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This article is about the origin and historical use of the term volksdeutsche ... In an article about some people, this term describes seeing ethnic Germans.

volksdeutsche

Origin of the term

According to historian Doris Bergen, Adolf Hitler is reputed to have coined the definition Volksdeutsche which appeared in the 1938 memorandum of the German Reich Chancellery. This document defined volksdeutsche as "a race whose language and culture were of German origin, but who did not hold German citizenship." After 1945, Nazi citizenship laws of 1935 (Reichsbürgergesetz [de]) - and related rules that refer to the concepts of national socialism of blood and race in connection with the concept volksdeutsche - were canceled in Germany.

Historical past

Ethnic Germans across Europe benefited financially during World War II with Nazi policies of genocide and ethnic cleansing, and benefited from the expulsion and murder of their non-German neighbors. throughout Eastern Europe. For example, in Ukrainia volksdeutsche took a direct part in the Holocaust and took part in the deportation of local farmers and their families; Volksdeutsche a figure like Arthur Boss of Odessa (Blobel's right hand) or the Becker brothers became an integral part of the Nazi Holocaust machine.

Volksdeutsche in German-occupied Western Poland

Heim Modules Reich 1939-1944

Territory of origin	Year	Number of resettled Volksdeutsche
South Tyrol (see South Tyrol Option Agreement)	1939-1940	83000
Latvia and Estonia	1939-1941	69000
Lithuania	1941	54000
Volyn, Galicia, Nerewdeutschland	1939-1940	128000
General government	1940	33000
Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia	1940	137000
Romania (Southern Bukovina and Northern Dobrudzha)	1940	77000
Yugoslavia	1941-1942	36000
USSR (until 1939 borders)	1939-1944	250000
Summary	1939-1944	867000

After the German invasion of the USSR

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the government granted the Volga Germans an autonomous republic. Joseph Stalin abolished the German of the Volga Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic after Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the USSR. Most of the Soviet Germans in the USSR were deported to Siberia, Kazakhstan and Central Asia by the Decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on August 28, 1941, and from the beginning of 1942 these Soviet Germans who were found suitable for hard work (men aged 15 to 55 and women 16 to 45) were mobilized for forced labor in working columns where they lived in prison, as the environment, and sometimes together with ordinary prisoners, were introduced to the camps. Hundreds of thousands have died or become disabled due to the harsh conditions.

Volksdeutsche in Hungary

Substantial part Volksdeutsche in Hungary joined the SS, which had a pattern repeated also in Romania (with 54,000 local service in the SS by the end of 1943). Most 200,000 Volksdeutsche from the Danube region that served with the SS were from Hungary. Already in 1942 some 18,000 Hungarian Germans joined the SS. In the diaspora, they called the Danube the Swabians. After World War II, approximately 185,000 volksdeutsche fled or were expelled from the region in 1946-48 by the Soviet-established communist government of Hungary. They were called "Svabo" by their Serbian, Hungarian, Croatian and Romanian neighbors, especially in the area now part of Vojvodina in Serbia. Other ethnic Germans in Hungary during World War II were Transylvanian Saxons. Today almost all of them have assimilated or left the region.

Volksdeutsche in Romania

After Romania acquired parts of Soviet Ukraine, the Germans came under the leadership of the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle, which deployed SS personnel to several localities. They eventually contained German mayors, farms, schools and ethnic German paramilitary groups operating in the police called Selbstschutz ("Self-defense"). German colonists and Selbstschutz forces involved in extensive acts of ethnic cleansing, massacring Jews and Roma populations.

In the German colony Shonfeld Romas were burned on the farms. During the winter of 1941/1942, German Selbstschutz a few participated in the filming, together with the Ukrainian People's Militia and Romanian gendarmes, some 18 thousand Jews. In the Bogdanovka camp, tens of thousands of Jews were the subject of mass shootings, barn arson and murder by grenades.

Heinrich Himmler was impressed enough by the Volksdeutsche communities and the work of Selbstschutz for these methods to be copied in Ukraine.

Volksdeutsche in Serbia and Croatia

In the former Yugoslavia, the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen was formed by about 50,000 ethnic Germans from the Banat region of Serbia. This is striking in his operations against Yugoslav partisans and civilians. About 100 thousand ethnic Germans from the German-conquered former Yugoslavia joined the German

In this document, the term volksdeutsche defines "people whose language and culture have Germanic roots, but who do not have German citizenship." One way or another, for Hitler and other Germans of that time, this term carried some semantic shades - purity of blood, racial definition - something that is not included in the modern Russian-language term "ethnic Germans" and is purely ideological shades of this term. In accordance with the German regulations of the 1930s, about 30 million Volksdeutsche lived outside the borders of the Reich, a significant part of them in Eastern Europe - Poland, the Baltic States, the USSR and Romania.

The Nazi fundamental ideas of expansion to the East assigned Volksdeutsche a special role in the German plans to conquer the countries of Eastern Europe, which was clearly outlined in the general plan "Ost".

The Nazi authorities constantly came out with official calls for cooperation or repatriation of Volksdeutsche persons to the German Reich, the main argument being the idea of \u200b\u200b"blood unity" with the Germans living in Germany. So, in 1931, the Nazis who had not yet come to power open “ Auslandsorganisation der NSDAP"(Abbreviated" NSDAP / AO "-" Overseas organization of the Nazi Party»), Whose main and only real goal was to spread Nazi propaganda among German national minorities in other countries of the world (Volksdeutsche).

Volksdeutsche mittelstelle

One of the main roles in the implementation of the ideology of the Nazi racial doctrine in general and the ideology of the integrity of the Germanic race in particular was played by the organization "Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle" (German Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle; abbr. VoMi), which had the status of one of the five main directorates of the SS and carried out a variety of work among ethnic Germans living abroad.

In the monograph by Lumans Valdiso ( Lumans valdiso) it says that:

“One of Himmler's main goals was centralized control over the myriad groups and individuals who propagated the idea of \u200b\u200bVolksdeutsche inside and outside the Reich. Himmler did not begin this process, however, finding these ideas in the air, developed them and directed them in the direction he needed. His main instrument in attempting to achieve this goal was governance outside the SS structure - the Nazi party organ Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (VoMi), which can be translated as “Ethnic German Relations Office.”

The press section of this department prepared daily reviews of materials published in more than 300 newspapers and magazines published abroad, and was also involved in introducing into foreign media and forming (through writing "custom articles") the necessary organization of public opinion through anti-communist newspapers in Austria, France. Belgium and other countries that spoke positively about Nazism.

Volksdeutsche during World War I

Germans in the Russian Empire

Background

The German population existed in the Russian Empire practically from the moment of its creation, in the Baltic provinces - even before their annexation to Russia (Eastsee Germans, who until the second half of the 19th century constituted the local elite). Quite often in Russian history the situation with the official and unofficial invitation of German scientists, politicians and military personnel to high positions in various fields was repeated.

A striking example is the favor and de facto government of the country by Ernst Johann Biron during the reign of Empress Anna Ioannovna and the short period of usurping actual power after her death (when he was regent under Ivan VI).

At that time, a semi-scientific theory was developed that the German leaders (in particular, Rurik) introduced the very idea of \u200b\u200bstate rule into the politically chaotic world of the Slavic peoples. However, it turned out to be extremely easy to refute this theory - Rurik was invited to fill the vacant place of the prince - which means that the title of prince existed before the advent of Rurik to Russia. The personalities of the statesman, the Minister of the Interior von Plehve, and the most influential financier of Russia in the 19th century, Nikolai Bunge, can also serve as an example.

In addition, a large number of Russian scientists, military leaders, and artists belonged to German nationality. These subjects of Russia have made a great and often invaluable great contribution to the development of mankind. Among them are D.I.Fonvizin (von Wizin), I.F.Kruzenshtern, F.F. Of the later figures, it is necessary to note B.V. Raushenbach, one of the founders of Soviet cosmonautics.

Volksdeutsche position during World War I

The war with Germany and Austria-Hungary unleashed anti-German sentiments and propaganda for the fight against the "internal enemy" in Russian society. In connection with this fact, the most close attention was paid to the subjects of the empire - Germans by nationality, in connection with which a lot of biased publications about them appeared. In the initial period of the war, the attitude towards this group was benevolent, their difference from the German population was emphasized in every possible way. The great financial contribution to the creation and development of the network of infirmaries and hospitals, the charitable work of the Germans among the population was noted. However, later, by 1915, as the situation at the front worsened, the attitude of the state and the population towards the German subjects of the empire began to change for the worse. On several occasions, certain newspapers began to publish articles of a provocative nature, which, despite the denials given by the authorities after checking the facts, managed to change the atmosphere in society.

However, it is necessary to note the reaction to the policy towards the Russian Germans in the periodicals of the leftist direction. For example, the Saratov newspaper Nasha Gazeta published a speech by State Duma deputy N. Chkheidze at a meeting on July 19, 1915, in which the anti-German campaign launched in society and the media was quite actively condemned. In particular, the following words of the deputy are given:

Subsequently, the attitude of the population towards ethnic Germans stabilized, in many respects, due to the radical change of ideology to "proletarian internationalism" and a kind of "descent of steam" in society in the process of revolutions and civil war.

During Nazi rule

During Nazism, the term " volksdeutsche"Denoted Germans who were born abroad of Germany, living in countries occupied by Germany and applying for citizenship of the Third Reich. Before World War II, about 10 million Volksdeutsche lived in Central and Eastern Europe. Also, a large number of Germans lived in the south of the USSR.

Deutsche Volksliste

After the beginning of the occupation of the countries of Eastern Europe by German troops in September 1939, the German side, namely the organization "Volksdeutsche mittelstelle", organized a central registration office called " List of Germanic citizens”(German“ Deutsche Volksliste ”, abbreviated DVL), where they registered Germans with the citizenship of the occupied countries as Volksdeutsche. The local non-Aryan population was extremely interested in getting on this list, as those who were on this list were entitled to certain benefits, including better food and special legal status.

Deutsche Volksliste subdivided Volksdeutsche into 4 categories:

Category I: Person of German descent who offered her services to the Reich before 1939.

Category II: Person of German descent who remains passive.

Category III: A person of German descent, ethnically partially mixed with the local population, for example, through marriage with a local partner, or through working relations (in Poland, this was especially true of the Silesians and Kashubians).

Category IV: Person with Germanic ancestors, whose ancestors were culturally united with the local population, but supported "Germanization".

Each naturalized German was issued by the Reich authorities a special document - a Volksliste (Volksliste), which played the role of a passport and a certificate of "race purity", which was necessary in case of suspicion among vigilant citizens of the Reich or local Gestapo authorities.

The role of Volksdeutsche in the formation of units of the SS and the Wehrmacht

Volksdeutsche played a prominent role in the formation of the so-called "native" SS divisions (divisions in which non-SS members could serve) - in many of them the battalions were mainly or completely staffed by Volksdeutsche soldiers. However, the leadership of the divisions noted the sufficient unreliability of these units, which began to manifest itself more and more in the course of the war, closer to the defeat of Nizist Germany. With all the involvement of Volksdeutsche in the formation of units of the Wehrmacht and SS, they practically did not become members of the party-political organization of the SS, although they often served in its troops.

Volksdeutsche in Poland

On the territory of the occupied countries, including Poland, the status of Volksdeutsche gave a lot of various benefits and privileges with one essential obligation: Volksdeutsche was necessarily subject to conscription into the Wehrmacht or the SS troops.

Volksdeutsche Poland of I and II categories in the territories annexed to Germany amounted to about one million; categories III and IV - about 1 million 700 thousand people. There were 120 thousand of them on the territory of the governor-general.

The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle launched a massive campaign to expropriate property and property of non-Aryans in favor of the Germans. Volksdeutsche was provided with houses, workshops, farms, pieces of furniture and clothing previously owned by Poles and Jews.

Thousands of Volksdeutsche were recruited into the German armed forces, either voluntarily or by conscription.

Citizenship

During World War II, Polish citizens of German descent, who often sincerely identified themselves with the Polish state and nation, faced a difficult dilemma of choosing their homeland - signing a folk list or retaining the defective citizenship of an occupied country with a loss of some rights. This category included both German families, whose ancestors lived in Poland for centuries, and Germans who lived in the territories annexed to Poland after 1920 (formerly part of the German Empire).

In fact, choosing one side automatically meant hostility and hatred on the other side - at least on the part of the Poles. Included in the DVL lists were considered traitors in society (from the point of view of the Poles); those who did not want to be included in these lists were enlisted by the new government as potential traitors to the Germanic race.

A number of Volksdeutsche were members of the Resistance movement, however, to this day in Poland the word “ volksdeutsch"In the minds of citizens is equivalent to the word" traitor».

Volksdeutsche in the USSR

On the territory of Ukraine occupied by the Germans and Romanians lived about 330-340 thousand Germans - Soviet citizens, of which 200 thousand (the so-called "Black Sea Germans"), including about 50-60 thousand people. men liable for military service were in the "Reichskommissariat Ukraine". Approximately 30-40 thousand Volksdeutsche lived in the Baltics. According to other data and German documents, about half a million Volksdeutsche lived in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine. And modern researchers believe that in the 1940s. about 600 thousand Germans lived on the territory of Ukraine. In the city the official number of Germans was about 400 thousand people.

At the beginning of their work in Volksdeutsche research, the Germans did indeed adhere to strictly racial criteria. However, since 1943, specialists have become less discerning and in order to be recognized as a Volksdeutsche, it was enough with the help of 2 - 3 witnesses to confirm their German origin, but at the same time the German origin of the witnesses themselves had to be undeniable. This gave rise to some researchers to argue that from that time on, everyone could become Volksdeutsche due to the provision of all kinds of benefits. However, according to other researchers, these claims do not hold water. Considering that many Germans were taken out of the territory of Ukraine at the very beginning of the war, it should be recognized that many of the Volksdeutsche in the pre-war period were members of other nationalities; but these were mainly members of mixed families.

The existence of this group of persons in the territory occupied by the Reich, like in Poland, was much more comfortable if these citizens were registered at the Ukrainian branch of the DVL. The benefits extended to the distribution of food, clothing, furniture. So, through a network of specialized stores, each Volksdeutsche was given once a week: 150 g of fat, 1 kg of cheese, 4 eggs, vegetables, fruits, honey, marmalade, salt and much more, usually inaccessible to persons not included in the list.

For the Aryan youth, sports camps were organized, the leaders and teachers in them were front-line officers who prepared these youth for service in the Wehrmacht. As a rule, the ultimate goal of the creation and existence of such camps for Aryan youth, the German leadership in Germany saw the upbringing of future Fuhrer organizations, groups and associations, completely loyal to the National Socialist ideals and ready at any time to join the ranks of other organizations, for example, the school of SS officers in Germany (in the town of Bad Tölz), etc. There were a lot of such young people - for example, in Transnistria alone, there were about 9 thousand people in youth organizations.

The fate of a Volksdeutsche citizen of the USSR can be traced back to statistical data. According to the estimates of the magazine "Demoscope Weekly", according to various estimates, up to 8.7 million people were moved to Germany from the USSR. However, this figure includes both prisoners of war and other displaced persons.

The retreat of the Reich army forced this ethno-social group to leave their former places of residence. The main origins of migration were as follows:

Reichskommissariat Ukraine (about 90 thousand people) - November 1943
Dnieper region (about 125 thousand people) - January-July 1944

According to the aforementioned magazine Demoscope, these were quite privileged and organized refugees. The primary place of arrival was the Reichsgau Wartheland (Lodz region), but after a while, they left this area. As a result, of the approximately 350 thousand "Soviet" Volksdeutsche who were at the end of the war on the territory of the Reich, about 200 thousand, after the establishment of the demarcation between the Soviet Army and the Allies, were on the territory of Poland or East Germany. Subsequently, of the "western" 150 thousand, about half was transferred by the allies to the USSR.

According to the established practice in the USSR, the signing of a folk list was qualified as treason, and those who signed it Volksdeutsche from among the former Soviet citizens who found themselves in the zone of the Soviet administration, as a rule, were arrested by the state security authorities and brought to trial.

Volga Germans

	The Wikisource has the full text:

Book "ZONE OF COMPLETE REST: RUSSIAN GERMANS IN THE YEARS OF THE WAR AND AFTER IT". (fragment)

Ukrainian Volksdeutsche

According to German documents, about half a million Volksdeutsche lived in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine. The position of the Volksdeutsche living on the territory of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine was also isolated. It was determined by the directives of Alfred Rosenberg, as Reich Minister of the Eastern Occupied Territories, from February 19, and Heinrich Himmler, as Reichsfuehrer SS and Reich Commissioner for the consolidation and strengthening of the German nation and race, from September 8 According to these documents, the status of Volksdeutsche, as well as throughout Europe, assigned to each individual citizen after registration with Deutsche Volksliste Ukraine. Often, the party organs of the NSDAP were forced to deal with such problems of the local Volksdeutsche population as acquiring a new apartment, assistance in finding a job, and other exclusively domestic problems.

In contrast to the official policy of the NSDAP, the Hitler Youth on the territory of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine acted as an organization for the Volksdeutsche. It was believed that, unlike the older generation, "spoiled by Bolshevism," it was possible to re-educate the youth, creating out of them convinced, real National Socialists. However, it should be noted that in the governing bodies of the Hitler Youth, only visiting Reichsdeutsche served. Perhaps this happened for the reason that this organization was created in the Reichskommissariat "from scratch."

The Ukrainian Hitler Youth was named "Deutsche Jugend Ukraine" (German: Deutsche Jugend Ukraine - "German Youth of Ukraine"). All young Volksdeutsche categories 1 and 2, aged 10 to 21, were required to become its members. As for the Volksdeutsche of the third category, they were received with the permission of the local Gebitskommissar. The Hitler Youth tried to embrace its influence in every settlement where Volksdeutsche lived, which, in principle, he succeeded.

In addition, on the territory of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine, the organization NSV (German. Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt - "National Socialist Mutual Aid"), whose branches existed under the corresponding structures of the NSDAP. NSV did charity work among local Germans. However, there is currently no more definite information on specific facts of cooperation between NSV and Volksdeutsche Ukraine.

Post-war and modern times

Main article: Exodus of Germans from Eastern Europe

see also Deportation of Germans after World War II

Most Volksdeutsche left their places of residence immediately after the end of the war and the victory of the USSR and the Allied countries. This process, due to its mass character and significant influence on the ethnic picture of Europe, was singled out as a separate concept, which was called “the exodus of Germans from Eastern Europe”. So, for example, even during the war, as well as in the summer and autumn months of 1945, in the absence of a legally elected parliament, the President of Czechoslovakia, Edvard Beneš, signed the so-called Beneš presidential decrees, which had the force of law, including the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia.

Many of those who signed the Folklist during the Nazi rule automatically received German citizenship after arriving in Germany, others received it somewhat later, during the Cold War. Citizens of the former Reich retained their citizenship in the German state, which was later divided into East and West Germany.

Relatively small groups of ethnic Germans still live in Central Asian countries, mainly in Kazakhstan. Also, a small number of Germans live in Transylvania in Romania. In addition, some of the former Volksdeutsche and their descendants form the residual compact areas of German settlement in Denmark, France, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Hungary.

As Ivan Fyodorovich Tarasenko writes in his autobiographical work “I was called a Vlasovite” (according to my mother Volksdeutsche), after the year he encountered a contingent of his fellow countrymen from a German settlement near Odessa. During the occupation, he said, they were drafted into the SS, and during their meeting they were already "going to the settlement." Compatriots suggested that he petition the Soviet penitentiary authorities about the possible transfer of him to their group and the opportunity to leave for the settlement together. He refused. As it turned out, he was right, since the entire given contingent was destroyed by the NKVD almost immediately upon arrival.

Modern terminology

The Nazis extremely popularized the term volksdeutscheexploiting this ethnic and social group for their own needs. As a result of this, the term is practically not used at present, having been replaced by auslandsdeutsche (German: Auslandsdeutsche, “foreign Germans”), or to the names of areas of residence - for example, there is the term “Volga Germans” (German: Wolgadeutsche).

At the moment, there is the so-called "Union of the Exiled" (German: Der Bund der Vertriebenen, abbreviated BdV), a non-profit public organization in Germany, created to represent and protect the interests of Germans who left their former places of residence and / or expelled during the Second World War and its local conflicts. In the terminology of this organization, the word is used volksdeutsche.

Post-war German law also uses the term statedeutsche (Germ. Statusdeutsche, "status Germans") to designate ethnic Germans without German citizenship, who are refugees from the former territories of the German Empire, and in later years - who moved to Germany under the repatriation program.

Notes

Bergen, Doris. The Nazi Concept of "Volksdeutsche" and the Exacerbation of Anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe, 1939-45 Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Oct., 1994), pp. 569-582 (English)
The "Nazi Concept of" Volksdeutsche "and the Exacerbation of Anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe, 1939-45", Doris L. Bergen; Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Oct., 1994), pp. 569-582
Pol H., JSC - Auslandsorganisation. Tatsachen aus Aktenberichten der 5 Kolonne, Graz, (German)
Valdiso, Lumans. Himmler's Auxiliaries: The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the German national minorities of Europe, 1933-1945. The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill and London.
Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (Russian) (unavailable link)... WolfSchanze.vif2.ru. - a note about VoMi. Date of treatment June 15. Archived February 21, 2001.
Germans in Latvia (Russian)... latvia.lv. Date of treatment June 26, 2009. Archived January 28, 2012.
O.G. Malysheva, Doctor of History Germans in the diplomatic service in the Russian Empire (unspecified) (doc). Russian Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation. Date of treatment June 26, 2009.
Wolfe, Dietmar. The Romanov dynasty and Germany. The role of dynastic solidarity and dynastic marriages in Russian-German relations (XVIII - early XX centuries) (Russian). History of Russia / Monarchy and monarchs... Russia in Paints. Date of treatment June 26, 2009. Archived January 28, 2012.
P. Kh. Grebelsky, A.B. Mirvis. " House of the Romanovs. Biographical information about the members of the reigning house, their ancestors and relatives". St. Petersburg: LIO Editor,. ISBN 5-7058-0160-2
Virfel, N.A. Saratov Germans during the First World War (Russian) (pdf). Saratov State University. Date of treatment June 20, 2007.

demoscope.ru

The Volksdeutsche and the Volksfinns are Soviet citizens - Germans and Ingermanland Finns, whom the NKVD simply did not manage to deport along with most of their fellow tribesmen, who for many years became "special settlers" and "labor army". Soon after the start of the war, they began to be deported from their places of residence to the eastern regions of the USSR.

Due to the swiftness of the German offensive, some of them ended up in the territories occupied by the Wehrmacht or the Finnish army. They were registered separately and received the status of "Volksdeutsche", in fact equal to the citizens of the Reich ("Reichsdeutsche") in terms of the scope of rights, including the right to serve in the Wehrmacht and the Gestapo. Many of them were used in various positions in the occupation administration.

Nevertheless, the strategic plans of the Third Reich provided precisely for their resettlement. According to available information, there were about 330-340 thousand Germans - Soviet citizens on the territory of Ukraine occupied by the Germans and Romanians, of which 200 thousand (the so-called "Black Sea Germans"), including about 50-60 thousand men liable for military service, were in " Reichskommissariat Ukraine ". A significant number of Volksdeutsche (no less than 30-40 thousand) lived in the Baltics. The defeats of the Wehrmacht forced them to put their goods on the carts and move out of their homes: the first stream - from the "Reichskommissariat Ukraine" - numbering about 90 thousand people - moved in November 1943, the second - from the Dnieper region (about 125 thousand people) - between January and July 1944. These were privileged and highly organized refugees: at first they arrived in Warthegau (Lodz region), but soon they had to flee from here too. As a result, of the approximately 350 thousand Volksdeutsche refugees from the USSR who were at the end of the war in the Reich and Warthegau, about 200 thousand were captured by the Red Army in Poland or East Germany, and of the remaining 150 thousand who ended up in the western zones of Germany, about half was transferred by the allies to the USSR.

The number of German citizens of the USSR repatriated to the USSR, together with those revealed later as a result of various kinds of checks, was thus at least 280 thousand people.

As for the Soviet Ingermanland Finns (by analogy with the Soviet Germans, we call them "Volksfinns"), in 1943-1944 at least 60 thousand Ingermanlanders and their family members, before the war, lived mainly in the Leningrad region (and, apparently , partly in the Karelo-Finnish SSR), were concentrated by the Germans in Estonia, and then evacuated to Finland. Among the prisoners of war and Ostarbeiters, of course, sometimes a certain number of Finns by nationality were found: in mid-1943, the Finnish government agreed with the German authorities on the issue of their resettlement, if they so wished, to Finland.

The section is very easy to use. It is enough to enter the desired word in the proposed field, and we will give you a list of its meanings. I would like to note that our site provides data from various sources - encyclopedic, explanatory, word-formation dictionaries. Also here you can get acquainted with examples of the use of the word you entered.

Volksdeutsche

volksdeutsche in the crossword dictionary

Wikipedia

Volksdeutsche

Volksdeutsche - designation of "ethnic Germans" before 1945, who lived in the diaspora, that is, outside Germany. Unlike "Reichsdeutsche" (, "Reich Germans"), belonging to "Volksdeutsche", in German as a mother tongue, by name, according to church records, etc.

After the defeat in the First World War, a significant part of the territory of Germany was taken from her by the victorious countries as indemnities and reparations along with citizens. Then the concept of "Volksdeutsche" became political, and this subtext remained in active use until the 1940s - 1960s of the XX century. During the existence of the Third Reich (1933 - 1945) volksdeutsche had a special legal status both within the Reich itself and in the general government, protectorates and Reichskommissariats, as well as in the allied countries.

This article also reveals and summarizes the meaning of the term volksdeutsche as ethnic group of Germans living outside the borders of the nation state.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a number of Western countries were engulfed in a eugenic boom. Many scientists and politicians were convinced that the human race could be improved through selection and social engineering. Sterilization was to become the main selective cleaning tool.

The term "eugenics" came into use at the end of the 19th century with the light hand of the psychologist and anthropologist Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, and began to evolve rapidly and turned into an independent science. In academic circles, two main directions of this science have formed - the so-called "positive" and "negative" eugenics.

The first implied the reproduction of "improved" members of human society, who did not have hereditary diseases and were distinguished by good physical development and high intelligence. The second was aimed at limiting the birth rate of "lower" representatives of the human race, who had hereditary defects and "racially or mentally handicapped." Interestingly, the Russian Eugenic Society, formed in 1920, recognized only positive eugenics.

Eugenic ideas took their most dramatic form in Nazi Germany. Thus, one of the first legislative acts of Adolf Hitler who came to power was the "Law on the Prevention of the Birth of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases", which was implemented through forced sterilization. More than 200 vessels followed its execution.

Between 1934 and 1945, between 300 and 400 thousand German citizens were sterilized, who, according to the commissions, suffered from dementia, schizophrenia, epilepsy, emotional disorders, and all kinds of hereditary ailments, including deformity. Most of the sterilized patients had psychiatric diagnoses.

But if the undesirable "Volksdeutsche" was threatened only with sterilization, then the representatives of "inferior" peoples were waiting for concentration camps and gas chambers. The ideas of racial purity promoted by Dr. Mengele were not new. Long before the advent of the Third Reich, they gained popularity in the United States of America.

The USA has found its own evil genius of social engineering - eugenicist Harry Laughlin. Thanks to the dissemination of his ideas, by 1914, 12 American states passed a law on the compulsory sterilization of the "flawed" sections of the population. In 1913, the state of Wisconsin was the first to introduce the practice of medical examination of persons wishing to marry. By the mid-1920s, two-thirds of American states had laws against inter-ethnic marriage. Those who circumvented the law were punished with fines or imprisonment.

In March 1924, Virginia legislators passed the landmark Racial Integrity Act, which stipulates that a US citizen's race must be documented at birth. The law severely divided American society into two parts: whites and others, which included Africans, Indians, Malays, Indians and many other colored peoples. The law on immigration was then passed, sharply limiting the influx of immigrants into the country.

In the same year, 1924, Virginia was marked by another eugenic law - "on ensuring sexual sterilization", which was supported by 18 states. The law, which provided for depriving “inferior” persons of the opportunity to leave offspring, primarily concerned “feeble-minded” citizens, but the authorities interpreted the concept of “dementia” very loosely: those included everyone who showed abnormal behavior and showed low results on IQ tests. Dementia was often associated with promiscuity, addictions, and violent tendencies.

In addition to citizens with mental and mental problems, Laughlin included the poor, homeless, orphans in the category of "defective", insisting that they have no right to reproduce. In Virginia alone, about 4,000 citizens who did not pass the "property qualification" were sterilized.

The most frequently forced sterilizations in the United States were black women, as the authorities believed they were unable to control their sex life. This measure also helped to limit the birth rate in African American families who were claiming welfare benefits.

Mass neutering in the United States began in 1924 with 17-year-old Virginia resident Carrie Buck, who was considered "the potential parent of socially inadequate offspring." The indictment was followed by a trial in which 8 out of 9 judges voted to sterilize the girl. Subsequently, it turned out that Kerry was a victim of rape, but this did not affect the execution of the sentence in 1927. Sister Carrie was sterilized a year later. She was admitted to the hospital under the pretext of an operation to remove her appendix, but together with the appendix of the cecum, the uterus was also removed.

By 1957, about 6,000 Americans had been forcibly sterilized: in men, this operation most often consisted of excision of the seminal canals, in women - the fallopian tubes. The overwhelming majority of the victims of sterilization came from the poorest strata of the population - they had no chance of influencing the genocide. The process of repealing the "forced sterilization law" in the United States began only in 1967 from the state of Virginia; by 1979, this law was abandoned in other states.

The United States was not the only "civilized" country where forced sterilization was practiced in the postwar years. In 1977, the Dagens Nyheter newspaper published an article indicating that Sweden had a sterilization program from the late 1930s to the mid 1950s. However, it was only in 2000 that a special commission was created in Sweden to verify these facts.

The experts managed to find out that such a program really existed - its result was about 21 thousand forcibly sterilized Swedish citizens. These measures were explained by the need to rid society of hereditary diseases, as well as offspring born in mixed marriages.

In the mid-1970s, India also had a forced sterilization program. However, it was initiated not by the Indian authorities, but by the British government, which recommended limiting the birth rate in the country in exchange for providing loans and food. According to various estimates, between 8 and 10 million women were sterilized in India in two years.

Despite the fact that forced sterilization was included in the list of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court in 2002, it is still supported at the state level in some countries. For example, in China, sterilization operates within the framework of the implementation of the “one child policy,” and in Poland and the Czech Republic, chemical sterilization of convicts for crimes of a sexual nature is legalized.

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The meaning of the word Volksdeutsche. The meaning of the word Volksdeutsche Germans in the Russian Empire

Origin of the term

Historical past