Central office for migrants

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"Evacuated" Poles on the way to the train station, Schwarzenau near Gnesen, 1939

The task of the Umwandererzentralstelle (UWZ) headquartered in Poznan was to coordinate the expulsion of Poles , Ukrainians and Jews in Wartheland , in Danzig-West Prussia , in East Upper Silesia and in Aktion Zamość . The Wartheland, Danzig-West Prussia and Upper Silesia were in 1939 after the German invasion of Poland international law the German Reich was attached, the space Zamość was part of the General Government . The central office for immigrants was responsible for the expulsions of these ethnic groups and operated camps for the deportees. She was also responsible for the distribution of ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe, the Baltic States and the Balkans who had resettled in the annexed Polish areas . This population exchange one should umvolkung be achieved.

Departments

In November 1939 an "Office for Resettlement of Poles and Jews" under SS-Obersturmbannführer Albert Rapp began its work as a forerunner . In March 1940 this office was subordinated to the chief of the security police and the SD , Rolf-Heinz Höppner , and continued as the central office for migrants in Posen (UWZ). Part of the office was in Litzmannstadt ; it was referred to as the “Umwandererzentralstelle Posen / Dienststelle Lodz” (later: Litzmannstadt) and headed by Hermann Krumey . There was another office in Katowice .

activity

The Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) set up a number of different offices to implement the population shift associated with the National Socialist idea of ​​“ living space in the east ” in the occupied eastern territories . In October 1939, by order of Reinhard Heydrich , an " immigrant central office " was established, which operated the settlement of " ethnic German resettlers" from the Baltic States and Volhynia .

According to initial plans, 550,000 Jews and “anti-German” Poles were to be deported to the Generalgouvernement . According to a “first local plan”, around 87,000 people (mostly Jewish city dwellers) were deported from the Warthegau between December 1 and 17, 1939. A “second local plan” envisaged the imminent deportation of 220,000, in a tightened version of 600,000, mostly Jewish residents. For organizational reasons, this plan was initially not or only partially feasible. From February 7 to March 15, 1940, deportation trains brought over 42,000 mostly Polish nationals to the Generalgouvernement. In April 1940 and autumn 1940 the planned deportations continued on a large scale. A “third close-up plan” from January 1941 provided for the deportation of 771,000 Poles from the annexed areas and the deportation of 60,000 Jews from Vienna to the Generalgouvernement. This plan was only partially implemented; because from the spring of 1941 the Wehrmacht claimed the Generalgouvernement as a deployment area.

Balance sheet

In cooperation with SS and police departments and the occupation administration, the central immigration office in Poznan and its branches had officially expelled 365,000 - according to later calculations even 460,000 - residents from the annexed areas by March 1941. Among them were around 100,000 Jews. The displaced persons found neither adequate housing nor sufficient food in the reception locations.

By the spring of 1941, the Jews had been expelled from most of the Polish areas that were close to the Reich borders. However, 400,000 to 450,000 Jews still lived in the eastern half of the area that was added to the Reich, more than 250,000 of them in the Warthegau. The original plan to remove all Jews from the incorporated Polish territories had thus failed. A “final territorial solution” encountered bureaucratic resistance in the intended reception areas. This increased the willingness to resort to even more brutal methods. On July 16, 1941 , the head of the Poznan migrant center, Rolf-Heinz Höppner, proposed to Adolf Eichmann that the Jews of the Warthegau should be grouped together in a camp and that all Jews deported there be sterilized. Because of the shortage of food, "it should be seriously considered whether it might not be the most humane solution to take care of these Jews, if they are not able to work, by some quick-acting means."

From the annexation of Polish territories 1939 to the beginning of the German-Soviet war 370,000 were there Reich German and 350,000 German nationals settled. In the Wartegau alone, the resettlement center distributed 51,000 Baltic Germans , 125,000 Wolhynia Germans and 72,000 Buchenland and Bessarabian Germans . After the attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, the repopulation program was continued with around 300,000 ethnic Germans from conquered Soviet areas, mainly from the Ukraine.

literature

  • Martin Broszat : National Socialist Poland Policy. 1939-1945. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1961 ( series of the quarterly books for contemporary history 2, ISSN  0506-9408 ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kerstin Freudiger: The legal processing of Nazi crimes . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2002, pp. 97-98. ISBN 3-16-147687-5 .
  2. ↑ Klaus-Peter Friedrich (edit.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933-1945 (source collection) Volume 4: Poland - September 1939-July 1941 , Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-58525- 4 , p. 35 and doc.VEJ 4/25 on p. 113f.
  3. ↑ Klaus-Peter Friedrich (edit.): The persecution and murder of European Jews ... , Volume 4: Poland - September 1939-July 1941 , Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-58525-4 , p. 36 and Doc.VEJ 4/66, pp. 190f.
  4. ↑ Klaus-Peter Friedrich (edit.): The persecution and murder of European Jews ... , Volume 4: Poland - September 1939-July 1941 , Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-58525-4 , p. 36 and Doc. VEJ 4/71, pp. 199–201.
  5. ↑ Klaus-Peter Friedrich (edit.): The persecution and murder of European Jews ... , Volume 4: Poland - September 1939-July 1941 , Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-58525-4 , p. 38.
  6. ↑ Klaus-Peter Friedrich (edit.): The persecution and murder of European Jews ... , Volume 4: Poland - September 1939-July 1941 , Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-58525-4 , p. 38.
  7. ↑ Klaus-Peter Friedrich (edit.): The persecution and murder of European Jews ... , Volume 4: Poland - September 1939-July 1941 , Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-58525-4 , p. 38.
  8. ↑ Andrea Löw (edit.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933-1945 (source collection) Volume 3: German Reich and Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, September 1939-September 1941 , Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3- 486-58524-7 , p. 59 - see document VEJ 4/314 in: Klaus-Peter Friedrich (edit.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933-1945 (source collection) Volume 4: Poland - September 1939-July 1941 , Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-58525-4 , pp. 680f.
  9. ↑ Thomas Urban : The loss. The expulsion of Germans and Poles in the 20th century , Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-52172 X , pp. 62–68