[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] "Deutsche Volksliste"

[lyduhett at sunflower.com]

>From the context of the following, I am going to stick my neck out
and offer a reply.  During the Nazi period, Volk not only meant 'folk'
but also 'nation' and 'ethnic'.  Germans who were citizens of Germany
proper were referred to as Reichsdeutsche.  Ethnic Germans, who lived
outside the Reich in other countries, were referred to as Volksdeutsche
[ethnic Germans].  During the period of German occupation of the eastern
territories, families that had Polish surnames Germanized their surnames
in order to fit in.  In the novelle, Cat and Mouse, by G|nter Grass, examples 
of this are given.  One that I recall was Gusewski which was Germanized to
Gusewing.  Because of the long association between Prussia and Polish
lands, many Poles had become Germanized in every way but name.  
The Kaschuben or Cassubians and Masurians had been part of Germany since
the Middle Ages.  (G|nter Grass's grandmother was a Kaschubin, and in his
novel Dog Years, makes reference to her.)
German racial policies during the years 1933-l945 made the making of
lists such as the Volkliste imperative.  The Germans made up such lists
for Ukraine, Crimea, etc.
Now that is my theory of what the Volkliste is.  If I have deviated from what
others might know please send information to me.
Thank you

LDHettinger  


On 13 Apr 03, at 14:38,  Richard Benert wrote:

From:           	" Richard Benert" <benovich at montanadsl.net>
To:             	"Lonnie Scallen" <ndseagirl at hotmail.com>,
  	<ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
Subject:        	Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] "Deutsche Volksliste"
Date sent:      	Sun, 13 Apr 2003 14:38:00 -0400

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Lonnie Scallen" <ndseagirl at hotmail.com>
> To: <ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
> Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2003 3:51 AM
> Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] "Deutsche Volksliste"
> 
> 
> > Could someone please explain to me in laymans terms what the "Deutsche
> > Volksliste" is?  I looked it up on google and found the explanation
> > confusing.  I had a Polish relative that had something to do with it.
> 
> Lonnie,
> 
> Thanks for asking about the deutsche Volkslist.  Preparing an answer for
> you has helped clarify a few things in my own mind.  Thanks also to Oliver
> Guenther and Gerhard Koenig for their contributions.  Let me try to
> explain it as simply as I can.
> 
> When the Nazis took over Poland in 1939, they annexed the western portion
> (basically the Gaus of Danzig/West Prussia, the Wartheland and Silesia),
> and placed the rest of the country under the so-called "General Government
> of Poland", which was essentially "Poland run by Germans".  The idea was
> to "purify" the newly annexed regions in order to create a safely
> Germanized eastern border against Polish/Slavic influence.  This meant
> deporting Poles from this area, sending them to the General Government,
> and bringing in ethnic Germans from various places along with Germans from
> Germany to settle the area.  Determining who was a Pole and who was not
> was not easy in this quite heavily Germanized region.  Many apparent Poles
> who didn't want to be deported quickly pointed out their German ancestry
> and resisted.  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 localities didn't want to see too many
> economically valuable Poles sent eastwards, so they, too, desired some
> form of sorting mechanism in order to avoid deporting any skilled Poles
> with "German blood" in their veins.  At worst, such Poles, deemed
> "Germanizeable", could be sent to the Reich for re-education.
> 
> A welter of sorting schemes were produced, leading to confusion.  The
> Deutsche Volksliste (DVL) was Himmler's answer--a uniform procedure for
> everyone to follow.  (Actually, the Racial Office of the Nazi Party had
> produced a registry called "Deutsche Volksliste" in 1939, but this was
> only one of the precursors of Himmler's final version.)  Himmler had the
> plan drawn up and then allowed it to be administered by the civilian
> Interior Ministry (although his "Reich Commission for the Strengthening of
> Germandom--RKFDV--was the final court of appeals).  This was in March,
> 1941, a year and a half after such sorting of people had begun.
> 
> According to Robert Koehl, "RKFDV: German Resettlement and Population
> Policy, 1939-1945", (Cambridge, 1957), p.87, "By the introduction of the
> registration proocedure known as the German National List (DVL) some
> 900,000 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
> 'reGermanizeables"...had also been shipped back to the Reich."
> 
> Briefly put, the DVL placed people into one of 4 categories.  Class I was
> made up of Germans who had since 1919 actively fought to protect Germanism
> in Poland.  Class II were more passive people who had, however, maintained
> their Germanness.  These people got German citizenship easily.  Into Class
> III were placed people whose ancestry was doubtful, and these made up the
> majority of the difficult cases.  They were considered the "floating
> sector" (schwebende Schicht), who buttered their bread on whichever side
> was opportune at the moment (Koehl).  Many of them spoke both German and
> Polish. If they passed whatever examinations were given (including racial
> and psychological), they might be granted citizenship.  But since this
> meant possibly being drafted, many people finally turned in their Class
> III cards in a patriotic gesture.  The Gestapo didn't like this and
> decreed the death penalty for so doing.   Class IV was comprised largely
> of people with German ancestry who had actively fought against Germandom,
> and they typically wound up in concentration camps.  It also included
> Polish spouses of Germans.
> 
> The total number of registrants for the DVL may have been three million,
> with one million in classes I and II.  The remaining 2 million, according
> to Koehl, were "(1) opportunists (2) members of borderline (Slavic) ethnic
> groups in West Prussia and Upper Silesia, (3) Polish family members in
> mixed marriages, (4) persons registered against their will, either
> anti-nazi Germans or Poles with a German ancestor or relative."
> 
> Polish reaction was apparently mixed.  Being accepted into Class III could
> mean keeping one's property, but it might also mean being sent to the
> Reich and/or drafted.  Poles who preferred to stay with their friends and
> relatives sometimes resisted Nazi pressures to apply for the DVL, opting
> for deportation over "Germanization".
> 
> In case I haven't already imposed on you far more than you wanted to know,
> there is a concise statement about the DVL in the records of the Nuremberg
> trials at:
> 
>  http://www.mazal.org/archive/nmt/04a/NMT04-T0717.htm
> 
> You may have noticed in Gerhard Koenig's posting that the DVL was used
> after 1945 to help Germany decide who, among the refugees from the east,
> it could give citizenship to.  In fact, I've learned, it continued to be
> so used for decades thereafter, up to at least 1990.  I'll send out an
> on-line treatment of this subject very soon.
> 
> I apologize for the length of this.  It's a very complicated subject, and
> I have many questions about it myself--especially relating to the Nazis'
> FORCING people to register for the DVL, when they were at the same time so
> eager to rid the area of Polish "blood".  On the other hand, of course,
> there was the principle that "not one drop of German blood should be
> lost." I have found no good treatment of this subject.  Koehl's book is
> helpful, but rather confusing.
> 
> Dick
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