[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] WWI and War Wives

[Richard Benert]

Kurt, you wrote:
> I've heard many stories of ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) serving the 
> Russians or serving with >the Germans in WWI and WWII. It all depended on 
> circumstance and personal preference, for >good (not much of that it 
> seems) or evil.

I can't say anything about WW II, but in 1914 a lot of Germans in Russia 
were still German citizens and owed military duty to Germany.  So it really 
wasn't a matter of "preference".  And if such a person elected to stay in 
Russia, he would likely have been sent to Siberia with all the other German 
citizens of draft age as soon as the war broke out.  Circumstance yes but 
preference probably not!

Dick Benert