[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Propaganda

[Jerry Frank]

Unfortunately, history is always coloured by politics, religion, 
wishful thinking, and opinion and that applies whether we are reading 
Nazi era booklets or trying to fit family lore to recorded events.

We must always read such material and lore in context and use it 
carefully as we repeat our family stories either verbally or in writing.

Thank you, Rita, for presenting the more accurate picture in context 
of the average person who lived through these events.


Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca




At 10:37 AM 24/12/2006, rlyster at telusplanet.net wrote:

>I recently read the captions of pictures published in "Der Treck Der
>Volksdeutschen aus Wolhynien, Galizien und Dem Narew-Gebiet" (published 1943)
>and "135,000 Gewannen das Vaterland" (1940).  I have not read the 
>booklets yet
>especially the second will require some study with the old script.
>
>Anyway, I then read the captions to my mother (who is blind) and we discussed
>this with her real life experiences of the process.  The photos show smiling
>faces and a gate with "welcome banner".  I interpret the gist of the story as
>a "propaganda" opportunity of the Nazi's welcoming home these people with
>other place to go.  However I think the underestimated the response and were
>then not able to deal with the volume of people who answered the call to
>return to the Vaterland.  My Mom says many got sick in the camps and died.
>Most who went to hospital never returned.  Horses were taken away 
>and given to
>the war effort or butchered for food.  Food that the refugees packed 
>was taken
>to the collective kitchen however never seemed to make it's was to the eating
>table.  Farm produce, slaughtered poultry brought along must have been taken
>away.  They were fed "ein topf" with everything cooked in one pot which was
>foriegn to them and at first difficult to stomach however later when you are
>hungry, you just eat.
>
>My Mom says there was no welcome banner.  And although they were ethnic
>German, they still were tagged as "Polacken" and didnot receive this 
>open arms
>welcome.
>
>When they were finally resettled, they realized there would be potential
>trouble in the future as the farms they were given were vacated just hours
>before by the Polish who were given just an hour to take their belongings, be
>loaded on a truck and shipped out.  In some instances, bread was 
>rising, ready
>for the oven.  No wonder the treatment that was received in 1945 when the
>Germans left and then had to come back because there was no place to go
>however now the Poles were back in charge and these Germans paid the price!
>
>Very interesting what the books say and how the experience really was!
>
>Season's greetings to everyone out there....May 2007 bring you all you wish
>for!
>
>Rita Lyster