Niemiecka Lista Narodowa w regionie łódzkim w trakcie II wojny światowej
The German People’s List in the region of Łódź during World War II

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the paper is the analysis of the German People’s List (German: Deutsche Volksliste, German abb. DVL, in Polish: Volkslista or Niemiecka Lista Narodowościowa, inf. in Polish: Folkslista) in the region of Łódź during World War II. The Volksliste was part of the Nazi schema to re-Germanize the Łódź Germans and separate them from the influence of Polish culture and society. The main research questions are the problems of categorization of Volksdeutsche by Volksliste offices and the motivation of Germans behind rejection of the Volksliste or their application for admission to a higher category. The hypothesis about the categorisation of Germans in the Volksliste assumes that the criteria used by the Volksliste offices were insufficient and the most frequently used criteria of language and religion did not allow for a proper categorisation of the Łódź Germans. According to the author there existed many reasons for people to accept the Volksliste (they were also sometimes forced to accept it) or to apply for admission to a higher category, the economic reasons being the most important ones – the desire to preserve one’s wealth or job, or to maintain one’s social position. The article is based on various archival sources: the German administration documents from Łódź, Poznań, and Warsaw archives as well as the ego-documents, such as complaints about too low a category on the Volksliste (the case of Oskar Ambroży Klikar).

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