POLITYKA III RZESZY WOBEC NIEMCÓW ZE WSCHODU. PRZESIEDLENIA LUDNOŚCI NIEMIECKIEJ PODCZAS II WOJNY ŚWIATOWEJ
The policy of the Third Reich towards Germans from the East. Resettlement of Germans during World War II

Summary/Abstract: The article concerns the policy of the Third Reich towards its citizens – the Germans resettled from the East. Adolph Hitler implemented a consistent policy of destroying European nations to create a vast Nazi state. Poland was the first country to experience the murderous intentions of the Third Reich. An important element of Hitler’s politics was his policy regarding ethnic groups. This consisted of Germanization of occupied Polish territory and deportations of the Poles living there. Their place was taken by Germans, who, in turn, were resettled there from the East, including the Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) and the Black Sea area. The areas of settlement included the regions of Pomorze Gdańskie and Wielkopolska. These regions were to be Germanized by rapid settlement of Germans in the area. The Germans from the East were not a homogenous group. They were peasants, representatives of free professions, artists. The Nazi leadership was not unanimous in their attitude towards the resettled Germans. On the one hand, their influx and settlement was preferred, but on the other, they were not treated as “fully valuable” Germans. In 1945 the Germans from the East fled from the Polish territory fearing the incoming Red Army. Some of them fell into Russian hands and were deported back East. This problem is not present in the literature pertaining to the subject.

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