Were all those the German's considered 'Volksdeutsch' conscripted into service? Are there any examples of them volunteering? Or, even, any people who considered themselves nominally German but who weren't considered so by Nazi authorities, and who enlisted?
Cheers.
Volksdeutsch volunteers?
Moderator: George Lepre
Re: Volksdeutsch volunteers?
Hi.
There is no simple answer.
Albert Forster, Gauleiter of Danzig-West Prussia (the other German-annexed section of occupied Poland), simply declared all Poles in his area of responsibility proficient in German to be Germans. So most of them were simply coscripted to wehrmacht, even if they had nothing common with Germany.
Arthur Greiser from Warthegau was extreme rasict. "...people who considered themselves nominally German but who weren't considered so by Nazi authorities" had thought life under his regime.
As you an see there was no single nazi policy with volksdeutsches.
There is no simple answer.
Albert Forster, Gauleiter of Danzig-West Prussia (the other German-annexed section of occupied Poland), simply declared all Poles in his area of responsibility proficient in German to be Germans. So most of them were simply coscripted to wehrmacht, even if they had nothing common with Germany.
Arthur Greiser from Warthegau was extreme rasict. "...people who considered themselves nominally German but who weren't considered so by Nazi authorities" had thought life under his regime.
As you an see there was no single nazi policy with volksdeutsches.
amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas
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Benoit Douville
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Re: Volksdeutsch volunteers?
While a few hundred Carpathian German young men volunteered (though fooled by the Propaganda that they were fighting for Europe, not for some holocast or ethnic cleansing), the vast majority of the other 5 or 6,000 were forced, and often brought handcuffed by Slovak police to the SS recruiting office. Besides the memories of my mom and stepfather, I also have some printed sources I can post.
Honny soit qui mal y pense!
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sid guttridge
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Re: Volksdeutsch volunteers?
Hi Switchhitter,
Volksdeutsche who were absorbed into the Reich in places like Poland effectively became Reichsdeutsche and were subject to Reich recruitment norms.
Volksdeutsche were those Germans who remained under foreign rule, mostly that of Germany's allies Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. Until early 1943 only volunteers were accepted from these allied countries in order not to challenge their national soverignty, and these volunteers could not transfer across from their armies.
The local Nazi Party adminstration put very heavy pressure on local Volksdeutshe to volunteer before their own national armies conscripted them, but the results were very dissappointing to Gottlob Berger, head of Waffen-SS recruitment. In Slovakia, only 600 volunteers came forward out of a Volksdeutsch popuation of 90,000. Results were similar amongst the much larger Volksdeutsch populations of Hungary and Romania.
Therefore, in early 1943 Germany reached bilateral ageements with all its allies that allowed direct conscription of their Volksdeutsche into the Waffen-SS. This brought in very much larger numbers. For example, it is thought that about 10,000 Slovak Volksdeutsche eventually served in the Waffen-SS, which means some 94% of them were inducted after the introduction of conscription.
On the whole, volunteerism amongst Volksdeutsche was disappointing to the Waffen-SS in 1941-42, but the many tens of thousands of Volksdeutsche produced by conscription were vital to Waffen-SS expansion in 1943-44. They were widely used to flesh out under recruiting Reich and Germanic Waffen-SS divisions raised in North-West Europe.
Cheers,
Sid.
Volksdeutsche who were absorbed into the Reich in places like Poland effectively became Reichsdeutsche and were subject to Reich recruitment norms.
Volksdeutsche were those Germans who remained under foreign rule, mostly that of Germany's allies Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. Until early 1943 only volunteers were accepted from these allied countries in order not to challenge their national soverignty, and these volunteers could not transfer across from their armies.
The local Nazi Party adminstration put very heavy pressure on local Volksdeutshe to volunteer before their own national armies conscripted them, but the results were very dissappointing to Gottlob Berger, head of Waffen-SS recruitment. In Slovakia, only 600 volunteers came forward out of a Volksdeutsch popuation of 90,000. Results were similar amongst the much larger Volksdeutsch populations of Hungary and Romania.
Therefore, in early 1943 Germany reached bilateral ageements with all its allies that allowed direct conscription of their Volksdeutsche into the Waffen-SS. This brought in very much larger numbers. For example, it is thought that about 10,000 Slovak Volksdeutsche eventually served in the Waffen-SS, which means some 94% of them were inducted after the introduction of conscription.
On the whole, volunteerism amongst Volksdeutsche was disappointing to the Waffen-SS in 1941-42, but the many tens of thousands of Volksdeutsche produced by conscription were vital to Waffen-SS expansion in 1943-44. They were widely used to flesh out under recruiting Reich and Germanic Waffen-SS divisions raised in North-West Europe.
Cheers,
Sid.
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Enrico Cernuschi
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Re: Volksdeutsch volunteers?
Well Sid, not "all their Allies". In Italy they did not even try, before the 8 Sept. 1943 armistice, to settle such an agreement about the German speaking people who had remained in South Tyrol after the people transfer to the Reich decided in 1939 had been stopped the next year.
EC
EC
Ciàpla adasi, stà léger.
Re: Volksdeutsch volunteers?
Please do!!Opa wrote:Besides the memories of my mom and stepfather, I also have some printed sources I can post.
My grandmother was a Karpatendeutsche but sadly she passed away a long time ago, well before I realised how interesting these Volksdeutsche are. I'm always on the lookout for more info about this region and, since I can't ask her anymore, every little bit helps!
Best regards,
Paul
Re: Volksdeutsch volunteers?
i to am interested in the volkdeutsch . my wife's grandparents were saxon german from romania.
and i have found five men by her grandmother's maiden name and from the same town as they came from that were in the ss. but i would like to find more out about them if i could. for i'am doing a family tree. i do have a picture of one of them as a young boy about 16 or 17 years old. and a picture of his what we think maybe his father.
mel
and i have found five men by her grandmother's maiden name and from the same town as they came from that were in the ss. but i would like to find more out about them if i could. for i'am doing a family tree. i do have a picture of one of them as a young boy about 16 or 17 years old. and a picture of his what we think maybe his father.
mel
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Matthias Fritz
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Re: Volksdeutsch volunteers?
My mothers family were slovin volksdeutsche and were emidiatly after yugoslavia colapse isued german nationality papers as that part of Slovenia was anext to german raich ( the regon was coled Stayermark ). My grandfather voluntered to Waffen SS, his brother was recruted to Wermacht and as my grandfather told me there was quit a lot of yungsters with german ruts who voluntered to Waffen SS but even biger part ( slovin nationality also ) were recruted by Wermacht !
First two years of nazi ocupation people were pretty satisfayed with being part of 3 Raich but when germans started to mowe slovin nationalitys to Serbia, the revolt started ( comunists leed the revolt )! Slovin solders serving in the Wermacht and Waffen SS didnt have any home visits any more becourse once solder come home he usualy yoin the partizans, that was not the isue with volksdeutsche but nevertheless they also cudnt vizit home, they coud come to the nerest town in slovin avstrian border ( Graz, Klagenfurt, etc ) !
MF
First two years of nazi ocupation people were pretty satisfayed with being part of 3 Raich but when germans started to mowe slovin nationalitys to Serbia, the revolt started ( comunists leed the revolt )! Slovin solders serving in the Wermacht and Waffen SS didnt have any home visits any more becourse once solder come home he usualy yoin the partizans, that was not the isue with volksdeutsche but nevertheless they also cudnt vizit home, they coud come to the nerest town in slovin avstrian border ( Graz, Klagenfurt, etc ) !
MF
Re: Volksdeutsch volunteers?
"W 1940 roku wziyni mnie do niymieckigo wojska. W jednym roku szeł żech na Paryż, a w drugim na Moskwa. Na ta Moskwa fajnie sie maszyrowało, bo było lato. Ale jak przyszła zima, niyjedyn z nos przeklon dziyń, że przyszedł na świat. Jo tam był ciężko ranny i dostołech sie do niewole. Do dom przyszło, żech jest zaginiony. Toż w kobiórskim kościele zrobili mi już pogrzeb. A jo - dzięka Bogu - wylizał sie z ran i zostołech niywolnikiym, swoji żech odrobił i doczekał szczęśliwie końca. W 1947 roku wypuścili nos."
"In 1940 they conscripted me to the German army. In one year I was marching on Paris, and in the next year towards Moscow. It was fine to march on Moscow, because it was Summer. But when the Winter came, many of us cursed the day, when they were born. I was heavily wounded there and I got captured. A message to my home arrived, that I had been missing. They even organized my funeral in the forest of Kobiór. And I - thank God - pulled through from my wounds and became a slave, I worked out my job and happily reached the end. In 1947 they released us."
Ludwik Machalica from Kobiór (in Upper Silesia).
"Szeł na nich ruski atak, ćma ich było. W bunkrze, kaj sie bronili, wszyscy byli wyzbijani. Ino Robert jakimś cudym żył. Siedzioł taki ogłupiały i rzykoł do Panienki, żeby Rusy z nim niy skończyły. Bo ta nie było u nich pardonu. Mioł jednak żyć. Dali mu spokój. A przy Rusach było dużo Poloków. I tak sie chneda dostoł do polskigo wojska pod Berlinga."
"They were under the attack of Ruskies, there were plenty of them. In the bunker, where they were defending, all were killed. Only Robert by some miracle was still alive. He was sitting so dazed and praying to the Lady Mary, asking Her to save him from Rusy. There was no mercy among them. But he was to live. They let him live. And there were many Poles with Rusy. And that's how soon after that he got to the Polish army under general Berling."
Helena Uszok from Bojszowy (in Upper Silesia) about her husband Robert Uszok.
"Z pociągu, który odjechał z Hanoweru, zostało nos jeszcze sześciu. Reszta - wszyscy zabici. Amerykony biją w dzień i noc. Ziemia się trzęsie, wszystko się pali, nawet kamienie. Kryjemy się w dziurach wykutych w skale, a krew się na nos leje, jak woda z deszczu. Wszędzie darci, wołani, płacz. Mamo, żegnom się z Wami, bo już z tej wojny niy powróca. Już Wos nigdy niy zobocza, ani moich Bojszów. Niech będzie pochwalony Jezus Chrystus."
"From the train, which arrived at Hannover, only six of us remained. The rest - all of them killed. Americans are firing days and nights. The ground is shaking, everything is burning, even stones. We hide in holes forged in the rock, and blood is pouring on us, like rainwater. Everywhere screams, cries, tears. Mom, I am saying good bye to You, because I won't come back from this war. I will never see You again, neither my Bojszowy. Praised be Jesus Christ!"
Robert Czarnynoga from the village of Bojszowy - his last letter to his mother.
Robert was KIA during the battle of Monte Cassino and is buried there.
Another inhabitant of Bojszowy - Alojzy Lysko - wrote a letter to his wife in October 1943:
"Leża w ruskim polu w dziurze i pisza tyn list z wielkim strachym, bo mi kule nad łebym gwizdajom. Niy gorsz się, Moja Żono, że Ci mało pisza, bo jo musza maszerować każdy dziyń po 20 kilometrów, to mi się na wieczór nic niy chce. Tela mnie ino cieszy, że maszeruja bliżyj chałpy."
"I am lying in a Ruski field in a trench and writing this letter with great fear, because bullets are whistling over my head. Don't resent, My Wife, that I don't write much to You, because I have to march 20 kilometres each day, so I am very tired each evening. The only thing which pleases me, is that each day I march closer to my home."
Alojzy Lysko was KIA on 12th of January 1944 near the village Jamki in western Ukraine.
300 - 320 inhabitants of the small village of Bojszowy in Upper Silesia served in the Wehrmacht during WW2 (yet in March of 1940 all Gornoslazacy born between 1894 and 1926 were listed in the German registery of conscripts). Of them 60 were KIA on the fronts of WW2 and further 40 were seriously WIA. Only 1 of these 320 was a volunteer.
Bojszowy was just one of many similar villages in Upper Silesia.
"In 1940 they conscripted me to the German army. In one year I was marching on Paris, and in the next year towards Moscow. It was fine to march on Moscow, because it was Summer. But when the Winter came, many of us cursed the day, when they were born. I was heavily wounded there and I got captured. A message to my home arrived, that I had been missing. They even organized my funeral in the forest of Kobiór. And I - thank God - pulled through from my wounds and became a slave, I worked out my job and happily reached the end. In 1947 they released us."
Ludwik Machalica from Kobiór (in Upper Silesia).
"Szeł na nich ruski atak, ćma ich było. W bunkrze, kaj sie bronili, wszyscy byli wyzbijani. Ino Robert jakimś cudym żył. Siedzioł taki ogłupiały i rzykoł do Panienki, żeby Rusy z nim niy skończyły. Bo ta nie było u nich pardonu. Mioł jednak żyć. Dali mu spokój. A przy Rusach było dużo Poloków. I tak sie chneda dostoł do polskigo wojska pod Berlinga."
"They were under the attack of Ruskies, there were plenty of them. In the bunker, where they were defending, all were killed. Only Robert by some miracle was still alive. He was sitting so dazed and praying to the Lady Mary, asking Her to save him from Rusy. There was no mercy among them. But he was to live. They let him live. And there were many Poles with Rusy. And that's how soon after that he got to the Polish army under general Berling."
Helena Uszok from Bojszowy (in Upper Silesia) about her husband Robert Uszok.
"Z pociągu, który odjechał z Hanoweru, zostało nos jeszcze sześciu. Reszta - wszyscy zabici. Amerykony biją w dzień i noc. Ziemia się trzęsie, wszystko się pali, nawet kamienie. Kryjemy się w dziurach wykutych w skale, a krew się na nos leje, jak woda z deszczu. Wszędzie darci, wołani, płacz. Mamo, żegnom się z Wami, bo już z tej wojny niy powróca. Już Wos nigdy niy zobocza, ani moich Bojszów. Niech będzie pochwalony Jezus Chrystus."
"From the train, which arrived at Hannover, only six of us remained. The rest - all of them killed. Americans are firing days and nights. The ground is shaking, everything is burning, even stones. We hide in holes forged in the rock, and blood is pouring on us, like rainwater. Everywhere screams, cries, tears. Mom, I am saying good bye to You, because I won't come back from this war. I will never see You again, neither my Bojszowy. Praised be Jesus Christ!"
Robert Czarnynoga from the village of Bojszowy - his last letter to his mother.
Robert was KIA during the battle of Monte Cassino and is buried there.
Another inhabitant of Bojszowy - Alojzy Lysko - wrote a letter to his wife in October 1943:
"Leża w ruskim polu w dziurze i pisza tyn list z wielkim strachym, bo mi kule nad łebym gwizdajom. Niy gorsz się, Moja Żono, że Ci mało pisza, bo jo musza maszerować każdy dziyń po 20 kilometrów, to mi się na wieczór nic niy chce. Tela mnie ino cieszy, że maszeruja bliżyj chałpy."
"I am lying in a Ruski field in a trench and writing this letter with great fear, because bullets are whistling over my head. Don't resent, My Wife, that I don't write much to You, because I have to march 20 kilometres each day, so I am very tired each evening. The only thing which pleases me, is that each day I march closer to my home."
Alojzy Lysko was KIA on 12th of January 1944 near the village Jamki in western Ukraine.
300 - 320 inhabitants of the small village of Bojszowy in Upper Silesia served in the Wehrmacht during WW2 (yet in March of 1940 all Gornoslazacy born between 1894 and 1926 were listed in the German registery of conscripts). Of them 60 were KIA on the fronts of WW2 and further 40 were seriously WIA. Only 1 of these 320 was a volunteer.
Bojszowy was just one of many similar villages in Upper Silesia.
Re: Volksdeutsch volunteers?
Thanks Domen123.
Sad but interesting reading.
Sad but interesting reading.
Annelie
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