Deutscher Volksverband

Deutscher Volksverband in Polen (DVV), or the German People's Union in Poland, was a Nazi German extreme right-wing political party founded in 1924 in central Poland by members of the ethnic German minority who did not wish to join the minority bloc in the Polish parliament Sejm.[1] DVV was headed by August Utta, and financially supported by the Reich Ministry of Finance.[2] Deutscher Volksverband was most active in the Łódź and Tomaszów area.[3]

German People's Union in Poland

Deutscher Volksverband in Polen
LeaderAugust Utta
Founded1924 (1924)
HeadquartersŁódź, Poland
IdeologyNazism
Political positionFar-right
International affiliationThird Reich
Volksdeutsches decorated 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, obergruppenfuhrer Werner Lorenz, senator Erwin Hasbach from Ciechocinek, baron Gero von Gersdorff from Wielkopolska, Weiss from Jarocin.

The German Foreign Ministry aggressively supported the DVV Party through its own consulate in Poland for a number of reasons, one of them being the presence of the explicitly pro-Polish Deutscher Kultur– und Wirtschaftsbund (DKWB) organization in Łódź, which was critical of the revisionist Weimar government. DVV members denounced the "Lodzer Mensch" from the DKWB as puppets of the Polish government collaborating with the Jews and committing high treason against the German Reich.[1][4] In 1935 August Utta was replaced by Ludwig Wolff, a committed Nazi.[5]

Operation

By the late 1930s, the whole of Poland was covered by ethnic German organizations supported financially by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Third Reich. The Deutscher Volksverband (DVV) membership grew to over 25,000 participants in 1937.[5] It was helped by emissaries arriving in Poland from Germany and commanded by Abwehr,[6] with the aim of establishing the so-called 5th column among the Volksdeutsche,[7] as well as any willing colonists, including the Mennonites. By 1938, all local structures of the DVV were formed. Many members of the DVV became German partisans during the 1939 invasion of Poland according to research. They were treated as an integral part of the German foreign policy towards the Polish state.[8][9]

Just before the outbreak of war, in the Powiśle neighbourhood of Warsaw, a massive propaganda campaign was carried out by the members of Deutscher Volksverband directed by German agent Aleks Nipie, trying to convince young Poles to join the Wehrmacht. The DVV community leaders were asked to register people into the Deutsche Volksliste without proof of origin; all that they needed was a declaration, confirmed by a witness. The action was most successful among peasants, as educated Polish Germans did not want to be affiliated with Adolf Hitler. The new Volksdeutsche were trained to guide the Luftwaffe aircraft towards a desired target with mirrors.[8] In Inowrocław, an ethnic German was spotted fastening big mirrors to a chimney on a roof of his dog pound.[10] In the city of Toruń for example, during the first days of war about a dozen people were arrested and executed for signalling German reconnaissance planes with mirrors and flags.[11] The courses in sabotage were conducted with the promise of receiving property in Poland (as in Gliwice),[12] but also in Wrocław, Bielsko, Katowice, Zabrze and Rybnik. It is estimated that up to 20,000 ethnic Germans living in Poland belonged to organizations involved in sabotage actions,[13] including Deutscher Volksbund in Silesia, Deutscher Volksverbarid in Łódź area, Deutsche Vereinigung in Pomerania and Jungdeutsche Partei across the entire country.[14][15][16]

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See also

Notes and references
  1. Neil Gregor; Nils H. Roemer; Mark Roseman (2006). "Deutscher Volksverband in "Volksgemeinschaften unter sich" by Winson Chu". German History from the Margins. Indiana University Press. pp. 111–113. ISBN 0253347432. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
  2. Christian Raitz von Frentz (1999). "Deutscher Volksverband". A Lesson Forgotten: Minority Protection Under the League of Nations : the Case of the German Minority in Poland, 1920-1934. LIT Verlag Münster. pp. 250–251. ISBN 3825844722. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
  3. Richard Blanke (1993). "Central Poland, Germans (in Index)". Orphans Of Versailles: The Germans in Western Poland, 1918-1939. University Press of Kentucky. p. 308. ISBN 0813118034. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
  4. Winson Chu, University of California, Berkeley. "Revenge of the Periphery: Regionalism and the German Minority in Lodz, 1918-1939" (PDF direct download, 46.4 KB). The Contours of Legitimacy in Central Europe. St. Antony's College, Oxford. Retrieved July 21, 2012.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. Neil Gregor; Nils H. Roemer; Mark Roseman. "Volksgemeinschaften unter sich". German History from the Margins (ibidem). p. 118. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
  6. Józef Kossecki (Kielce 1997). "II Oddział Sztabu Głównego II RP (Chapter 3.3)" (PDF direct download, 808 KB). Totalna wojna informacyjna XX wieku a II RP. Wydział Zarządzania i Administracji Wyższej Szkoły Pedagogicznej im. J. Kochanowskiego w Kielcach. p. 102. Retrieved August 12, 2012. Abwehra wykorzystywała też w swej pracy mniejszość niemiecką zamieszkałą w Polsce, chodziło przy tym nie tylko o zwyczajną współpracę wywiadowczą, ale również o organizowanie na obszarze polskim oddziałów przyszłej V Kolumny. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. Popularna Encyklopedia Powszechna Wydawnictwa Fogra. "Piąta kolumna w Polsce (The 5th column in Poland)". Militaria (in Polish). Encyklopedia WIEM. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
  8. Wojciech Marchlewski (November 30, 2009). "Deutscher Volksverband in Act I: Second Republic". Hollanders during the World War II and their post-war situation — social, political and economic issues. Mennonites in Mazovia 1939-1948. Monuments of Duch colonization in Poland. Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
  9. Józef Kossecki (Kielce 1997). "II Oddział Sztabu Głównego II RP (ibidem)" (PDF direct download, 808 KB). Totalna wojna informacyjna XX wieku a II RP. Wydział Zarządzania i Administracji Wyższej Szkoły Pedagogicznej im. J. Kochanowskiego w Kielcach. p. 105. Retrieved August 12, 2012. W latach poprzedzających wybuch wojny notowano wzmożoną aktywność wywiadu sowieckiego i niemieckiego. Stwierdzono pogłębiające się wykorzystywanie przez obce wywiady mniejszości narodowych. Statystyki zlikwidowanych ponad czterech tysięcy spraw w latach 1929-1939 wskazywały na udział w nich ponad sześćdziesięciu pięciu procent osób wywodzących się spośród mniejszości narodowych. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. Edmund Mikołajczak (2010). ""Lojalni sąsiedzi czy wrogowie?" Inowrocławscy Niemcy w przededniu II wojny światowej" (in Polish). Uczyć się z historii, platforma publikacji projektów edukacyjnych. Retrieved August 13, 2012. Niemiec, właściciel rakarni dawał znaki niemieckim samolotom zwiadowczym przy pomocy dużych luster.
  11. "Szlaki pamieci" (PDF direct download, 1.47 MB). Druga Wojna Swiatowa. Urząd Marszałkowski Województwa Kujawsko-Pomorskiego. 2009. pp. 2 of 6. Retrieved August 13, 2012. Quote in Polish: w pierwszych dniach wojny aresztowano i rozstrzelano w Toruniu kilkanaście osób, które przy pomocy luster bądź flag przekazywały sygnały niemieckiemu lotnictwu.
  12. Eugeniusz Buczyński (1985). "Dywersanci niemieccy - wrzesień 1939". Smutny wrzesień. Wspomnienia. Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków. ISBN 83-08-01208-6. Retrieved August 12, 2012. Book quotation at Forum: IIRP - Wojsko Polskie 1918-1939 2005-09-10/21:16
  13. Tomasz Chinciński (November 4, 2009). "Prowokacje SD". Piąta kolumna (The 5th Column) (in Polish). S.P. Polityka. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
  14. "Piąta kolumna (The 5th Column)" (in Polish). Kampania Wrześniowa 1939. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
  15. Christian Raitz von Frentz (1999). "Glossary (ibidem)". A Lesson Forgotten: Minority Protection Under the League of Nations. LIT Verlag Münster. p. ii. ISBN 3825844722. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
  16. Beata Dorota Lakeberg (2010). "Abkurzungsverzeichnis". Die deutsche Minderheitenpresse in Polen 1918-1939 und ihr Polen- und Judenbild (in German). Peter Lang. pp. 351–352. ISBN 3631600488. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
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