry and resisted deportation to the General Government on the basis of it. Even Himmler was impressed by this and said that such resistance must be evidence of their Nordic qualities. Furthermore, Nazi officials in charge of the various annexed territories did not want to see too many economically valuable Poles sent eastwards, so they, too, desired some form of criteria that would allow them to avoid deporting any skilled Poles with German blood. Poles who were considered to be suitable for Germanization were sent to the Reich as labourers.
In 2006, German historian Götz Aly
said the Nazi policy was based on French Republic selection criteria that was used after the First World War to expel ethnic Germans from Alsace.
were developed at the local level, leading to confusion. For example, in October 1939, the governor of the Warthegau, Gauleiter
Arthur Greiser
, established a central bureau for the registration of Volksdeutsche, the Deutsche Volksliste (DVL: German Peoples List), also known as the Volksliste. At the beginning of 1940, distinctions were introduced to divide those registered in the DVL into four categories: ethnic Germans active on behalf of the Third Reich, "other" ethnic Germans, Poles of German extraction (Poles with some German ancestry), and Poles who were related to Germans by marriage.
The Deutsche Volksliste categorised Poles into one of four categories: ,
Those members of the population rated in the highest category were tapped for citizenship and concomitant compulsory military service in the German Armed Forces. At first, only Category I were considered for membership in the SS. Similarly, women recruited for labor in Germany as nannies were required to be classified as Category I or II, because of their close contact with German children and the possibility of sexual exploitation, and so of children; Himmler praised it as a chance to win back blood and benefit the women as well.
German blood was regarded as so valuable that any "German" person would necessarily be of value to other country; therefore, all Germans not supporting the Reich were a danger to it.
Persons who had been assigned to one of these categories but who denied their ties to Germany were dealt with very harshly, and ordered to concentration camps. Men who had "a particularly bad political record" -- had supported persecutions or boycotts of ethnic Germans—were to be sent to concentration camps immediately; their children were to be removed for Germanization, and their wives either sent to the camps as well, if they had also supported the actions, or removed for Germanization.
Persons of categories III and IV were sent to Germany as labourers and subject to conscription into the Wehrmacht
.
's Interior Ministry. The Deutsche Volksliste was mandated in March 1941 by decrees of the Minister of the Interior of the Reich (Frick) and of Heinrich Himmler
in his function as Kommissar für die Festigung des deutschen Volkstums (Commissioner for the strengthening of Germanhood). Thus, Himmler's plan was finally implemented a year and a half after the ad-hoc categorization processes had begun in Poland. On 3 April 1941 it was expanded to all western Polish areas (Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia
, Upper Silesia
, and parts of East Prussia
).
was different from the one applied in other Polish areas included into Reich. The motivation for the difference was the different local economic conditions and the necessity to keep qualified manpower essential to Silesian heavy industry. In some historical analyses, it has also been noticed, although less explicitly, that nationality policy of local German elites was also deliberately different. Apparently, Gauleiter Josef Wagner
, as well as his successor, Fritz Bracht
, saw the necessity to exclude Silesian people from qualification made only on the basis of race criteria which were emphasized by Heinrich Himmler when he was a Reich commissar for strengthening the Germanhood.
Fritz and Bracht used also political criteria, which made the situation similar to Pomerelia
(former West Prussia
, annexed to Danzig-West Prussia) and areas of Western Europe annexed by Germany (such as Alsace-Lorraine
). This resulted in a comparatively low number of deportations and in the majority of Upper Silesians (both Silesian West-Slavs
as well as ethnic Poles
) being eligible for German citizenship, although their rights are alleged to have been limited compared to those of other German citizens.
Polish citizens of German ancestry, who often identified themselves with the Polish nation, were confronted with the dilemma of whether to sign the Volksliste. This group included ethnic Germans whose families had lived in Poland proper for centuries, and Germans (who became citizens of Poland after 1920) from the part of Germany that had been transferred to Poland after World War I
. Many such ethnic Germans had married Poles and remained defiant. Often the choice was either to sign and be regarded as a traitor by the Polish, or not to sign and be treated by the German occupation as a traitor to the Germanic race. People who became Volksdeutsche were treated by Poles with special contempt, and the fact of them having signed the Volksliste constituted high treason according to the Polish underground law. Poles who preferred to stay with their friends and relatives sometimes resisted Nazi pressures to apply for the DVL, opting for deportation to the General Government over Germanization. Their children were often taken
for Germanization while they were deported.
Ethnic Poles from Silesia were also subject to pressure from Nazi authorities to sign category III or IV. In many cases people were imprisoned, tortured and their close ones threatened if they refused to sign; deportation to concentration camps was also common.
In some cases, individuals consulted with the Polish resistance
first, before registering with the Volksliste. These Volksdeutsche played an important role in the intelligence activities of the Polish resistance, and were at times the primary source of information for the Allies. However, in the eyes of the postwar Communist government, having aided the non-Communist Polish resistance was not considered a mitigating factor; therefore, many of these double-agent Volksdeutsche were prosecuted after the war.
more 'Germans' were discovered, most of them semi-Polish minorities such as the Kassubians, the Masurians, and the local Upper Silesians whom the Germans called 'Wasserpolen'. A few thousand 're-Germanizeables' ...had also been shipped back to the Reich."
The total number of registrants for the DVL are estimated to be approximately 2.7 million, with 1 million in classes I and II and the remaining 1.7 million in classes III and IV. In the General Government
there were 120,000 Volksdeutsche.
, they introduced the Volksliste there; they also registered ethnic Germans living in the Soviet Union
. Many were resettled in the General Government or in parts of Poland occupied by the Germans, and many served in the German army.
After the collapse of Nazi Germany
, some Volksdeutsche were tried by the Polish authorities for high treason. Even now, in Poland the word Volksdeutsch is regarded as an insult, synonymous with traitor.
Nazism and race
Nazism developed several theories concerning races. The Nazis claimed to scientifically measure a strict hierarchy of human race; at the top was the master race, the "Aryan race", narrowly defined by the Nazis as being identical with the Nordic race, followed by lesser races.At the bottom of this...
systematized by Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
. The institution was first established in occupied western Poland. Similar institutions were subsequently created in Occupied France and in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine
Reichskommissariat Ukraine
Reichskommissariat Ukraine , literally "Reich Commissariat of Ukraine", was the civilian occupation regime of much of German-occupied Ukraine during World War II. Between September 1941 and March 1944, the Reichskommissariat was administered by Reichskommissar Erich Koch as a colony...
.
Volksdeutsche
Volksdeutsche
Volksdeutsche - "German in terms of people/folk" -, defined ethnically, is a historical term from the 20th century. The words volk and volkische conveyed in Nazi thinking the meanings of "folk" and "race" while adding the sense of superior civilization and blood...
(ethnic German
Ethnic German
Ethnic Germans historically also ), also collectively referred to as the German diaspora, refers to people who are of German ethnicity. Many are not born in Europe or in the modern-day state of Germany or hold German citizenship...
s) were people of German ancestry living outside Germany. Though Volksdeutsche did not hold German or Austrian citizenship, the strengthening and development of their communities throughout east-central Europe was an integral part of the Nazi vision for the creation of Greater Germany (Großdeutschland).
Pre-war Nazi contact with ethnic Germans
In 1931, prior to its rise to power, the Nazi party established the Auslandsorganisation der NSDAPNSDAP/AO
The NSDAP/AO was the Foreign Organization branch of the National Socialist German Workers Party . AO is the abbreviation of the German compound word Auslands-Organisation...
(Foreign Organisation of the Nazi Party), whose task was to disseminate Nazi propaganda among the German minorities living outside Germany. In 1936, the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle
Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle
The Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle was an NSDAP agency founded to manage the interests of the Volksdeutsche who lived outside the borders of Nazi Germany....
(Ethnic German Welfare Office), commonly known as VoMi, was set up under the purview of the Schutzstaffel (SS)
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
as the liaison bureau for ethnic Germans and was headed by SS-Obergruppenführer
Obergruppenführer
Obergruppenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the SA and until 1942 it was the highest SS rank inferior only to Reichsführer-SS...
Werner Lorenz
Werner Lorenz
Werner Lorenz was SS head of the Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle an organization charged with settling ethnic Germans in the German Reich from other parts of Europe.-Early life:...
.
Germanization
According to the testimony of Kuno Wirsich:When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, they annexed the western part of the country (basically the Gaus of Danzig/West Prussia, the Wartheland, and Silesia), and placed the rest of the country under the administration of the General Government
General Government
The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...
.
The plan for Poland, as set forth in Generalplan Ost
Generalplan Ost
Generalplan Ost was a secret Nazi German plan for the colonization of Eastern Europe. Implementing it would have necessitated genocide and ethnic cleansing to be undertaken in the Eastern European territories occupied by Germany during World War II...
, was to "purify" the newly annexed regions to create a Germanized buffer against Polish and Slavic influence. This entailed deporting Poles from these areas to those under General Government control, and bringing in ethnic Germans from various places along with Germans from Germany proper to settle the area.
To further its objective of Germanization, Nazi Germany endeavoured to increase the number of Volksdeutsche
Volksdeutsche
Volksdeutsche - "German in terms of people/folk" -, defined ethnically, is a historical term from the 20th century. The words volk and volkische conveyed in Nazi thinking the meanings of "folk" and "race" while adding the sense of superior civilization and blood...
in the conquered territories by a policy of Germanising certain classes of the conquered people, mainly those among the Czechs, Poles, and Slovenes who had German ancestors. Thus, the Nazis encouraged the Polish offspring of Germans, or Poles who had family connections with Germans, to join the Volksdeutsche, often applying pressure to compel registration. Those who joined enjoyed a privileged status and received special benefits. Registrants were given better food, apartments, farms, workshops, furniture, and clothing—much of it having been confiscated from Jews and Poles who were deported or sent to Nazi concentration camps
Nazi concentration camps
Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...
.
Determining who was an ethnic German was not easy in regions that had Poles, ethnic Germans, and individuals of German ancestry who had been Polonised
Polonization
Polonization was the acquisition or imposition of elements of Polish culture, in particular, Polish language, as experienced in some historic periods by non-Polish populations of territories controlled or substantially influenced by Poland...
. There were many in western Poland who claimed German ancestry and resisted deportation to the General Government on the basis of it. Even Himmler was impressed by this and said that such resistance must be evidence of their Nordic qualities. Furthermore, Nazi officials in charge of the various annexed territories did not want to see too many economically valuable Poles sent eastwards, so they, too, desired some form of criteria that would allow them to avoid deporting any skilled Poles with German blood. Poles who were considered to be suitable for Germanization were sent to the Reich as labourers.
In 2006, German historian Götz Aly
Götz Aly
Götz Aly is a German journalist, historian and social scientist.-Biography:After attending the German School of Journalists, Aly studied history and political science in Berlin...
said the Nazi policy was based on French Republic selection criteria that was used after the First World War to expel ethnic Germans from Alsace.
Multiple ad-hoc categorization schemes
From the beginning of the German occupation of Poland, a number of categorization schemesNazism and race
Nazism developed several theories concerning races. The Nazis claimed to scientifically measure a strict hierarchy of human race; at the top was the master race, the "Aryan race", narrowly defined by the Nazis as being identical with the Nordic race, followed by lesser races.At the bottom of this...
were developed at the local level, leading to confusion. For example, in October 1939, the governor of the Warthegau, Gauleiter
Gauleiter
A Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP or the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau.-Creation and Early Usage:...
Arthur Greiser
Arthur Greiser
Arthur Greiser was a Nazi German politician and SS Obergruppenfuhrer. He was one of the persons primarily responsible for organizing the Holocaust in Poland and numerous other war crimes and crimes against humanity, for which he was tried, convicted and executed by hanging after World War...
, established a central bureau for the registration of Volksdeutsche, the Deutsche Volksliste (DVL: German Peoples List), also known as the Volksliste. At the beginning of 1940, distinctions were introduced to divide those registered in the DVL into four categories: ethnic Germans active on behalf of the Third Reich, "other" ethnic Germans, Poles of German extraction (Poles with some German ancestry), and Poles who were related to Germans by marriage.
Himmler's solution
Himmler's solution to the confusing and competing categorization schemes was the Deutsche Volksliste (DVL), a uniform categorization scheme that could be applied universally. The Racial Office of the Nazi Party had produced a registry called the Deutsche Volksliste in 1939, but this was only one of the precursors of Himmler's final version.The Deutsche Volksliste categorised Poles into one of four categories: ,
- Category I: Volksdeutsche—Persons of German descent who had engaged themselves in favour of the Reich before 1939.
- Category II: Deutschstämmige—Persons of German descent who had remained passive.
- Category III: Eingedeutschte—indigenous persons considered by Nazis as partly Polonized (mainly SilesiaSilesiaSilesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
ns and Kashubs); refusal to join this list often lead to deportation to a concentration camp - Category IV: Rückgedeutschte—Persons of Polish nationality considered "racially valuable", but who resisted Germanization.
Those members of the population rated in the highest category were tapped for citizenship and concomitant compulsory military service in the German Armed Forces. At first, only Category I were considered for membership in the SS. Similarly, women recruited for labor in Germany as nannies were required to be classified as Category I or II, because of their close contact with German children and the possibility of sexual exploitation, and so of children; Himmler praised it as a chance to win back blood and benefit the women as well.
German blood was regarded as so valuable that any "German" person would necessarily be of value to other country; therefore, all Germans not supporting the Reich were a danger to it.
Persons who had been assigned to one of these categories but who denied their ties to Germany were dealt with very harshly, and ordered to concentration camps. Men who had "a particularly bad political record" -- had supported persecutions or boycotts of ethnic Germans—were to be sent to concentration camps immediately; their children were to be removed for Germanization, and their wives either sent to the camps as well, if they had also supported the actions, or removed for Germanization.
Persons of categories III and IV were sent to Germany as labourers and subject to conscription into the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
.
Implementation in Poland
Himmler had the plan prepared and then ordered it to be administered by the Wilhelm FrickWilhelm Frick
Wilhelm Frick was a prominent German Nazi official serving as Minister of the Interior of the Third Reich. After the end of World War II, he was tried for war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials and executed...
's Interior Ministry. The Deutsche Volksliste was mandated in March 1941 by decrees of the Minister of the Interior of the Reich (Frick) and of Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
in his function as Kommissar für die Festigung des deutschen Volkstums (Commissioner for the strengthening of Germanhood). Thus, Himmler's plan was finally implemented a year and a half after the ad-hoc categorization processes had begun in Poland. On 3 April 1941 it was expanded to all western Polish areas (Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia
Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia
The Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia was a Nazi German province created on 8 October 1939 from the territory of the annexed Free City of Danzig, the annexed Polish province Greater Pomeranian Voivodship , and the Nazi German Regierungsbezirk West Prussia of Gau East Prussia. Before 2 November 1939,...
, Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia. Since the 9th century, Upper Silesia has been part of Greater Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, the Piast Kingdom of Poland, again of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown and the Holy Roman Empire, as well as of...
, and parts of East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
).
Upper Silesia
The nationality policy in Upper SilesiaUpper Silesia
Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia. Since the 9th century, Upper Silesia has been part of Greater Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, the Piast Kingdom of Poland, again of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown and the Holy Roman Empire, as well as of...
was different from the one applied in other Polish areas included into Reich. The motivation for the difference was the different local economic conditions and the necessity to keep qualified manpower essential to Silesian heavy industry. In some historical analyses, it has also been noticed, although less explicitly, that nationality policy of local German elites was also deliberately different. Apparently, Gauleiter Josef Wagner
Josef Wagner (Gauleiter)
Josef Wagner was from 1928 the Nazi Gauleiter of the Gau of Westphalia-South, and as of January 1935 also of the Gau of Silesia.-Early life and First World War:...
, as well as his successor, Fritz Bracht
Fritz Bracht
Fritz Bracht was Nazi Gauleiter of Upper Silesia. He was directly involved in the mass murder of Jews and Poles....
, saw the necessity to exclude Silesian people from qualification made only on the basis of race criteria which were emphasized by Heinrich Himmler when he was a Reich commissar for strengthening the Germanhood.
Fritz and Bracht used also political criteria, which made the situation similar to Pomerelia
Pomerelia
Pomerelia is a historical region in northern Poland. Pomerelia lay in eastern Pomerania: on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea and west of the Vistula and its delta. The area centered on the city of Gdańsk at the mouth of the Vistula...
(former West Prussia
West Prussia
West Prussia was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773–1824 and 1878–1919/20 which was created out of the earlier Polish province of Royal Prussia...
, annexed to Danzig-West Prussia) and areas of Western Europe annexed by Germany (such as Alsace-Lorraine
Alsace-Lorraine
The Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871 after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east...
). This resulted in a comparatively low number of deportations and in the majority of Upper Silesians (both Silesian West-Slavs
Silesians
Silesians , are the inhabitants of Silesia in Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic. A small diaspora community also exists in Karnes County, Texas in the USA....
as well as ethnic Poles
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
) being eligible for German citizenship, although their rights are alleged to have been limited compared to those of other German citizens.
Benefits of registration
The German occupation authorities encouraged Poles to register with the Volksliste, and in many instances even compelled them to do so. In occupied Poland, the status of Volksdeutscher conferred many privileges, but one big disadvantage: Volksdeutsche were subject to conscription into the German military.Polish response
Polish response to the institution of the Deutsche Volksliste was mixed. Being accepted into Class III could mean keeping one's property, but it might also mean being sent to the Reich as a labourer or being conscripted into the Wehrmacht.Polish citizens of German ancestry, who often identified themselves with the Polish nation, were confronted with the dilemma of whether to sign the Volksliste. This group included ethnic Germans whose families had lived in Poland proper for centuries, and Germans (who became citizens of Poland after 1920) from the part of Germany that had been transferred to Poland after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Many such ethnic Germans had married Poles and remained defiant. Often the choice was either to sign and be regarded as a traitor by the Polish, or not to sign and be treated by the German occupation as a traitor to the Germanic race. People who became Volksdeutsche were treated by Poles with special contempt, and the fact of them having signed the Volksliste constituted high treason according to the Polish underground law. Poles who preferred to stay with their friends and relatives sometimes resisted Nazi pressures to apply for the DVL, opting for deportation to the General Government over Germanization. Their children were often taken
Kidnapping of Polish children by Nazi Germany
Kidnapping of Eastern European children by Nazi Germany , part of the Generalplan Ost , involved taking children from Eastern Europe and moving them to Nazi Germany for the purpose of Germanization, or conversion into Germans....
for Germanization while they were deported.
Ethnic Poles from Silesia were also subject to pressure from Nazi authorities to sign category III or IV. In many cases people were imprisoned, tortured and their close ones threatened if they refused to sign; deportation to concentration camps was also common.
In some cases, individuals consulted with the Polish resistance
Polish resistance movement in World War II
The Polish resistance movement in World War II, with the Home Army at its forefront, was the largest underground resistance in all of Nazi-occupied Europe, covering both German and Soviet zones of occupation. The Polish defence against the Nazi occupation was an important part of the European...
first, before registering with the Volksliste. These Volksdeutsche played an important role in the intelligence activities of the Polish resistance, and were at times the primary source of information for the Allies. However, in the eyes of the postwar Communist government, having aided the non-Communist Polish resistance was not considered a mitigating factor; therefore, many of these double-agent Volksdeutsche were prosecuted after the war.
Results
According to Robert Koehl, "By the introduction of the registration procedure known as the German National List (DVL) some 900,000more 'Germans' were discovered, most of them semi-Polish minorities such as the Kassubians, the Masurians, and the local Upper Silesians whom the Germans called 'Wasserpolen'. A few thousand 're-Germanizeables' ...had also been shipped back to the Reich."
The total number of registrants for the DVL are estimated to be approximately 2.7 million, with 1 million in classes I and II and the remaining 1.7 million in classes III and IV. In the General Government
General Government
The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...
there were 120,000 Volksdeutsche.
| Annexed area Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany At the beginning of World War II, nearly a quarter of the pre-war Polish areas were annexed by Nazi Germany and placed directly under German civil administration, while the rest of Nazi occupied Poland was named as General Government... |
Deutsche Volksliste, early 1944 | |||
| Cat. I | Cat. II | Cat. III | Cat. IV | |
| Warthegau | 230,000 | 190,000 | 65,000 | 25,000 |
| Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia The Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia was a Nazi German province created on 8 October 1939 from the territory of the annexed Free City of Danzig, the annexed Polish province Greater Pomeranian Voivodship , and the Nazi German Regierungsbezirk West Prussia of Gau East Prussia. Before 2 November 1939,... |
115,000 | 95,000 | 725,000 | 2,000 |
| East Upper Silesia | 130,000 | 210,000 | 875,000 | 55,000 |
| South East Prussia | 9,000 | 22,000 | 13,000 | 1,000 |
| Total | 484,000 | 517,000 | 1,678,000 | 83,000 |
| 2.75 million out of a total non-German population of 6.015 million | ||||
| Source: Wilhelm Deist, Bernhard R Kroener, Germany (Federal Republic). Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, Germany and the Second World War, Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 132,133, ISBN 0198208731, citing Broszat, Nationalsozialistische Polenpolitik, p. 134 | ||||
Implementation in other countries
After Germany occupied YugoslaviaYugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, they introduced the Volksliste there; they also registered ethnic Germans living in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Many were resettled in the General Government or in parts of Poland occupied by the Germans, and many served in the German army.
Postwar
At the end of the war, the files of the Deutsche Volksliste were generally found extant in the service registration departments of the respective local authorities. The bulk of these documents are today in Polish archives.After the collapse of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, some Volksdeutsche were tried by the Polish authorities for high treason. Even now, in Poland the word Volksdeutsch is regarded as an insult, synonymous with traitor.
See also
- Expulsion of Germans from Poland after World War II
- German exodus from Eastern EuropeGerman exodus from Eastern EuropeThe German exodus from Eastern Europe describes the dramatic reduction of ethnic German populations in lands to the east of present-day Germany and Austria. The exodus began in the aftermath of World War I and was implicated in the rise of Nazism. It culminated in expulsions of Germans from...
- History of Poland (1939-1945)
- VolksdeutscheVolksdeutscheVolksdeutsche - "German in terms of people/folk" -, defined ethnically, is a historical term from the 20th century. The words volk and volkische conveyed in Nazi thinking the meanings of "folk" and "race" while adding the sense of superior civilization and blood...