[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] When was German citizenship granted ?

[Richard Benert]

Günther wrote:

"Concerning the Soviet threat: of course Stalin and Molotov calculated
the positive international impact of German peasants who lived and
prospered under Soviet rule in spite of collectivation, Gulag and the
Moscow Trials. And as I understand it, the evacuation of Germans and
Poles from Volhynia was at that time neither intended nor enforced by
the Soviet authorities."

According to Schechtmann, "European Population Transfers,"  the Soviets and 
Germans did set up bureaucracies in both the new "German" and "Soviet" 
territories they had carved out for themselves.  It was a dual system, with 
representatives of each side working in the territory of the other and in 
conjunction with the other side.  The Soviets apparently expected that many 
Ukrainian and White Russian immigrants would eagerly come across the border 
into the Soviet Union, but that few Germans would go the other way and leave 
the Soviet paradise.  They were wrong, of course.

Schechtmann said (1946) that he didn't  have much information about the 
Soviet personnel, but that "During the period of German-Soviet 
collaboration, German sources asserted vigorously tht Soviet bodies had done 
everything in their power to facilitate the transfer, even to dispensing 
with the usual border formalities and providing means of transportation." 
The Soviets provided trains to take some 95,000 German evacuees to the 
border.  25,000 others went by horse-drawn wagons.  Schechtmann says that 
the Soviets would no doubt have taken them all by train, but that the Nazis 
thought it would look better if some could be photographed coming over the 
snow in wagons, hauling with them their meager belongings.  The New York 
Times (June 22, 1941) said that the "Russian administrative bodies treated 
the entire resetlement action with much political tact."

However, after Hitler attacked Russia in 1941, ending the Stalin-Ribbentrop 
agreement, the stories of Soviet cooperativeness vanished and Hitler accused 
Stalin of having "forced" thousands of Germans to leave their homes.  No 
doubt the truth lies somewhere in between.  It's probably true that the 
Soviets would have preferred their Germans to stay, and that they didn't 
force them out.  But apparently they did cooperate with German officials in 
carrying out the exchange.

Dick
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Günther Böhm" <GHBoehm at ish.de>
To: <ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2009 1:19 AM
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] When was German citizenship granted ?


Richard Benert schrieb:
> Well, it may be that I'm right, but I'm also still confused.
>
> Just a word about fleeing from the Red Army in 1939.  I think I've
> read that the Red Army, while present in Volhynia, did not pose any
> sort of threat to life and limb at that time.  In fact, they were
> instructed to help the evacuation process and, as I recall, they did,
> although not always with consummate grace.
>
Richard,
what I intended was: there must have been (and in fact was) a legal
basis independently of Himmler's orders and we shouldn't mix up the
continuously functioning legislation and executive bureaucracy and (as
for instance) the top secret "Endlösung der Judenfrage". And: the actual
racist substance of many acts and laws was older than the "Third Reich".

I think there was a reliable legal basis for the granting of German
citizenship (which became even better through the ongoing war) but its
actual execution was partially uncertain.

Concerning the Soviet threat: of course Stalin and Molotov calculated
the positive international impact of German peasants who lived and
prospered under Soviet rule in spite of collectivation, Gulag and the
Moscow Trials. And as I understand it, the evacuation of Germans and
Poles from Volhynia was at that time neither intended nor enforced by
the Soviet authorities.

Günther

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