[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Volhynia as Germans from Russia - Revisited

[Jerry Frank]

In a previous posting a week or so ago, I suggested that Volhynian Germans were marginalized by the larger GR community in Germany.  I just finished reading this translated article, originally written in Germany in 1993 and revised through 1997:

http://www.lib.ndsu.nodak.edu/grhc/history_culture/history/people.html

This clearly supports my contention.  The article is 41 pages long and purports to be an overview of Germans in Russia and the former Soviet Union.  Although there were about 200,000 Germans in Volhynia at the turn of the century, I found only two short paragraphs in this article devoted to their existence plus some additional scattered sentences, much repeating previous information.  The Volhynians are not completely ignored but I think you can see what I mean by their marginalization.  I don't think I'd want to participate in a group that pays so little attention to me, genealogically, geographically, ethnicly, etc.

The article makes a further error with regard to references to Poland.  Poland did not exist as an independent nation at the time of the referenced migrations.  Perhaps this is nitpicking.  Perhaps it is a problem with the translation.  However, it is important to consider that the Germans in this region were NOT migrating from one country to another but were rather migrating within Russia.  This is an important distinction.


Jerry Frank
Calgary, AB