Agency of the Nazi Party
In
Nazi Germany
the
Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle
or
VoMi
(Coordination Center for Ethnic Germans
[2]
) was a
Nazi Party
agency founded to manage the interests of the
Volksdeutsche
- the population of ethnic Germans living outside the
Third Reich
. Ultimately coming under
Allgemeine-SS
administration, it became responsible for orchestrating the implementation of Nazi
Lebensraum
(English:
living-space
) policies in
Eastern Europe
during
World War II
.
Formation
[
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]
It was founded in 1937 under the command of SS-
Obergruppenfuhrer
Werner Lorenz
as a state office of the
Nazi Party
. Its headquarters were on
Unter den Linden
,
Berlin
(this changed to Keithstraße in 1943 due to
Allied Bombing
). VoMi's primary task was the resettlement of German peoples outside Germany. Between 1939 and 1942, VoMi had resettled half a million ethnic Germans into the newly occupied territories of the Reich under the slogan "
Heim ins Reich
" (Home into the Empire). These territories included the
Reichsgaue
of the
German Reich
; these included
Wartheland
(
Posen
) and
Danzig-West Prussia
(
Danzig
).
[3]
RKFDV
[
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]
On October 7, 1939, two days after
Poland had been overrun
,
Adolf Hitler
appointed the
Reichsfuhrer-SS
Heinrich Himmler
to the new role of
Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood
(
German
:
Reichskommissariat
fur die Festigung deutschen Volkstums
- RKFDV
). This position authorized the SS to plan, initiate, and control the pace of
Germanization
,
settlement
and
population transfer projects
in
occupied Poland
, and later, after the
invasion of the Soviet Union
, in occupied Russia.
In 1941 the VoMi was upgraded to an SS Main Office (
Hauptamt
) with control over all VoMi personnel and field offices. In June 1941 VOMI was absorbed into the office of the
Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood
(RKFDV) run by Himmler. The RKFDV, as an SS-controlled organization, had the authority to say who was German, where ethnic Germans could live, and what populations should be
cleared or annihilated
in order to make room for the German settlers. As RKFDV chief, Himmler authorized the
SS-
Einsatzgruppen
(mobile death squads) and other SS police units to round up and kill
Jews
,
Slavs
and
Roma
.
In June 1942 Himmler put all VoMi personnel under the jurisdiction of the
SS Police and Courts
. With Hitler's blessing, Himmler now had complete control over VoMi,
ethnic Germans outside Imperial Germany
policy and
living space
programs. Although VoMi remained technically an office of the
Nazi Party
until the end of the
Second World War
, it was under the control of the SS.
Organization
[
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]
The
RKFDV-VOMi
was organized into 11 departments (1942):
[4]
Amt I: Fuhrungsamt
[
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]
("Headquarters")
This department, unlike other VoMi Amts, contained only SS personnel. It contained
SS legal officers
and a
Waffen-SS
unit.
Amt II: Organisation und Personal
[
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]
("Organization and Personnel")
This was managed by an
SD
officer. It dealt with SS and non-SS personnel within the
Volksdeutsche
. In the later period of the war, Amt II's importance increased as it was responsible for allocating
Volksdeutsche
to the Reich Labor Service.
Amt III: Finanzen, Wirtschaft und Vermogensverwaltung
[
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]
("Finances, Economics and Administration")
It was responsible for financing VoMi projects and distributing funds to
Volksdeutsche
. It was the only department that remained under complete control of the
Nazi State
and not the
Allgemeine SS
.
Amt IV: Informationen
[
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]
("Information")
This department documented and reported all VoMi activity and resettlement projects. It worked closely with
Joseph Goebbels
'
Ministry of Information
. Amt IV also published information journals for the
German settlers
.
Amt V: Deutschtumserziehung
[
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]
("Germanness education")
This provided cultural and educational services to help
Volksdeutsche
assimilate to
German ways
.
Amt VI: Sicherung Deutschen Volkstums im Reich
[
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]
("Office of ethnic Germans within the Reich")
This office looked after the welfare of ethnic Germans that had been allowed to settle within the borders of
Germany
. It also assessed potential candidates for settlement grading them on their ethnicity, politics and skills. However, Amt VI, although tasked with the welfare of
Volksdeutsche
, worked closely with the
Gestapo
and the
SD
of the
RSHA
.
Amt VII: Sicherung Deutschen Volkstums in den neuen Ostgebieten
[
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]
("Office of ethnic Germans in the new
eastern areas
")
It had a similar role as Amt VI but looked after the welfare of
ethnic Germans
in Eastern Europe, such as in
occupied Poland
,
Czechoslovakia
and
Russia
. It had field offices in
Krakow
,
Riga
and
Kiev
.
Amt VIII: Kultur und Wissenschaft
[
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]
("Culture and science")
This section was engaged in collating and archiving the cultural history of resettled
Volksdeutsche
. The department also acted as a
curator
for artifacts, treasure and documents belonging to ethnic Germans.
Amt IX: Politische Fuhrung Deutscher Volksgruppen
[
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]
("Political office of German ethnic groups")
The
SS
considered this to be the most important department within VoMi as it provided the political leadership for ethnic Germans within the
Third Reich
and
occupied Europe
. Amt IX had several sub divisions, these included domestic affairs, relations between ethnic Germans and the Nazi Party, affairs between foreign states and the
Third Reich
regarding ethnic Germans and liaisons with the
Nazi Foreign Ministry
.
Amt X: Fuhrung der Wirtschaft in den Deutschen Volksgruppen
[
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]
("Office managing the economics of ethnic Germans")
This office established agriculture, work projects, banking and credit for the
Volksdeutsche
. During the
Second World War
its main role was the exploitation of the
ethnic Germans
in the interest of the
Third Reich
.
Amt XI: Umsiedlung
[
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]
("Resettlement")
This department was primarily responsible for handling the massive
germanisation
operation to
settle
Volksdeutsche
throughout Germany and
Occupied Europe
.
Role in the Holocaust
[
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]
A VoMi unit,
Sonderkommando R (Russland)
, institutional successor to
Einsatzgruppe D
in the Transnistria area, carried out numerous massacres of Jews during the first half of 1942. The victims were deportees from Rumanian-controlled territory, it being Marshal Ion Antonescu's policy to racially "cleanse" the Rumanian nation. His preferred technique was to expel them to German-controlled territory and have the responsible SS/ Police units exterminate them. Many of these Jews were passed back and forth for weeks before a mix of Sk-R units and ethnic German
Selbstschutz
militia killed them.
Most of these murders occurred in the county (Judetul) of Berezovca, where ethnic Germans, distributed among 40 or so villages, made up 40% of the population. Sk-R was commanded by SS-
Standartenfuher
Horst Hoffmeyer, a senior VoMi officer. His HQ was in Landau, located west of the River Bug. Apparently, the unit was divided into seven local offices, three of which were:
- Worms - commanded by SS-
Obersturmfuhrer
Streit
- Lichtenfeld - SS-
Obersturmfuhrer
Franz Liebl
- Rastatt - SS-
Hauptsturmfuhrer
Rudolf Hartung
Liebl's unit was responsible for the massacre of 1,200 Jews at Suha Verba in early June 1942.
Slightly more detail on this can be found in Andrej Angrick's paper in Yad Vashem Studies XXVI (1998), pp 232?234. Perhaps oddly, Radu Ioanid's
The Holocaust in Romania: The Destruction of Jews and Gypsies Under the Antonescu Regime, 1940-1944
does not cover Sk-R, nor does Valdis O. Lumen's book dedicated to VoMi.
SS-
Obergruppenfuhrer
August Frank
was an official of the
SS-Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungshauptamt
(
SS Main Economic and Administrative Office
), which was responsible for the administration of the
Nazi concentration camps
. Frank was responsible for taking the property from Jews murdered in
Aktion Reinhard
in 1942. After the war,
a memorandum prepared by Frank on September 26, 1942
, detailed instructions on dealing with this ill-gotten wealth; which even included collecting the underwear of victims. It ordered that the property should be sent to the VoMi offices in
Łod?
, Poland. The memorandum refuted claims that organizations like VoMi had no knowledge that Jews were being murdered en masse in the extermination camps. The note is an example of the use of the Nazi euphemism "evacuation" for Jews that were being murdered in
The Holocaust
.
[5]
See also
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]
References
[
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]
Notes
- ^
Luther, Tammo (2004). "4.5.1: Errichtung der Volksdeutschen Mittelstelle".
Volkstumspolitik des Deutschen Reiches 1933-1938: die Auslanddeutschen im Spannungsfeld zwischen Traditionalisten und Nationalsozialisten
. Volume 55 of Historische Mitteilungen im Auftrage der Ranke-Gesellschaft: Beiheft, ISSN 0939-5385 (in German). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag. p. 149.
ISBN
978-3-515-08535-9
. Retrieved
21 August
2023
.
Fur das Buro von Kursell hatte sich bereits seit Marz 1936 mehr und mehr der Name
Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle
eingerburgert. Vielfach wurde Kursells Dienststelle aber weiterhin Buro von Kursell genannt. Eine verbindliche Sprachregelung war nicht festgelegt worden.
- ^
Longerich, Peter (2012).
Heinrich Himmler
. Oxford University Press. pp.
319
, 389.
ISBN
978-0-19-959232-6
.
- ^
Hummel, Karl-Joseph; Kosters, Christoph (2007).
Kirchen im Krieg: Europa 1939-1945: mit einer Zusammenfassung in englischer Sprache
. Schoningh. p. 253.
ISBN
978-3-506-75688-6
.
- ^
Lumans, Valdis O. (1993).
Himmler's auxiliaries: the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the German national minorities of Europe, 1933-1945
.
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
/ London: Univ. of North Carolina Press. pp. 142?5.
ISBN
0-8078-2066-0
. Retrieved
26 June
2009
.
- ^
a
b
Nuremberg Military Tribunal,
"Judgment of the Tribunal (regarding August Frank), 3 November 1947"
,
United States of America v. Oswald Pohl, et al. (Case No. 4, the "Pohl Trial)
, vol. V, pp. 992?997
Further reading
- Grams, Grant W.(2021). Return Migration of German Nationals from the United States and Canada, 1933?1941, Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland Publications.
- Zaffiri Gabriel,
Ahnenerbe, the Academy of sciences of the SS
, Nicholas Calabria Publisher, Pacts (ME), 2004
- "Online-Lexikon zur Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im Ostlichen Europa - Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (VoMi)"
(in German). Carl von Ossietzky Universitat Oldenburg.