[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Propaganda

[Perry1121 at aol.com]

I, too, have had access to books published by the Nazi propaganda wing  
between 1940 and 1943 like "Der Treck Der Volksdeutschen aus Wolhynien,  Galizien 
und Dem Narew-Gebiet" (published 1943) and "135,000 Gewannen das  Vaterland" 
(1940). They published an entire series of these books showing  how wonderful it 
was for the Volksdeutsche to return at last to the Fatherland.  The photos 
showing the people and the context of their lives in 1940 is  certainly 
interesting, but they are quite obviously propaganda. Another very  interesting one I 
read was the account by an author and literature teacher who  had been 
designated as one of the EWZ officials to arrange for resettlement,  first in the 
Ukraine and then around Lublin (also in old German script);  it held a 
fascinating description of the life of the German people in these  rural areas for most 
of the book, and even described some of the resettlement  camps and the trek 
out in the winter, but the author frequently lapsed into  open glorification of 
National Socialism in such a completely different style  that I was certain 
the passages were required. I thought of translating some of  the more 
interesting sections which were not openly propagandistic, but the book  was written 
on such poor quality paper during the war that it is now too fragile  to 
photocopy even a few pages. I work in a special collections university  library and 
we hold some of these publications.
 
Sigrid Pohl Perry