„Misja na Wschodzie”. Z historii działalności Związku Dziewcząt Niemieckich (BDM) w Kraju Warty (1940–1945)
“Mission to the East”. From the history of the activity of the League of German Girls (BDM) in the Wartheland (1940–1945)

Summary/Abstract: The article presents one of the forms of the activity of the League of German Girls (BDM – Bund Deutscher Mädel), i.e. the carrying out of the programme “Mission to the East” (BDM-Osteinsatz) during the Second World War. The geographical scope of the study spans the territory of the Reichsgau Wartheland – the biggest among the districts established on the Polish lands incorporated directly to the Third Reich.The introduction to the article shows the specificity of German “Myth of the East”, as well as its role in the education of the youth in Nazi Germany. The following part of the text presents the creation and the organization of the BDM-Osteinsatz in the Wartheland. The article focuses on the main activities of the participants of the “Mission to the East“ – the work with the German people displaced by the Nazi authorities from the Eastern Europe and with the representatives of German pre-war minority in Poland (Volksdeutsche). This part of the text presents also the attitudes of the BDM-members towards the Polish and Jewish population in the Wartheland. The summary of the article contains the elaboration of the role of the BDM-Osteinsatz in the German occupation policy on the Polish territories, as well as the post-war ways of the judgement of the “Mission to the East” by its participants.

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