Volksliste

The Deutsche Volksliste (German People's List) was a Nazi institution whose purpose was the classification of inhabitants of Nazi occupied territories into categories of desirability according to criteria systematized by Heinrich Himmler. The institution was first established in occupied western Poland. Similar institutions were subsequently created in Occupied France and in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine.

The term "Volksdeutsche", literally meaning "German-folk," was used to refer to ethnic Germans living outside of Germany. Although Volksdeutsche did not hold German or Austrian citizenship, the strengthening and development of communities throughout east-central Europe was an integral part of the Nazi vision for the creation of Greater Germany (German: Großdeutschland).

Historical precedents
According to Götz Aly,
 * it was in fact Republican France that invented the selection criteria later used as the basis for the so-called "Deutsche Volksliste" (German ethnic list) in the areas of Poland annexed by Germany. In 1919, the population of the reclaimed Alsace region were sorted into four groups: full, three-quarter and half French, and Germans. On this basis, Alsatians were accorded full, limited or zero civil rights. In the case of those belonging to Group IV (the Germans), the French authorities ordered expulsion over the Rhine bridge.

Pre-war Nazi Contact with Ethnic Germans
In 1931, prior to its rise to power, the Nazi party established the Auslandsorganisation der NSDAP (Foreign Organisation of the Nazi Party), whose task was to disseminate Nazi propaganda among the German minorities living outside of Germany (Volksdeutsche). In 1936, the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (Ethnic Germans' Welfare Office), commonly known as VoMi, was set up under the jurisdiction of the SS as the liaison bureau for the Volksdeutsche, headed by SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Werner Lorenz.

Germanization
According to the testimony of Kuno Wirsich
 * The aim of the German People's List was that those people who were of German descent and of German ethnic descent were to be ascertained and were to be Germanized.

When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, they annexed the western portion of the country (basically the Gaus of Danzig/West Prussia, the Wartheland and Silesia), and placed the rest of the country under the administration of the "General Government".

The plan for Poland, as set forth in Generalplan Ost was to "purify" the newly annexed regions in order to create a Germanized buffer Polish/Slavic influence. This required the deportation of Poles from this area, sending them to the General Government, and bringing in ethnic Germans from various places along with Germans from Germany to settle the area.

In order to further the objective of Germanization, Nazi Germany endeavoured to increase the number of Volksdeutsche in the conquered territories by a policy of Germanising certain classes of the conquered people, mainly those among the Czechs, Poles, and Slovenes who had German ancestors. Thus, the Nazis encouraged the Polish offspring of Germans, or Poles who had family connections with Germans, to join the Volksdeutsche. In some cases, pressure was applied to compel registration. Those who joined enjoyed a privileged status and received special benefits. Registrants were given better food, apartments, farms, workshops, furniture, and clothing - much of these benefits had been confiscated from Jews and Poles who were deported or sent to Nazi concentration camps.

Determining who was an ethnic German and who was not was not easy in regions that had Poles, ethnic Germans and individuals of German ancestry who had been "Polonised". There were many in western Poland who claimed German ancestry and resisted deportation to the General Government on the basis of it. Even Himmler was impressed by this and said that such resistance must be evidence of their Nordic qualities. Furthermore, Nazi officials in charge of the various annexed territories didn't want to see too many economically valuable Poles sent eastwards, so they, too, desired some form of criteria that would allow them to avoid deporting any skilled Poles with "German blood" in their veins. Poles who were considered to be suitable for "Germanization" were sent to the Reich as labourers.

Multiple "ad-hoc" categorization schemes
From the very beginning of the Nazi occupation of Poland, a number of categorization schemes were developed at the local level, leading to confusion. For example, in October 1939, after the occupation of Poland, the governor of the Warthegau, Gauleiter Arthur Greiser, established a central bureau for the registration of Volksdeutsche - the Deutsche Volksliste (German Folk List), also known as the Volksliste, or DVL. At the beginning of 1940, distinctions were introduced to divide those registered in the Volksliste into four categories: The first consisted of ethnic Germans active on behalf of the Third Reich; the second, of other ethnic Germans; and the third and fourth, of Poles of German extraction (i.e., who had German ancestry) or Poles who were related to Germans by marriage.

Himmler's solution
Himmler's solution to the confusing and competing categorization schemes was the Deutsche Volksliste (DVL), a uniform categorization scheme that could be applied universally. The Racial Office of the Nazi Party had produced a registry called "Deutsche Volksliste" in 1939, but this was only one of the precursors of Himmler's final version.

The Deutsche Volksliste categorised Poles into one of 4 categories:


 * Category I - Volksdeutsche: Persons of German descent who had engaged themselves in favour of the Reich before 1939.
 * Category II - Deutschstämmige: Persons of German descent who had remained passive.
 * Category III - Eingedeutschte: autochtonic persons considered by Nazis as partly Polonized (mainly Silesians and Kashubs); refusal of this list could lead to deportation to a concentration camp
 * Category IV - Rückgedeutschte: Persons of Polish nationality considered "racially valuable", supportive of the Reich (e.g. collaborants)

Those members of the population rated in the highest category were tapped for citizenship and concomitant compulsory military service in the German Armed Forces.

Persons who had been assigned to one of these categories but who denied their ties to Germany were dealt with very harshly. Persons of categories III and IV were sent to Germany as labourers and made subject to conscription into the Wehrmacht.

Implementation in Poland
Himmler had the plan prepared and then ordered it to be administered by the Wilhelm Frick's Interior Ministry. The "Deutsche Volksliste" was mandated in March 1941 by decrees of the Minister of the Interior of the Reich, Wilhelm Frick, and of Heinrich Himmler in his function as Kommissar für die Festigung des deutschen Volkstums (Commissioner for the strengthening of Germanhood). Thus, Himmler's plan was finally implemented a year and a half after the ad-hoc categorization processes had begun in Poland. On 3 April 1941 it was expanded to all of the western Polish areas (i.e. Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia, Upper Silesia and parts of East Prussia).

Upper Silesia
The nationality policy in Upper Silesia was different from the one applied in other Polish areas included into Reich. The motivation for the difference was the different local economic conditions and the necessity to keep qualified manpower essential to Silesian heavy industry. In some historical analyses, it has also been noticed, although less explicitly, that nationality policy of local German elites was also deliberately different. Apparently, Gauleiter Josef Wagner, as well as his successor, Fritz Bracht, saw the necessity to exclude Silesian people from qualification made only on the basis of race criteria which were emphasized by Heinrich Himmler when he was a Reich commissar for strengthening the Germanhood. Fritz and Bracht used also political criteria, which made the situation similar to Pomerania and areas of Western Europe annexed by Nazi Germany (e.g. Alsace-Lorraine). This resulted in a comparatively low number of deportations and in the majority of Upper Silesians being eligible for German citizenship, although their rights were limited compared to those of other German citizens.

Benefits of registration
The German occupation authorities encouraged Poles to register with the Volksliste, and in many instances even compelled them to do so. In occupied Poland, the status of "Volksdeutscher" gave many privileges, but one big disadvantage: Volksdeutsche were subject to conscription into the German army.

Polish response
Polish response to the institution of the Deutsche Volksliste was apparently mixed. Being accepted into Class III could mean keeping one's property, but it might also mean being sent to the Reich as a labourer or being conscripted into the Wehrmacht.

Polish citizens of German ancestry, who often identified themselves with the Polish nation, were confronted with the dilemma of whether to sign the Volksliste. This group included ethnic Germans whose families had lived in Poland proper for centuries, and Germans (who became citizens of Poland after 1920) from the part of Germany that had been transferred to Poland after World War I. Often the choice was either to sign and be regarded as a traitor by the Polish, or not to sign and be treated by the Nazi occupation as a traitor to the Germanic race. Volksdeutsche of Polish ethnic origins were treated by the Poles with special contempt and were also committing high treason according to Polish law. Poles who preferred to stay with their friends and relatives sometimes resisted Nazi pressures to apply for the DVL, opting for deportation to the "General Government" over "Germanization".

Ethnic Poles from Silesia were also subject to pressure from Nazi authorities to sign category III or IV. In many cases people were imprisoned, tortured and their close ones threatened if they refused to sign. Deportations to concentration camps in such cases were also common.

In some cases, individuals consulted the Polish resistance first, before registering with the Volksliste. These Volksdeutsche played an important role in the intelligence activities of the Polish resistance, and were at times the primary source of information for the Allies. However, in the eyes of the postwar Communist government, having aided the non-Communist Polish resistance was not considered a mitigating factor; therefore, many of these double-agent Volksdeutsche were prosecuted after the war.

Results
According to Robert Koehl, "By the introduction of the registration proocedure known as the German National List (DVL) some 900,000 more 'Germans' were discovered, most of them semi-Polish minorities such as the Kassubians, the Masurians, and the local Upper Silesians whom the Germans called 'Wasserpolen'. A few thousand 're-Germanizeables"...had also been shipped back to the Reich."

The total number of registrants for the DVL are estimated to be approximately 2.7 million, with 1 million in classes I and II and the remaining 1.7 million in classes III and IV. In the General Government there were 120,000 Volksdeutsche.

Implementation in other countries
After the Nazis occupied Yugoslavia, they introduced the Volksliste there; they also registered ethnic Germans living in the Soviet Union. Many were resettled in the Generalgouvernement or in parts of Poland occupied by the Nazis, and many served in the German army.

Postwar
At the end of the war, the files of the Deutsche Volksliste were generally found extant in the service registration departments of the respective local authorities. The bulk of these documents are today in Polish archives.

After the collapse of Nazi Germany, some of the Volksdeutsche were tried by the Polish authorities for high treason. Even now, in Poland the word Volksdeutsch is regarded as an insult, synonymous with the word "traitor".