[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] how many of us were there?

Fri Apr 21 11:25:31 PDT 2006

There are some official statistics available to help answer some of these 
questions.

To start with the question of the percentage of Germans in the Rowno area, 
Jörg Wiesner's 1980 doctoral dissertation, the English title of which would 
be "The Social and Economic Status of German Farmers in Volhynia, 1919 to 
1939" produces a table showing the Polish figures for a 1931 census.  In 
Rowno district, out of a total of 252,787, Germans comprised 7,458 (345 of 
whom lived in the city).  This is slightly under 3%.  Other districts had 
higher percentages (Lutzk had 6% and Kostopol had 4.7%) and others lower 
(Dubno, 1.2% and Wladimir 1.8%).  The German population of Lutzk district 
was 17,619, with 1,024 in the city).

The number of Germans transferred from Volhynia, Galicia and the Narew 
region (which were to be placed under Soviet control by the Hitler/Stalin 
agreement) in 1940 was 128,000, according to Joseph Schechtman, "European 
Population Transfers, 1939-1945".  Of these, 64,554 were from Polish 
Volhynia, 55,400 from Galicia and 8,053 from the Narew area.  Interestingly, 
these figures are higher than both the Polish and German figures at the 
time.  The Poles numbered 46,383 Germans in Volhynia and 36,000 in Galicia, 
and the Germans thought there were 60,000 in Volhynia and 51,000 in Galicia. 
This was explained at the time by one Dr. Gradmann (a Nazi) by the fact that 
"under the tremendous influence of the unification of German blood and in 
view of the possibility of returning to the Reich, many persons discovered 
in themselves the Deutschtum that they had long forgotten."  While we may 
doubt the attraction of the supposed blood "unification", there is no doubt 
that many people with very limited German ancestry tried to get out of 
Soviet clutches by claiming to be Germans.  Hence the work of the EWZ and 
all that classifying of people by supposed racial characteristics.

For Soviet Volhynia, I'm not aware of any hard figures.  It has been claimed 
that maybe 60,000 Germans returned after WW I from the Volga and Siberia. 
Both Jerry and Karl have guessed that maybe there were 150,000 in both 
Volhynias, which is probably a good guess, although I'd think a little 
optimistic.  If we subtract the approx. 65,000 who left Polish Volhynia in 
1940, that would leave about 85,000 for the Soviet side.  If there had been 
uninterrupted prosperity and no famine, shootings or deportations in 
between, I suppose the 60,000 could have grown to 85,000.  But, as Karl 
said, these things happened.   It is sometimes said that the Ukraine as a 
whole contained about 200,000 Germans when the Nazis moved in.  Taking 
Karl's guess of 30% for Soviet Volhynia, that would make it 60,000 for that 
region.

Hope this helps.

Dick Benert
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Karl Krueger" <dabookk54 at yahoo.com>
To: "Jerry Frank" <FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca>; "Vera-Lynne Benson" 
<VeraLynneB at netscape.net>; <ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006 5:48 AM
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] how many of us were there?

> Regarding the question of how many Germans were in Volhynia at the start 
> of WW II we can probably get the best sense through EWZ. EWZ52 which 
> covers Polish territory just prior to WW II is comprised mainly of eastern 
> Poland (from about Warsaw going east), Galicia, present day Belarus, and 
> Polish Volhynia. There are about 100,000 applications in EWZ52. From the 
> amount of time I have spent in EWZ52 I would give an estimate that 30-40% 
> of these are from Volhynia. Only people at least 15 years old were 
> processed so children are not included in these numbers, so this number 
> could easily be double that (30,000 x 2 = 70,000).
>
>  EWZ50 covers Soviet territory prior to WW II comprised mainly of Russian 
> Volhynia, Bessarabia, the Crimea and other places in southern Ukraine. 
> (Note EWZ50 does not extend past the Volga River because the German armies 
> never got that far.) EWZ50 has about 110,000 applications. I have had less 
> experience with EWZ50 since I don't have any relatives here but at a 
> minimum I would say 30% of these are from Volhynia. I also noticed in 
> doing research for others that very many applications seem to be missing 
> from EWZ50 as these applications were completed later in the war when more 
> pressure was on the Germans and it appears many of these records got lost. 
> From requests I received from other researchers, I seem to find at least 
> 70% or more of the people from Polish Volhynia, whereas, I find less than 
> 30% (probably more like 10-15%) of those requests from Russian Volhynia.
>
>  In summary, it seems safe to say the numbers of Germans in Polish and 
> Volhynia at the start of WW II was easily 150,000 and likely more. Don't 
> forget about how many were removed or sent to Siberia under the Stalin 
> regime. From Russian Volhynia, for practically every family in their 
> applications it is indicated a number of family members  were 
> "verschleppt" prior to being safe under German occupation.
>
> Jerry Frank <FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca> wrote:
>  At 09:18 PM 20/04/2006, Vera-Lynne Benson wrote:
>>Does anybody know how many Germans lived in Volhynia
>>during the 1700's?
>>
>>And by WWII -- how many German's lived in that region?
>>What was the percentage of German's in the Rowno area?
>>
>> - vl
>
>
> There were very few Germans of consequence in Volhynia prior to
> 1800. They were primarily doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, some
> soldiers, and other upper class people. Farmers did not begin moving
> in until about 1816. There were only about 5000 Germans scattered
> throughout Volhynia prior to 1860. Best estimates for around 1900
> are 200,000. That number went down prior to WW I due to emigration
> and expulsions. I don't know if there are any WW II era
> estimates. Don't forget that after WW I, Volhynia was split between
> Poland and Russia.
>
>
>
>
> Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
> FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca
>
>
>
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