"Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich (194 page)

35.
Letter of March 4, 1944, from the
Gau
Bureau of Nationhood Affairs of the NSDAP to the Wartheland
Gau
Chamber of Labor: the working conditions were far worse than in the “Old Reich” (Institute for Western Studies, Pozna
). See the letter of January 5, 1942, from Zellgarn AG, Posen, to the Reich governor of Posen (ZS Posen, film 14, 603 ff.); report for June 1941 by the
Kreisleitung
Hermannsbad (Institute for Western Studies, Pozna
); order of July 23, 1940, by the
Landrat
of Plozk, administrative district Zichenau (poor work performance by Poles); letter of July 15, 1940, from the district president of Zichenau to the
Landräte
of the district (Institute for Western Studies, Pozna
).

36.
Confidential note dated July 27, 1944, from the office of the Reich governor of Posen for Referat I/50: “Malnutrition and physical overexertion do in fact constitute a danger” (State Archive Pozna
,
Reichsstatthalter
1174, Bl. 281).

37.
According to the confidential note of July 27, 1944 (ibid.), the chairman of the armaments commission stated that it was time “to recognize the mistakes we made in the early years and to remedy them”; this passage was underlined by the head of the Referat for Nationhood Questions (I/50) of the Reich governor of Posen, and a question mark was added in the margin.

38.
Note dated May 9, 1944, from the office of the Reich governor of Posen, according to which Poles would be permitted a right to complain against the abuse of disciplinary measures by managers; but any complaint would be rejected “in order not to disturb discipline at work,” and “influence [would be] exerted” on the manager in private if it was justified (quoted by Łuczak,
Dyskryminacja Polaków
, 301).

Part One. Section 2. C. V. Citizenship Law for Poles and Other “Non-Germans”

1.
For more details, see Stuckart, “Die Staatsangehörigkeit in den eingegliederten Ostgebieten” (1941); Berger, “Die Deutsche Volksliste in den eingegliederten Ostgebieten” (1941).

2.
Full details in Huber,
Idee und Ordnung des Reiches
(1941).

3.
Dahm,
Völkerrecht
(1958), 1:471 ff.; Verdross,
Völkerrecht
(1964), 307 ff.; BVerfG I, 322; according to this, the collective naturalizations did not change the earlier nationality in the eyes of international law, since the acquisition of the territory was in itself illegal. In terms of international law, the new nationality did not exist. An exception was when—as in the case of the German inhabitants of Czechoslovakia—naturalization corresponded to the desire of the persons involved. In this case collective naturalization contrary to international law is interpreted as informal naturalization on the basis of an option (Dahm,
Völkerrecht
, 1:474; BVerfG I, 322).

4.
Law of March 13, 1938, on the Reunification of Austria with the German Reich (
RGBl
. I 237; decree of July 3, 1938).

5.
Law of November 21, 1938, on the Reunification of the Sudeten Territories with the German Reich (
RGBl
. I 1641). Under the agreement with Czechoslovakia of November 30, 1939 (
RGBl
. I 895), Czechs who had emigrated since 1920 were excluded from the acquisition of German nationality.

6.
It was in this context that the term
ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche)
was first defined with any precision. In a circular dated March 29, 1939 (
MinbliV
783), the Reich minister of the interior defined “German ethnic nationals” as persons who recognized themselves as belonging to the German people, provided this was confirmed by certain facts such as language, culture, and education (Nuremberg doc. NG-295). Persons of foreign blood, especially Jews, could never be German ethnic nationals. See too the term
Volksdeutsche
described in the letter of January 25, 1938, from the RMuChdRkzlei to the Supreme Authorities of the Reich (RK 1355 D) as those persons “who are of German extraction in their language and culture but do not belong to the German Reich as citizens” (quoted in the decree of May 6, 1940, by the Reich minister of the interior—
Staatssekretär
Pfundtner, BA R 43 II/135a; reproduced in
Verfügungen
, 2:167).

7.
Law of March 23, 1939, on the Reunification of Memelgebiet with the German Reich (
RGBl
. I 559), according to which people of Jewish descent also acquired German nationality.

8.
Decree of the Führer and Reich chancellor of May 23 1940 (
RGBl
. I 803); only persons of “German or related blood” acquired German nationality, however.

9.
Decree of August 23, 1942 (
RGBl
. I 553). German nationality was acquired by persons “of German descent” (
deutschstämmig
) who had served in the Wehrmacht or the Waffen-SS or had been recognized as “worthy Germans.”

10.
For more details, see Huber, “Das Reichsbürgerrecht” (1941), 15 ff., 20 ff.; Huber gives the children of Swedes, Danes, the French, Italians, and Hungarians as examples of related groups, but he also includes children of Polish nationality in Upper Silesia who became Reich citizens when their parents acquired German nationality (17 f.).

11.
RGBl
. I, 2042, 2077.

12.
Dahm,
Völkerrecht
, 1:472: even when the acquisition of territory was
effective
under the terms of the law, the occupant was obliged to allow protection under public law (naturalization), in order to preclude mass statelessness and thus deprivation of rights, since abode in the home country would thereby also be endangered. The deportations from the Eastern Territories that did in fact occur confirm the legal consequences of statelessness.

13.
Decisions of the Supreme Court for Civil Cases, 167, 274.

14.
According to the Law of September 1, 1939, on the Reunification of the Free State of Danzig with the German Reich (
RGBl
. I 1547), all nationals of the former Free State of Danzig became German nationals.

15.
More details in Broszat,
Nationalsozialistische Polenpolitik
(1961), 113.

16.
Draft decree of August 23, 1940, by the Reich minister of the interior, which was never implemented, to clarify the Führer’s decree of October 8, 1939 (Secret State Archives, Berlin-Dahlem, StS Pfundtner, Rep. 320/127, part of BA R 18).

17.
Minbliv
(1939): 2385 (also BA R 18/461); also reproduced in
Doc. Occ
. 5:108 ff. The decree was rescinded by the Decree of March 4, 1941, on the German Ethnic Classification List and German Nationality in the Annexed Eastern Territories in the version of the decree of January 31, 1942 (
RGBl
. I 1941, 118; 1942, 51).

18.
These included German ethnic nationals who had possessed Danziger nationality before September 1, 1939, or had possessed Polish nationality before October 26, 1939, and were residents of the German Reich (including the Annexed Eastern Territories) until that time, or who following the loss of Polish nationality were stateless until October 26, 1939, and at that time were resident in the German Reich (including the Annexed Eastern Territories). To determine “German ethnic nationality,” including in the protectorate, the Reich Ministry of the Interior decree of March 29, 1939, referred to in note 6 above (
MinbliV
783) was instrumental. With the acquisition of German nationality, such persons were officially designated German nationals (Reich Ministry of the Interior decree of May 6, 1940, reproduced in
Verfügungen
, 2:167), even though the term
ethnic German
remained in wide everyday use.

19.
In the latter years the Reich Ministry of the Interior had in fact prepared a draft of a Decree on the Legal Status of Protected Citizens and Stateless Illegitimate Children of Polish Nationality, which, however, was not passed. See the travel report of an official of the office of the Reich governor of Posen on a discussion in the Reich Ministry of the Interior on January 14, 1944 (State Archive Pozna
,
Reichsstatthalter
909).

20.
At the demand of the Reich minister for education of the people and propaganda for uniform treatment of ethnic Germans in the Annexed Eastern Territories (letter of December 5, 1939, BA R 43 II/135a), State Secretary Stuckart declared that the acceptance of ethnic Germans as German nationals should be done “in as generous a manner as possible in the German interest … so as to include a large proportion of the nationally indifferent intermediate classes” (letter of January 4, 1940, Nuremberg doc. NG-295, also BA R 2/1172).

21.
ZS, Versch. 26/112 ff. (copy): Himmler was empowered to eliminate “pernicious sections of the population” and to establish the new German settlement areas.

22.
In the Reich Ministry of the Interior decree of November 25, 1939 (
MinbliV
[1939]: 2385), the
Kreisleiter
had a say only in cases in which German nationality was in doubt (details in the Reich Ministry of the Interior circular of June 22, 1939,
Minbliv
[1939]: 1337).