Editing Volksdeutsche

{{Short description|Title for ethnic Germans in Nazi Germany}}
{{italic title}}
{{Infobox
|above=''Volksdeutsche''
|image1=[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1972-026-51, Anschluss sudetendeutscher Gebiete.jpg|320px]]
|caption1={{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} of {{lang|de|[[Sudetendeutsches Freikorps]]|italic=no}} in [[Czechoslovakia]], 1938
|image2=[[File:German cavalry enters the Polish city of Łódź Litzmannstadt greeted by members of the city considerable ethnic German community.jpg|320px]]
|caption2={{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} of [[Łódź]] greeting German cavalry in 1939
|image3=[[File:Wiec warszawskich volksdeutschów w sali Roma.jpg|320px]]
|caption3={{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} meeting in occupied [[Warsaw]], 1940
}}
In [[Nazi Germany|Nazi German]] terminology, '''{{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}}''' ({{IPA|de|ˈfɔlksˌdɔʏtʃə|audio=De-Volksdeutsche.ogg}}) were "people whose language and culture had [[Germans|German]] origins but who did not hold German citizenship."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bergen|first=Doris|date=1994|title=The Nazi Concept of 'Volksdeutsche' and the Exacerbation of Anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe, 1939-45|journal=Journal of Contemporary History|volume=29|issue=4|pages=569–582|doi=10.1177/002200949402900402|s2cid=159788983|via=JSTOR}}</ref>  The term is the nominalised plural of ''[[wikt:volksdeutsch|volksdeutsch]]'', with {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} denoting a singular female, and {{Lang|de|Volksdeutscher}}, a singular male. The words ''[[Volk (German word)|Volk]]'' and ''[[Völkisch movement|völkisch]]'' conveyed the meanings of "folk".<ref>As to older meanings of ''völkisch'', see "[[Völkisch movement]]".</ref>

Ethnic Germans living outside Germany shed their identity as ''[[Auslandsdeutsche]]'' (Germans abroad), and morphed into the {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} in a process of self-radicalisation.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Wolf|first=Gerhard|date=2017|title=Negotiating Germanness: National Socialist Germanization policy in the Wartheland'|url=http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/67415/1/Wolf%202017%20-%20Negotiating%20Germanness.%20National%20Socialist%20Germanization%20policy%20in%20the%20Wartheland.pdf|journal=Journal of Genocide Research|volume=19|issue=2|pages=215|doi=10.1080/14623528.2017.1313519|s2cid=152244621}}</ref> This process gave the Nazi regime the nucleus around which the new [[Volksgemeinschaft]] was established across the German borders.<ref name=":1" />

{{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} were further divided into "racial" groups—minorities within a state minority—based on special cultural, social, and historic criteria elaborated by the Nazis.<ref>[[Valdis O. Lumans]], ''Himmler's Auxiliaries: The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the German National Minorities of Europe, 1933-1945'', 1993, p. 23.</ref>

==Origin of the term==
According to the historian [[Doris Bergen]], Adolf Hitler [[Neologism|coined]] the definition of {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} which appeared in a 1938 memorandum of the German [[Reich Chancellery]].  That document defined {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} as "people whose language and culture had German origins but who did not hold German citizenship".<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Bergen|first=Doris|date=1994|title=The Nazi Concept of 'Volksdeutsche' and the Exacerbation of Anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe 1939-45|journal=Journal of Contemporary History|volume=29|issue=4|pages=569–582|doi=10.1177/002200949402900402|s2cid=159788983}}</ref>  After 1945, the Nazi citizenship laws of 1935 ({{interlanguage link|Reichsbürgergesetz|de|Reichsbürgergesetz}}) - and the associated regulations that referred to the National Socialist concepts of blood and race in connection with the concept of ''volksdeutsch'' - were rescinded in Germany.

For [[Adolf Hitler]] and the other [[ethnic Germans]] of his time, the term "{{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche|italic=no}}" also carried overtones of blood and race not captured in the common [[English language|English]] translation "ethnic Germans".  According to German estimates in the 1930s, about 30 million {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} and Auslandsdeutsche (German citizens residing abroad) lived outside the Reich.<ref name=":2" />  A significant proportion of them were in [[Eastern Europe]] – i.e., [[Poland]], [[Ukraine]], the [[Baltic states]], and [[Romania]], [[Hungary]] and [[Slovakia]], where many were located in villages along the [[Danube]] and in [[Russia]].<ref name=":2" />

The [[Nazi Party|Nazi]] goal of expansion assigned the {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} a special role in German plans, to bring them back to German citizenship and to elevate them to power over the native populations in those areas.  The Nazis detailed such goals in {{Lang|de|[[Generalplan Ost]]}}.<ref>
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
</ref>
In some areas, such as in Poland, Nazi authorities compiled specific lists and registered people as ethnic Germans in the "[[Deutsche Volksliste]]".

==Historical background==
{{Main|Ostsiedlung}}
[[File:Osadnictwo niemieckie na wschodzie.PNG|thumb|200px|Stages of [[History of German settlement in Central and Eastern Europe|German eastern settlement]], 700–1400]]
In the sixteenth century [[Vasili III of Russia|Vasili III]] invited small numbers of craftsmen, traders and professionals to settle in Russia from areas that would later become Germany so that Muscovy could exploit their skills. These settlers (many of whom intended to stay only temporarily) were generally confined to the [[German Quarter]] in [[Moscow]] (which also included Dutch, British and other western or northern European settlers whom the Russians came to indiscriminately refer to as "Germans"). They were only gradually allowed in other cities, so as to prevent the spread of alien ideas to the general population.{{citation needed|date=June 2016}}

In his youth, [[Peter I of Russia|Peter the Great]] spent much time in the 'German' quarter.  When he became Tsar, he brought more German experts (and other foreigners) into Russia, and particularly into government service, in his attempts to westernise the empire. He also brought in German engineers to supervise the construction of the new city of [[Saint Petersburg]].

[[Catherine II of Russia|Catherine the Great]], herself ethnically German, invited Germanic farmers to immigrate and settle in Russian lands along the [[Volga River]]. She guaranteed them the right to retain their language, religion and culture.

Also in other areas with an ethnic German minority people of other than German descent assimilated with the ethnic German culture and formed then a part of the minority. Examples are people of Baltic and Scandinavian descent, who assimilated into the minority of the [[Baltic Germans]]. Jews of [[Province of Posen|Posen province]], [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicia]], [[Bukovina]] and [[Bohemia]], with their [[Yiddish]] culture derived in part from their German heritage, often mingled into the ethnic German culture, thus forming part of the various ethnic German minorities. But anti-Semitic Nazis later rejected Jewish ethnic Germans and all Jewish German citizens as 'racially' German.

Ethnic Germans were also sent in organised colonisation attempts aiming at Germanisation of conquered Polish areas. [[Frederick the Great]] (reigned 1740–1786) settled around 300,000 colonists in the eastern provinces of Prussia, acquired in the [[First Partition of Poland]] of 1772, with the intention of replacing the Polish nobility.  He treated the Poles with contempt and likened the "slovenly Polish trash" in newly occupied West Prussia to [[Iroquois]], the historic [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] confederacy based in what is now the state of New York.<ref name="Ritter1974">{{Citation|last=Ritter|first=Gerhard|author-link=Gerhard Ritter|title=Frederick the Great: A Historical Profile|year=1974|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=0-520-02775-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/stayawayjoenovel00cush/page/179 179–180]|quote=It has been estimated that during his reign 300,000 individuals settled in Prussia.... While the [[Prussian Settlement Commission]] established in the Bismarck era could in the course of two decades bring no more than 11,957 families to the eastern territories, Frederick settled a total of 57,475.... It increased the German character of the population in the monarchy's provinces to a very significant degree.... in West Prussia where he wished to drive out the Polish nobility and bring as many of their large estates as possible into German hands.|url=https://archive.org/details/stayawayjoenovel00cush/page/179}}
</ref><ref>
"In fact from Hitler to Hans we find frequent references to Poles and Jews as Indians. This, too, was a long standing trope. It can be traced back to Frederick the Great, who likened the 'slovenly Polish trash' in newly' reconquered West Prussia to Iroquois". David Blackbourn, James N. Retallack, ''Localism, Landscape, and the Ambiguities of Place: German-speaking Central Europe, 1860-1930'', University of Toronto, 2007
</ref>

Prussia encouraged a second round of [[colonisation]] with the goal of Germanisation after 1832.<ref>Wielka historia Polski t. 4 Polska w czasach walk o niepodległość (1815&ndash;1864). Od niewoli do niepodległości (1864&ndash;1918)Marian Zagórniak, Józef Buszko 2003 page 186</ref> Prussia passed laws to encourage Germanisation of the [[Prussian Partition]] including the provinces [[Province of Posen|of Posen]] and [[West Prussia]] in the late 19th century.  The Prussian Settlement Commission relocated 154,000 colonists, including locals.

===Treaty of Versailles===
{{Main|Treaty of Versailles}}
[[File:Deutsche Siedlungsgebiete in Osteuropa 1925.jpg|thumb|Distribution of the German population in 1910 on the map of countries existing in 1925 in Central and Eastern Europe]]
The [[Second Republic of Poland|reconstitution of Poland]] following the [[Treaty of Versailles]] (1919) made ethnic German minorities of some [[Provinces of Prussia|Prussian provinces]] of the [[German Empire]] citizens of the Polish [[nation state]]. Ethnic German inhabitants of provinces of the dissolved [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]], such as [[Bukovina Germans]], [[Danube Swabians]], [[Sudeten Germans]] and [[Transylvanian Saxons]], became citizens of newly established [[Slavs|Slavic]] or [[Hungarian people|Magyar]] nation-states and of Romania. Tensions between the new administration and the ethnic German minority arose in the [[Polish Corridor]]. The [[Austrians|Austrian Germans]] also found themselves not allowed to join Germany as [[German Austria]] was strictly forbidden to join [[Weimar Republic|Germany]] as well as the name "German Austria" was forbidden so the name was changed back to just "Austria" and the [[First Austrian Republic]] was created in 1919.

==The Nazi era before World War II==
[[File:Volksdeutsche Gemeinschaft.jpg|thumb|upright|Entry to Volksdeutsche office in [[Kraków]], 1940]]

During the [[Nazism|Nazi]] years, the German Nazis used the term "Volksdeutsche", by which they meant racially German since they believed in a German 'race' or 'Volk', to refer to foreign nationals of some German [[ethnicity]] living in countries newly occupied by [[Nazi Germany#Territorial changes|Nazi Germany]] or the Soviet Union. Prior to [[World War II]], more than 10 million ethnic Germans lived in [[Central Europe|Central]] and Eastern Europe. They constituted an important minority far into [[Russia]]. Because of widespread assimilation some people whom the Nazis called Volksdeutsche could no longer speak German and in fact were culturally regionalized as Poles, Hungarians, Romanians, Czechs, Slovaks, etc.

===Pre-war relations with the Nazis===
In 1931, prior to its rise to power, the Nazi party established the Auslandsorganisation der [[NSDAP/AO]] (Foreign Organisation of the Nazi Party), whose task it was to disseminate Nazi propaganda among the ethnic German minorities viewed as Volksdeutsche in Nazi ideology. In 1936, the government set up the ''Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle'' (Ethnic Germans' Liaison Office), commonly known as VoMi, under the jurisdiction of the [[SS]] as the liaison bureau. It was headed by SS-Obergruppenführer Werner Lorenz.

According to the historian Valdis Lumans,
:"[one of Himmler's goals was] centralising control over the myriad of groups and individuals inside the Reich promoting the Volksdeutsche cause. Himmler did not initiate the process but rather discovered it in progress and directed it to its conclusion and to his advantage. His principal instrument in this effort was an office from outside the SS, a Nazi party organ, the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (VoMi), translated as the Ethnic German Liaison Office."<ref>Lumans Valdis, ''Himmler's Auxiliaries: The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the German National Minorities of Europe, 1933-1945'', Chapel Hill, NC and London: University of North Carolina Press,</ref>

===Internal propaganda===
Nazi propaganda used the existence of ethnic Germans who they called {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} in foreign lands before and during the war, to help justify the aggression of Nazi Germany. The annexation of Poland was presented as necessary to protect the ethnic German minorities there.<ref>Cinzia Romani, ''Tainted Goddesses: Female Film Stars of the Third Reich'' p145 {{ISBN|0-9627613-1-1}}</ref> Massacres of ethnic Germans, such as [[Bloody Sunday (1939)|Bloody Sunday]], or alleged atrocities, were used in such propaganda, and the film ''[[Heimkehr]]'' drew on such putative events as the rescue of {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} by the arrival of German tanks.<ref>Robert Edwin Hertzstein, ''The War That Hitler Won'' p289 {{ISBN|0-399-11845-4}}</ref> ''Heimkehr'''s introduction explicitly states that hundreds of thousands of Poles of German ethnicity suffered as the characters in the film did.<ref>Robert Edwin Hertzstein, The War That Hitler Won p287 {{ISBN|0-399-11845-4}}</ref>

{{Main|Heimkehr}}

''[[Menschen im Sturm]]'' reprised ''Heimkehr'''s effort to justify the invasion of [[Slavonia]], using many of the same atrocities.<ref>Robert Edwin Hertzstein, ''The War That Hitler Won'' p292-3 {{ISBN|0-399-11845-4}}</ref> In ''[[The Red Terror (film)|The Red Terror]]'', a [[Baltic German]] is able to avenge her family's deaths, but commits suicide after, unable to live with meaning in the Soviet Union.<ref>[[Erwin Leiser]], ''Nazi Cinema'' pp 44-5 {{ISBN|0-02-570230-0}}</ref> ''[[Refugees (1933 film)|Flüchtlinge]]'' depicted the sufferings of [[Volga German]] refugees in Manchuria, and how a [[Führerprinzip|heroic blond leader]] saved them; it was the first movie to win the state prize.<ref>Erwin Leiser, ''Nazi Cinema'' p29-30 {{ISBN|0-02-570230-0}}</ref> ''[[Frisians in Peril]]'' depicted the suffering of a village of Volga Germans in the Soviet Union;<ref>Erwin Leiser, ''Nazi Cinema'' p39-40 {{ISBN|0-02-570230-0}}</ref> it also depicted the murder of a young woman for an affair with a Russian—in accordance with Nazi principle of [[Rassenschande]]—as an ancient German custom.<ref>[[Richard Grunberger]], ''The 12-Year Reich'', p 384, {{ISBN|0-03-076435-1}}</ref>

Sexual contact between what the Nazis viewed as different 'races' followed by remorse and guilt was also featured in ''[[Die goldene Stadt]]'', where the [[Sudeten German]] heroine faces not persecution but the allure of the big city;<ref>Cinzia Romani, ''Tainted Goddesses: Female Film Stars of the Third Reich'' p86 {{ISBN|0-9627613-1-1}}</ref> when she succumbs, in defiance of [[blood and soil]], she is seduced and abandoned by a Czech, and such a relationship leads to her drowning herself.<ref name="rhodes20">Anthony Rhodes, ''Propaganda: The art of persuasion: World War II'', p20 1976, Chelsea House Publishers, New York</ref>

===Collaboration with the Nazis===
{{Main|Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz}}
[[File:Inspection of Selbstschutz unit in Bydgoszcz.jpg|thumb|left|290px|[[Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz]] in [[Bydgoszcz]] (Bromberg), 1939]]
Before and during [[World War II]], some ethnic Germans gathered around local Nazi organizations (sponsored financially by the [[Federal Foreign Office|German Foreign Office]]),<ref name="law.yale">{{cite web | url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/blbk52.asp | title=The British War Bluebook | publisher=2008 Lillian Goldman Law Library | date=August 24, 1939 | access-date=11 September 2014 | author= H. Kennard to Viscount Halifax}}</ref><ref name="Uruszczak">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C4OLAgAAQBAJ&q=%22Jungdeutsche+Partei%22 |title=Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa Vol. 5 |publisher=Wydawnictwo UJ |author=Wacław Uruszczak |year=2012 |isbn=978-8323388685 |page=339}}</ref> actively supported the Nazis in countries such as Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia. During the social and economic tensions of the [[Great Depression]], some had begun to feel aggrieved with their minority status. They participated in espionage, sabotage and other [[Fifth column]] means in their countries of origin, trained and commanded by [[Abwehr]].<ref name="wo-inf">{{cite journal |url=http://socjocybernetyka.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/totalna-wojna-informacyjna.pdf |title=II Oddział Sztabu Głównego II RP (Chapter 3.3) |publisher=Wydział Zarządzania i Administracji Wyższej Szkoły Pedagogicznej im. J. Kochanowskiego w Kielcach |journal=Totalna Wojna Informacyjna XX Wieku a II RP |location=Kielce |date=1997 |author=Józef Kossecki |page=102 |via=direct download, 808 KB}}</ref> In November 1938 Nazi Germany organized German paramilitary units made out German minority members in Polish Pomerania that were to engage in diversion, sabotage as well as political murder and ethnic cleansing upon German invasion of Poland.<ref>{{cite book |title=Stutthof: hitlerowski obóz koncentracyjny |author=Konrad Ciechanowski |publisher=Wydawnictwo Interpress |year=1988 |page=13}}</ref> Reich intelligence was actively recruiting ethnic Germans and the Nazi secret service "''[[Sicherheitsdienst|SicherheitsDienst]]''" (SD) was forming them as early as October 1938 into armed unit that were to serve Nazi Germany.<ref>Himmler's Auxiliaries: The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the German National Minorities of Europe, 1933-1945 Valdis O. Lumans page 98</ref>
Historian Matthias Fiedler typified ethnic German collaborationists as former "nobodies" whose major occupation was the expropriation of Jewish property.<ref>Wittmann, A.M., "Mutiny in the Balkans: Croat Volksdeutsche, the Waffen-SS and Motherhood", East European Quarterly XXXVI No. 3 (2002), p. 257</ref> [[Heinrich Himmler]] remarked that whatever objections ethnic Germans might have against serving in the Waffen-SS, they would be forced into conscription in any case.<ref>Wittmann, A.M., "Mutiny in the Balkans: Croat Volksdeutsche, the Waffen-SS and Motherhood", East European Quarterly XXXVI No. 3 (2002), p. 258</ref> According to head of recruitment for the Waffen SS, [[Gottlob Berger]], no one in Germany or elsewhere cared for what happened with the ethnic Germans anyway, making forced recruitment easy to force upon ethnic German communities.<ref>Wittmann, A.M., "Mutiny in the Balkans: Croat Volksdeutsche, the Waffen-SS and Motherhood", East European Quarterly XXXVI No. 3 (2002), p. 259</ref>

Among the indigenous populations in the Nazi-occupied lands, {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} became a term of ignominy.

During the early years of the Second World War (i.e., before the US entered the war), a small number of Americans of German origin returned to Germany; generally they were immigrants or children of immigrants, rather than descendants of migrations more distant in time. Some of these enlisted and fought in the German army. {{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

==During World War II==
{{multiple image
| direction         = vertical
| width             = 220
| image1            = Volksdeutsche decorated by Hitler.jpg
| caption1          = Poles of German ethnicity decorated with the [[Golden Party Badge]] by [[Adolf Hitler]] in [[Berlin]] after [[Invasion of Poland]] in 1939. From left: [[Ludwig Wolff]] head of [[Deutscher Volksverband]] from [[Łódź]], Otto Ulitz from Katowice, Gauleiter Josef Wagner, Mayor Rudolf Wiesner from [[Bielsko-Biała]], Obergruppenführer [[Werner Lorenz]], senator Erwin Hasbach from [[Ciechocinek]], Gero von Gersdorff from [[Wielkopolska]], Weiss from [[Jarocin]].
| image2            = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J09397, Lodz, Millionster Umsiedler im Wartheland.jpg
| caption2          = [[Arthur Greiser]] welcoming the millionth resettler of German ethnicity during the "[[Heim ins Reich]]" action from Central and Eastern Europe to occupied Poland - March 1944
}}

Ethnic Germans throughout Europe benefited financially during World War II from the Nazi policies of genocide and [[ethnic cleansing]], and profited from the expulsion and murder of their non-German neighbors<ref>Mathias Schulze, ''German Diasporic Experiences: Identity, Migration, and Loss'', page 126</ref> throughout Eastern Europe. For example, in Ukraine the {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} directly participated in the [[Holocaust]] and were involved in deportation of local farmers and their families; {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} figures like Arthur Boss from Odessa ([[Paul Blobel|Blobel]]'s right-hand man) or the Becker brothers became an integral part of the Nazi Holocaust machine.<ref>Jonathan Petropoulos, John K. Roth, ''Gray Zones: Ambiguity and Compromise in the Holocaust and Its Aftermath'', page 199. {{ISBN|1845453026}}.</ref>

==='Volksdeutsche' in German-occupied western Poland===
In September 1939 in [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|German occupied Poland]], an armed ethnic German militia called ''[[Selbstschutz]]'' (Self-Defence) was created. It organised the mass murder of Polish elites in [[Operation Tannenberg]]. At the beginning of 1940, the ''Selbstschutz'' organization was disbanded, and its members transferred to various units of the SS, Gestapo and the German police. Throughout the [[invasion of Poland]], some ethnic German minority groups assisted Nazi Germany in the war effort: they committed sabotage, diverted regular forces and committed numerous atrocities against civilian population.<ref>Maria Wardzyńska, ''Był rok 1939 Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion'', IPN Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, 2009 {{ISBN|978-83-7629-063-8}}</ref><ref>Browning, Christopher R. ''The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939-March 1942'', 2007 p. 33</ref>

After Germany occupied western Poland, it established a central registration bureau, called the German People's List (''[[Deutsche Volksliste]]'', DVL), whereby [[History of the Germans in Poland|Poles of German ethnicity]] were registered as {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}}. The German occupants encouraged such registration, in many cases forcing it or subjecting Poles of German ethnicity to terror assaults if they refused.<ref>''Historia Encyklopedia Szkolna'', Wydawnictwa Szkolne i, Warszawa" Pedagogiczne, 1993, pp. 357, 358</ref> Those who joined this group were given benefits including better food, as well as a better social status.

[[File:Nur fur deutsche.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''[[Nur für Deutsche|Nur für deutsche Fahrgäste]]'' (Eng. "Only for German passengers") on the tram number 8 in occupied [[Kraków]]]]

The [[Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle]] organised large-scale looting of property and redistributed goods to the Volksdeutsche. They were given apartments, workshops, farms, furniture, and clothing confiscated from Jews and Poles. In turn, hundreds of thousands of the Volksdeutsche joined the German forces, either willingly or under compulsion.

During [[World War II]], the Polish citizens of German ancestry that identified with the Polish nation faced the dilemma whether to register in the Deutsche Volksliste. Many families had lived in Poland for centuries and more-recent immigrants had arrived over 30 years before the war. They faced the choice of registering and being regarded as traitors by the Poles, or not signing and being treated by the Nazi occupation as traitors to the [[Germanic peoples|Germanic race]]. Polish Silesian Catholic Church authorities, led by bishop [[Stanisław Adamski]] and with agreement from the [[Polish Government in Exile]], advised Poles to sign up to the Volksliste in order to avoid atrocities and mass murder that happened in other parts of the country.<ref>Historia społeczno-polityczna Górnego Śląska i Śląska w latach 1918-1945 Maria Wanatowicz - 1994 Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, 1994, p. 180</ref>

In occupied Poland, ''Volksdeutscher'' enjoyed privileges and were subject to conscription, or draft, into the [[Wehrmacht|German army]]. In occupied [[Pomerania]], the [[Gauleiter]] of the [[Danzig-West Prussia]] region [[Albert Forster]] ordered a list of people considered of German ethnicity to be made in 1941. Due to insignificant voluntary registrations by February 1942, Forster made signing the ''Volksliste'' mandatory and empowered local authorities to use force and threats to implement the decree. Consequently, the number of signatories rose to almost a million, or about 55% of the 1944 population.<ref name=chrzan/>

[[File:Die 'großzügigste Umsiedlungsaktion' with Poland superimposed, 1939.jpg|300px|thumb|Origin of ethnic German colonisers, resettled into [[Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany|German-annexed and occupied Poland]] during "[[Heim ins Reich]]" action. Poster superimposed with the red outline of Poland missing from the original print.]]

The special case of [[Pomeranian Voivodeship (1919–1939)|Polish Pomerania]], where terror against civilians was particularly intense, and where, unlike in rest of occupied Poland, signing of the list was mandatory for many people, was recognised by the [[Polish Underground State]] and other anti-Nazi resistance movements, which tried to explain the situation to other Poles in underground publications.<ref name=chrzan>Chrzanowski, B., Gasiorowski, A., and Steyer, K. ''Polska Podziemna na Pomorzu w Latach 1939-1945'' (Underground Polish State in Pomerania in the years 1939-1945), Oskar, Gdansk, 2005, pgs. 59-60</ref>

The Deutsche Volksliste categorised non-Jewish Poles of German ethnicity into one of four categories:<ref>Georg Hansen, ''Ethnische Schulpolitik im besetzten Polen: Der Mustergau Wartheland,'' Waxmann Verlag, 1995, pp. 30ff, {{ISBN|3-89325-300-9}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=tfd4Cl8uMI8C&dq=volksliste+kategorie&pg=PA27]</ref><ref>Bruno Wasser, ''Himmlers Raumplanung im Osten: Der Generalplan Ost in Polen, 1940-1944'', Birkhäuser, 1993, pp. 109ff, {{ISBN|3-7643-2852-5}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=NlP60sinKcoC&dq=volksliste+kategorie&pg=PA110]</ref>

* Category I: Persons of German descent committed to the Reich before 1939.
* Category II: Persons of German descent who had remained passive.
* Category III: Persons of German descent who had become partly "Polonised", e.g., through marrying a Polish partner or through working relationships (especially [[Silesia]]ns and [[Kashubians]]).
* Category IV: Persons of German ancestry who had become "Polonised" but were supportive of "Germanisation".

Volksdeutsche of statuses 1 and 2 in the Polish areas annexed by Germany numbered 1 million, and Nos. 3 and 4 numbered 1.7 million. In the [[General Government]] there were 120,000 Volksdeutsche. Volksdeutsche of Polish ethnic origins were treated by the Poles with special contempt.

{|class=wikitable
|- style="background:#E8E8E8;"
|rowspan="2"|'''[[Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany|Annexed area]]'''
| colspan="4" style="text-align:center;"|'''Deutsche Volksliste, early 1944'''
|- style="background:#F0F0F0;"
|'''Cat. I'''
|'''Cat. II'''
|'''Cat. III'''
|'''Cat. IV'''
|-
|[[Warthegau]]
|230,000
|190,000
|65,000
|25,000
|-
|[[Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia]]<br /><small>Note: In Polish Pomerania, unlike in the rest of occupied Poland, signing<br /> of the list was mandatory for a good portion of the population</small>.<ref name=chrzan/>
|115,000
|95,000
|725,000
|2,000
|-
|East Upper Silesia
|130,000
|210,000
|875,000
|55,000
|-
|South East Prussia
|9,000
|22,000
|13,000
|1,000
|-
| rowspan="2" |'''Total'''
|484,000
|517,000
|1,678,000
|83,000
|-
| colspan="4" style="text-align:center;"|Total 2.75 million on Volkslisten plus non-German population (Polish) of 6.015 million- Grand Total 8.765 million in annexed territories.
|-
|colspan="5"|<small>'''Source:''' [[Wilhelm Deist]], Bernhard R Kroener, Germany (Federal Republic). Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, ''Germany and the Second World War'', Oxford University Press, 2003, pp.&nbsp;132,133, {{ISBN|0-19-820873-1}}, citing Broszat, ''Nationalsozialistische Polenpolitik'', p.&nbsp;134</small>
|}

Because of actions by some {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} and particularly the atrocities committed by [[Nazi Germany]], after the end of the war, the Polish authorities tried many {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} for high treason. In the postwar period, many other ethnic Germans were expelled to the west and forced to leave everything. In post-war Poland, the word {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} is regarded as an insult, synonymous with "traitor".

In some cases, individuals consulted the Polish resistance first, before signing the Volksliste. There were {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} who played important roles in intelligence activities of the Polish resistance, and were at times the primary source of information for the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]]. Particularly in Polish Pomerania and Polish Silesia, many of the people who were forced to sign the Volksliste played crucial roles in the anti-Nazi underground, which was noted in a memo to the [[Polish Government in Exile]] which stated ''"In [[Wielkopolska]] there's bitter hatred of the {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche|italic=no}} while in Silesia and Polish Pomerania it's the opposite, the secret organization depends in large measure on the {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche|italic=no}}"'' (the memo referred to those of Category III, not I and II).<ref name=chrzan/> In the turmoil of the postwar years, the [[Communist]] government did not consider this sufficient mitigation. It prosecuted many double-agent {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} and sentenced some to death.

=== Volksdeutsche in the territories annexed by the Soviet Union in 1939–1940 ===

{{Further|Nazi-Soviet population transfers|Heim ins Reich|Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany}}

The secret protocols of [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] created domestic problems for Hitler.<ref name="philbin71">{{Harvnb|Philbin III|1994|p=71}}</ref> Supporting the Soviet invasion became one of the most ideologically difficult aspects of the countries' relationship.<ref name="philbin129">{{Harvnb|Philbin III|1994|p=129]}}</ref> The secret protocols caused Hitler to hurriedly evacuate ethnic German families, who had lived in the [[Baltic states|Baltic countries]] for centuries and now classified as Volksdeutsche, while officially condoning the invasions.<ref name="shirer665">{{Harvnb|Shirer|1990|p=665}}</ref><ref name="ericson134">{{Harvnb|Ericson|1999|p=134}}</ref> When the three Baltic countries, not knowing about the secret protocols, sent letters protesting the Soviet invasions to Berlin, Ribbentrop returned them.<ref name="shirer794">{{Harvnb|Shirer|1990|p=794}}</ref>

{{multiple image
| direction         = vertical
| width             = 220
| image1            = Bundesarchiv Bild 137-058147, Wartheland, Transport von Umsiedlern.jpg
| caption1          = Volksdeutsche resettling after the Soviet occupation of Eastern Poland
| image2            = Bundesarchiv Bild 121-0693, Graz, Bahnhof, Volksdeutsche Umsiedler.jpg
| caption2          = Volkdeutsche resettling after the Soviet occupation of [[Bukovina]] and [[Bessarabia]] in 1940<ref>Among the resettled people were the parents of Germany's former [[Christian Democratic Union of Germany|CDU]] president [[Horst Köhler]]</ref>
| image3            = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-E12315, Warthegau, Baltendeutsche Umsiedler.jpg
| caption3          = Resettled [[Baltic Germans]] take possession of empty homes in ''[[Warthegau]]'' after their forced abandonment by the [[Expulsion of Poles by Germany|legitimate Polish owners]].
| image4            = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-E12311, Ankunft baltendeutscher Umsiedler.jpg
| caption4          = Baltic German settlers are shown their new possession in [[General Government|occupied Poland]] in November 1939.
}}

In August 1940, Soviet Foreign minister Molotov told the Germans that, with the government change, they could close down their Baltic consulates by September 1.<ref name="shirer794" /> The Soviet annexations in Romania caused further strain.<ref name="shirer794" /> While Germany had given the Soviets [[Bessarabia]] in the secret protocols, it had not given them [[North Bukovina]].<ref name="shirer794" /> Germany wanted guarantees of the safety of property of ethnic Germans, security for the 125,000 Volksdeutsche in Bessarabia and North Bukovina, and reassurance that the train tracks carrying Romanian oil would be left alone.<ref name="ericson134" />

In October 1940, Germany and the Soviet Union negotiated about the Volksdeutsche in Soviet-occupied territories and their property.<ref name="ericson144">{{Harvnb|Ericson|1999|p=144}}</ref> Instead of permitting full indemnification, the Soviets put restrictions on the wealth that the Volksdeutsche could take with them and limited the totals that the Soviets would apply to the Reich's clearing accounts.<ref name="ericson138">{{Harvnb|Ericson|1999|p=138}}</ref> The parties discussed total compensation of between {{Reichsmark|200 million|link=yes}} and {{Reichsmark|350 million}} for the Volksdeutsche, while the Soviets requested {{Reichsmark|50 million}} for their property claims in German-occupied territories.<ref name="ericson149">{{Harvnb|Ericson|1999|p=149}}</ref> The two nations reached general agreement on German shipments of 10.5-cm flak cannons, gold, machinery and other items.<ref name="ericson149" />

On 10 January 1941, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the [[German–Soviet Border and Commercial Agreement]] to settle all of the open disputes which the Soviets had argued.<ref name="ericson150">{{Harvnb|Ericson|1999|p=150}}</ref> The agreement covered protected migration to Germany within two and a half months of Volksdeutsche, and similar migration to the Soviet Union of ethnic Russians, Baltic and "White Russian" "nationals" from German-held territories.<ref name="johari" />  In many cases, the resulting [[Nazi–Soviet population transfers|population transfers]] resulted in resettlement of Volksdeutsche on land previously held by ethnic Poles or Jews in now German-occupied territories. The agreement formally defined the border between Germany and the Soviet Union areas between the [[Igorka River]] and the [[Baltic Sea]].<ref name="johari">Johari, J.C., ''Soviet Diplomacy 1925–41: 1925–27'', Anmol Publications PVT. LTD., 2000, {{ISBN|81-7488-491-2}} pages 134-137</ref>

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="width:600px;"
|+ '''[[Heim ins Reich]] 1939–1944'''<ref>''Enzyklopädie Migration in Europa. Vom 17. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart'', Munich: K.J.Bade, 2007, ss. 1082–1083.</ref>
!Territory of origin
!Year
!Number of resettled Volksdeutsche
|-
|[[South Tyrol]] (see [[South Tyrol Option Agreement]])
|1939–1940
|83,000
|-
|[[Latvia]] and [[Estonia]]
|1939–1941
|69,000
|-
|[[Lithuania]]
|1941
|54,000
|-
|[[Volhynia]], [[Galicia (Central Europe)|Galicia]], ''Nerewdeutschland''
|1939–1940
|128,000
|-
|[[General Government]]
|1940
|33,000
|-
|North Bukovina and [[Bessarabia]]
|1940
|137,000
|-
|[[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]] (South Bukovina and North Dobruja)
|1940
|77,000
|-
|[[Yugoslavia]]
|1941–1942
|36,000
|-
|[[USSR]] (pre-1939 borders)
|1939–1944
|250,000
|-
|'''Summary'''
|1939–1944
|867,000
|}

===After the German invasion of the USSR===
{{Further|Operation Barbarossa}}
After the [[Russian Revolution of 1917]], the government granted the [[Volga German]]s an autonomous republic.  [[Joseph Stalin]] abolished the [[Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|Volga German ASSR]] after [[Operation Barbarossa]], the German invasion of the USSR. Most of Soviet Germans in the USSR were [[:ru:Депортация немцев в СССР|deported]] to [[Siberia]], [[Kazakhstan]], and [[Central Asia]] by Decree of the [[Supreme Soviet of the USSR]] of August 28, 1941, and from the beginning of 1942 those Soviet Germans who were deemed suitable for hard work (men aged from 15 to 55 and women from 16 to 45) were mobilised for forced labour into ''Working columns'' where they lived in a prison-like environment, and sometimes, together with regular inmates, were put in prison camps.  Hundreds of thousands died or became incapacitated due to the harsh conditions.

===Volksdeutsche in Hungary===
A significant portion of {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} in Hungary joined the [[SS]], which was a pattern repeated also in Romania (with 54,000 locals serving in the SS by the end of 1943).<ref name="Pogany"/> The majority of 200,000 {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} from the area of Danube who served with the SS were from Hungary. As early as 1942, some 18,000 Hungarian Germans joined the SS.<ref name="Pogany">{{cite book |title=Righting Wrongs in Eastern Europe  |author1=Istvan S. Pogany |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1997 |page=53 |isbn=9780719030420 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KdBRAQAAIAAJ&q=Hungary+1942}}</ref> they have been called [[Danube Swabians]]. After World War II, approximately 185,000 {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} in the Volksbund fled from the region. They were called 'Svabo' by their Serbian, Hungarian, Croatian, and Romanian neighbors. Most of the Danube Swabians who were not members in the so-called ''Volksbund'' were expelled to [[Allied-occupied Germany]] and [[Allied-occupied Austria]] in 1946-1948, following the [[Potsdam Agreement]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ldu-online.de/die-vertreibung|title = Die Vertreibung – Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Ungarn}}</ref>

===Volksdeutsche in Romania===
After Romania acquired parts of Soviet Ukraine, the Germans there came under the authority of the [[Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle]], which deployed SS personnel to several settlements. They eventually contained German mayors, farms, schools and ethnic German paramilitary groups functioning as police called ''[[Selbstschutz]]'' ("Self-protection"). German colonists and ''Selbstschutz'' forces engaged in extensive acts of [[ethnic cleansing]], massacring [[Jewish people|Jewish]] and [[Romani people|Roma]] populations.

In the German colony of Shonfeld, Romas were burned in farms. During the winter of 1941/1942, German ''Selbstschutz'' units participated in the shooting, together with [[Ukrainian People's Militia]] and Romanian [[gendarme]]s, of some 18,000 [[Jews]]. In the camp of [[Bogdanovka concentration camp|Bogdanovka]], tens of thousands of Jews were subject to mass shootings, barn burnings and killing by hand grenades.

[[Heinrich Himmler]] was sufficiently impressed by the Volksdeutsche communities and the work of the Selbstschutz to order that these methods be copied in Ukraine.<ref>Moses, Dirk A. (editor) ''Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Occupation and Subaltern Resistance in World History'', Berghahn Books, December 2009, {{ISBN|978-1845457198}}, p. 389</ref>

==='Volksdeutsche' in Serbia and Croatia ===

In the former Yugoslavia, the [[7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen]] was formed with about 50,000 ethnic Germans from the  [[Banat]] region of [[Serbia]]. It was conspicuous in its operations against the [[Yugoslav Partisans]]  and civilian population. About 100,000 ethnic Germans from the Nazi-conquered former Yugoslavia joined the German [[Wehrmacht]] and  Waffen-SS, the majority conscripted involuntarily as judged by the [[Nuremberg Trials]]. Yet <blockquote>"[a]fter the initial rush of Volksdeutsche to join, voluntary enlistments tapered off, and the new unit did not reach division size. Therefore, in August 1941, the SS discarded the voluntary approach, and after a favourable judgement from the SS court in Belgrade, imposed a mandatory military obligation on all Volksdeutsche in Serbia-Banat, the first of its kind for non-Reich Germans."<ref>Valdis O. Lumans, ''Himmler's Auxiliaries: The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the German National minorities of Europe, 1939-1945'' (University of North Carolina Press, 1993), p. 235.</ref></blockquote>In the former Yugoslavia a majority of ethnic Germans became members of the ''[[Kulturbund (Yugoslavia)|Schwäbisch-Deutscher Kulturbund]]'' (Swabian German Cultural Association), and reprisals on this group by Tito's partisans resulted in many immediate revenge killings in 1944 and incarceration of approximately 150,000 ethnic Germans in 1945.<ref>Wittmann, Anna M., [https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-93085759/mutiny-in-the-balkans-croat-volksdeutsche-the-waffen-ss "Mutiny in the Balkans: Croat Volksdeutsche, the Waffen-SS and Motherhood."] East European Quarterly XXXVI No. 3 (2002), pp. 256-257.</ref>

==Expulsion and exodus from Central and Eastern Europe at the end of the war==
[[File:Vertreibung.jpg|right|thumb|[[Sudeten Germans]] expelled after World War II]]

{{Main|Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950)}}

Most ethnic Germans fled or were [[Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–50)|expelled]] from European countries (Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary) under the [[Potsdam Agreement]] from 1945 to 1948 towards the end and after the war. Those who became ethnic Germans, by registering in the [[Deutsche Volksliste]] and Reichsdeutsche, retained German citizenship during the years of Allied military occupation. Citizenship was further retained after the establishment of [[East Germany]] and [[West Germany]] in 1949, and later in the reunified Germany. In 1953 the [[West Germany|Federal Republic of Germany]] – by its [[Federal Expellee Law]] – naturalised many more East European nationals of German ethnicity, who were neither German citizens nor had enrolled in any 'Volksliste', but had been stranded as refugees in West Germany and fled or were expelled due to their German or alleged German ethnicity.

An estimated 12 million people fled or were expelled from the Soviet Union and non-German-speaking Central Europe, many of them being 'Volksdeutsche'.<ref name=Weber2>Jürgen Weber, Germany, 1945–1990: A Parallel History, Central European University Press, 2004, p. 2, {{ISBN|963-9241-70-9}}</ref><ref name=Kacowicz100/><ref name=Schuck156>Peter H. Schuck, Rainer Münz, ''Paths to Inclusion: The Integration of Migrants in the United States and Germany'', Berghahn Books, 1997, p. 156, {{ISBN|1-57181-092-7}}</ref><ref name=EU4>''[http://cadmus.iue.it/dspace/bitstream/1814/2599/1/HEC04-01.pdf The Expulsion of 'German' Communities from Central and Eastern Europe at the end of the Second World War] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091001022039/http://cadmus.iue.it/dspace/bitstream/1814/2599/1/HEC04-01.pdf |date=2009-10-01 }}'', Steffen Prauser and Arfon Rees, European University Institute, Florence. HEC No. 2004/1. p. 4</ref> Most left the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]]-occupied territories of Central and Eastern Europe; they comprised the largest migration of any European people in modern history.<ref name="Kacowicz100">Arie Marcelo Kacowicz, Pawel Lutomski, ''Population resettlement in international conflicts: a comparative study,'' Lexington Books, 2007, p. 100, {{ISBN|0-7391-1607-X}}: "… largest movement of any European people in modern history" [https://books.google.com/books?id=ovck_g0xwX0C&dq=expulsion+germans+poland&pg=PA100]</ref><ref>Bernard Wasserstein, ''Barbarism and civilization: a history of Europe in our time'', Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 419: "largest population movement between European countries in the twentieth century and one of the largest of all time." {{ISBN|0-19-873074-8}}</ref>  The then three [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] had agreed to the expulsions during negotiations in the midst of war.{{Citation needed|date=January 2013}} The western powers hoped to avoid ethnic Germans being an issue again in Central and Eastern Europe.<ref name=Churchill-speech>{{Citation |title=Text of Churchill Speech in Commons on Soviet=Polish Frontier |publisher=The United Press |date=December 15, 1944}}</ref><ref name=Brandes398ff>[https://books.google.com/books?id=S8nsdMcJq4cC&dq=expulsion+germans+poland&pg=PA398 Detlef Brandes, ''Der Weg zur Vertreibung 1938–1945: Pläne und Entscheidungen zum "Transfer" der Deutschen aus der Tschechoslowakei und aus Polen''], Munich: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2005, pp. 398ff, {{ISBN|3-486-56731-4}}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=grTPyVvBr2QC&dq=expulsion+germans+poland&pg=PA20 Klaus Rehbein, ''Die westdeutsche Oder/Neisse-Debatte: Hintergründe, Prozess und Ende des Bonner Tabus''], Berlin, Hamburg and Münster: LIT Verlag, 2005, pp. 19–20, {{ISBN|3-8258-9340-5}}</ref> The three Allies at the Conference of Potsdam considered the "transfer" of "German populations" from Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary an effort to be undertaken (see article 12 of the [[Potsdam Agreement]]), although they asked a halt because of the inflicted burden for the Allies to feed and house the destitute expellees and to share that burden among the Allies. France, which was not represented in Potsdam, rejected the decision of the Three of Potsdam and did not absorb expellees in its zone of occupation. The three Allies had to accept the reality on the ground, since expulsions of Volksdeutsche and Central and Eastern European nationals of German or alleged German ethnicity who never had enrolled as Volksdeutsche, were going on already.

Local authorities forced most of the remaining ethnic Germans to leave between 1945 and 1950. Remnants of the ethnic German community survive in the former [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] republics of Central Asia. A significant ethnic German community has continued in Siebenbürgen ([[Transylvania]]) in [[Romania]] and in Oberschlesien ([[Upper Silesia]]) but most of it migrated to West Germany throughout the 1980s. There are also remnant German populations near [[Mukachevo]] in western Ukraine.<ref>{{cite news|last=Grushenko|first=Kateryna|newspaper=Kyiv Post|date=14 October 2010|title=World in Ukraine: German heritage alive in Transcarpathian Ukraine|url=http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/world-in-uktaine/detail/86372/}}</ref>

==Legacy==
[[File:Odznaka, Volksdeutsch.jpg|thumb|Badge worn by Volksdeutsche]]

The term Volksdeutsche is generally avoided today due to its usage by the Nazis.

Instead, ethnic Germans of foreign citizenship living outside of Germany are called "Deutsche Minderheit" (meaning "German [[minority group|minority]]"), or names more closely associated with their earlier places of residence, such as ''[[Volga German|Wolgadeutsche]]'' or Volga Germans, the ethnic Germans living in the Volga basin in Russia; and [[Baltic German]]s, who generally called themselves Balts, and ''Estländer'' in Estonia.  They were relocated to German-occupied Poland during World War II by an agreement between [[Adolf Hitler]] and [[Joseph Stalin]], and most were expelled to the West after the war, under the [[Potsdam Agreement]].

==See also==
{{Portal|Germany|Politics}}
*[[Areas annexed by Nazi Germany]]
*[[German nationality law]]
*[[Goralenvolk]]
*[[Selbstschutz]]
*[[Imperial Germans]], for a discussion of the different concepts and the shift of meaning between them.
*[[Fifth column]]
*[[Heimatvertriebene]]
*[[Umvolkung]]
*[[Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950)]]
*[[Demographic estimates of the flight and expulsion of Germans]]
*[[World War II evacuation and expulsion]]
*[[Pursuit of Nazi collaborators]]
*[[Nur für Deutsche]]
*[[Brandenburgers]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|2}}

==References==
*{{Citation|last=Ericson|first=Edward E.|title=Feeding the German Eagle: Soviet Economic Aid to Nazi Germany, 1933–1941 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=1999 |isbn=0-275-96337-3}}
*{{Citation|last=Philbin III|first=Tobias R.|title=The Lure of Neptune: German-Soviet Naval Collaboration and Ambitions, 1919&ndash;1941 |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |year=1994 |isbn=0-87249-992-8}}
*{{Citation|last=Roberts|first=Geoffrey|title=Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953 |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2006 |isbn=0-300-11204-1}}

==Bibliography==
*''Nazi Fifth Column Activities: A List of References'', Library of Congress, 1943
*''The German fifth column in the Second World War'', by L. de Jong
*''The German Fifth Column in Poland'', London: Hutchinson & Co Ltd, 
* Luther, Tammo (2004). ''Volkstumspolitik des Deutschen Reiches 1933–1938. Die Auslandsdeutschen im Spannungsfeld zwischen Traditionalisten und Nationalsozialisten'', Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2004
* Douglas, R.M. ''Orderly and Humane. The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War'', Yale University Press, 2012. {{ISBN|978-0-300-16660-6}}.
* Franzel, Emil. ''Sudetendeutsche Geschichte'', Mannheim: 1978. {{ISBN|3-8083-1141-X}}.
* Franzel, Emil. ''Die Sudetendeutschen'', Munich: Aufstieg Verlag, 1980.
* Meixner, Rudolf. ''Geschichte der Sudetendeutschen'', Nuremberg: 1988. {{ISBN|3-921332-97-4}}.
* Naimark, Norman. ''Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe'', Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press, 2001.
* Oltmer, Jochen. [http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0159-2011050904 "Heimkehr"? "Volksdeutsche fremder Staatsangehörigkeit" aus Ost-, Ostmittel- und Südosteuropa im deutschen Kaiserreich und in der Weimarer Republik], [http://www.ieg-ego.eu/ EGO – European History Online], Mainz: [http://www.ieg-mainz.de/likecms/index.php Institute of European History], 2011, retrieved: June 16, 2011.
* Prauser, Steffen and Rees, Arfon. ''The Expulsion of the "German" communities from Eastern Europe at the End of the 2nd World War'', Florence: European University Institute, 2004.
*{{cite book |last1=Stiller |first1=Alexa |title=A Companion to Nazi Germany |date=2018 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd |isbn=978-1-118-93689-4 |pages=533–549 |language=en |chapter=‘Ethnic Germans’}}
* Thum, Gregor. "Volksdeutsch Revisionism: East Central Europe’s Ethnic Germans and the Order of Paris." In ''Conservatives and Right Radicals in Interwar Europe'', edited by Marco Bresciani. London and New York: Routledge, 2021, pp.&nbsp;44–67.

==External links==
* [http://www.radio.cz/en/article/25511 Hitler's Fifth column in Czechoslovakia]
* [http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-2147235/Mutiny-in-the-Balkans-Croat.html Hitler's Fifth column in Croatia]

{{German people}}

[[Category:Volksdeutsche| ]]
[[Category:Ethnonyms]]
[[Category:German words and phrases]]
[[Category:Collaboration with Nazi Germany]]