Part 4: The Accommodation of the Resettlers from Bukovina in the Camps in the German Reich and their Processing as well as Naturalization and Settlement
Willi Kosiul
Translation by Google, Needs Editing
From the Website of Willi Kosiul
Posted with permission of the author’s son, February 15, 2021
Part 3: The Implementation of the Resettlement of Germans in the Fall of 1940 from all of Bukovina
The entire resettlement camps in the German Reich were subordinate to the “Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle” Berlin. These 320 large resettlement camps were then – if necessary – constantly expanded by many, even small, tall ones, up to around 1,200 camps in all areas of the empire and then reduced again. Initially, these camps were officially called “observation camps”, where quarantine prevailed for the first four weeks, when there was a total curfew and the resettlers were observed to see whether any infectious diseases had brought into the Reich.
In these resettler camps or from them, the resettlers were smuggled through and naturalized and then transported to the respective settlement in the east or in the old empire.
The resettlers from northern Bukovina were accommodated in the camps in Silesia – mainly in Upper Silesia – in the districts of Breslau, Hirschberg, Liegnitz, Katowice, Ratibor, Neisse, Ottmachau and Bielitz. The resettlers from southern Bukovina came to Styria, Salzburg, Bavarian Ostmark, Württemberg, Swabia, Sudentenland, Thuringia and Saxony. The resettlers were housed throughout the empire, in many circles and in various objects such as schools, gyms, monasteries, hotels, inns, guest houses, youth homes, holiday homes, sanatoriums, barracks, etc., which were set up there as camps.
Here, the resettlers were accommodated with several families in the individual rooms, up to 50 people per room, slept on double bunk beds and sat on them during the day and catered for by the camp kitchen. All these observation camps, later also called resettler camps, were predominantly run by SS officers as camp leaders in a strictly military manner. In these camps – depending on their size and the number of resettlers – there was a camp doctor, nurses, infirmary, kindergarten, day care center, and occasionally a camp school or the children attended the local elementary school there. But in many camps – even with many school children – there were no school lessons at all, only a school day care center. Everything was free in the camps and the adult resettlers received 3,
As a rule, there were double bunk beds made of metal, standing close to each other and only separated by a narrow entrance, which were covered with straw sacks and two used old blankets for each person to sleep in, without bed covers. In this room there was a simple wooden table and some old chairs or stools, no seats for everyone. The beds were also there. The washrooms and toilets were shared for everyone, separated for women and men in the respective corridor or in the basement. The meals were eaten three times a day as a family group in dining rooms – according to the schedule – and often in two shifts in large camps. The men played cards with one another, out of boredom, or had various conversations in groups. The women also sat together in groups and did their handicrafts, with lively conversations about their old homeland or about the future that they had been promised or that they had imagined or thought up and also wished for. The children were in the camp kindergarten, in the camp school after-school care center or in the camp school (if available) by the hour, or in some cases they also went to local school. In the rest of the time the children played and romped in larger groups in the camp yard or in the free rooms of the camp, which caused a lot of trouble for the camp management. in the camp school after-school care center or in the camp school (if available), or in some cases they went to the local school. In the rest of the time the children played and romped in larger groups in the camp yard or in the free rooms of the camp, which caused a lot of trouble for the camp management. in the camp school after-school care center or in the camp school (if available), or in some cases they went to the local school. In the rest of the time the children played and romped in larger groups in the camp yard or in the free rooms of the camp, which caused a lot of trouble for the camp management.
For the adults there were also various meetings and information lectures with plenty of propaganda about the Reich German re-education of the resettlers. In larger Langer, the young men were also called to “SA service”, the youth to “HJ service” or to “BDM meetings”. The younger resettlers who were fit for work were deployed in the town or in the surrounding area to work in the factories or farms, with accommodation in the camp or temporarily outside of the camp, if necessary – in the following time and during a longer stay in the camp. Here they had the opportunity to earn their first German money in Reichmarks, even if it wasn’t too much. The resettlers of all ages spent their often long and boring camp stay in different ways,
The resettlers were smuggled through and their respective approach decisions “A”, “O” or “S” were determined on one day. The “flying commissions”, as naturalization commissions from the immigration center Litzmannstadt, drove their vehicles (cars, buses and trucks) to the respective locations or, where possible, directly to the resettlement camps and carried out their sluicing everywhere on site . Since these naturalization commissions were about a thorough health – Aryan – ethnic – and economic investigation as well as a review of the resettlers, which was carried out here in a closed passage at eight offices one after the other, this work cycle, which lasted about five to six hours, was called “Durchschleusung “. Here every resettler had to disclose his entire health condition – including his family genetic makeup – and undergo a very thorough medical examination. The resettler had to prove his Aryan German descent according to the documents and have his political reliability assessed, all of which was thoroughly examined and verified. All these examination and verification results were listed for each resettler from the age of 14 on four separate index cards (which were called master sheets at the time) according to the respective specialist areas. These master sheets were – locked during this transit – by the resettlers from one point to the other – always transported on – and thus brought through all departments, where they were compared with one another and assessed.
After a comprehensive medical, hereditary and Aryan examination and then their classification into different classes, groups and levels, all resettlers from the age of 14 or often from the age of 10 received the blood group symbol of their blood group “A”, “O” or “AB” tattooed under the left upper arm in the armpit. In the final phase of the smuggling through, the entire resettler family immediately received approval for naturalization or, in individual cases, refusal. Upon approval of naturalization, the respective resettler family immediately received their initial decision “O” = for settling as farmers or craftsmen in the east or the initial decision “A” = for settling as workers in the old Reich. In case of refusal of naturalization, the respective resettler family received the initial decision “S” as a “special case” with the possibility of being stateless as a worker in the Old Reich or to be recognized as an “R case” with the aim of being returned to Romania. For the naturalized resettlers there was also the naturalization certificate as a citizen of the German Reich and the “return card” for the East or with some restrictions for the Old Reich where it said: “Only valid for the Old Reich!”
Only after this family route of smuggling through and naturalization, which had already taken place from November 1940 to May 1941 for the resettlers from northern Bukovina in Upper Silesia, did they begin to settle in the east as well as in the Altreich in spring 1941. For the resettlers from southern Bukovina who were in these resettlement camps in Austria, the Sudetenland as well as in south-west Germany and also in central Germany, this smuggling of German and naturalization only began in the summer of 1941, which even lasted until 1942 and was only subsequently settled.
Of the ten “flying commissions” that were active in 1940 and 1941, three were responsible for the smuggling of around 45,000 resettlers from northern Bukovina, which took place between October 15, 1940 and May 11, 1941, a total of around Lasted seven months. The smuggling of resettlers from southern Bukovina and Dobruja did not begin until the summer of 1941 and was carried out in 1942 by several of these commissions, in the same way as with the northern beech countries. Whether a resettler family had received the initial decision “O” and could be settled in the east as a farmer or craftsman, or whether it received the initial decision “A” and was settled as a worker in the Old Reich, depended on many factors that were examined, checked and evaluated there and then a decision was made immediately.
During this transit, each contact point – as an office – had immediately taken on their tasks and noted their findings on the “master sheets” of the respective resettlers. Each resettler had to go through the following places one after the other during the transit: the registration office of the order police, the identification office of the security police, the photo office of the security police, the health office of the Reich Ministry of Health, the race and security office of the SS main office, the citizenship office of the Reich Minister of the Interior, the Job placement office of the Reich Ministry of Labor and the HJ office of the Reich Youth Leader.
About 53% of all resettlers from Bukowina received the initial decision “O” when they were passed through and were then settled in the east – mainly in the Warthegau and eastern Upper Silesia – by the local settlement staffs as farmers or as craftsmen. 41% of all resettlers from Bukovina received the initial decision “A” and were thus accommodated in the old Reich by the respective employment offices as industrial workers in armor or as farm workers on the estates. About 6% of all resettlers received the initial decision “S” and were not naturalized. Whenever possible, these were housed in the Old Reich as stateless workers or deported to the Polish government and some were also sent back to Romania.
Around 45% of the resettlers from northern Bukovina received the decision “O”, 48% received the decision “A” and 7% received the decision “S”. The overall result of the resettlers from North Bukovina was therefore worse than the overall result of the resettlers from South Bukovina. T. in the state capital Chernivtsi and its surroundings were very many A cases and also S cases. There were many mixed marriages here.
For the resettlers of the individual local areas of the Romanian southern Bukovina, these initial decision results were somewhat more positive. Here, a total of almost 66% of the resettlers had received the decision “O”, only 33% the decision “A” and only 1% the decision “S”.
These different approach decisions and thus also the different settlement areas separated a lot of relatives of the Buchenland Germans, which led to the annoyance and disappointment of many resettlers. That is why many of these resettlers, with the initial decisions “A” received, led official complaints and appeals to the highest authorities in Berlin. They asked for their approach decision to be changed from “A” to “O” in order to then settle in the east with their relatives and well-known compatriots. After that, in 1942 and 1943, many of these initial decisions were also changed from “A” to “O”, and then these cases were also settled in the east by 1943. As a result, in 1942 and 1943 this relationship between the approach decisions between “A” and “O” changed. Every naturalized resettler family received their naturalization certificate for the entire family and all adults also received their “return card”, which was later called “resettler card”. With the smuggling through and naturalization of the resettlers, the tasks of these “flying commissions” of the immigration authorities were fulfilled. According to this, all other offices or institutions – such as the settlement staff in the east and the employment offices in the old Reich – had to act according to the stipulations of these naturalization commissions and to fulfill their tasks in this sense. The resettlers from all over Bukowina were settled at different times and in different countries and areas of the then German Empire.
The resettlers of the “A cases” from northern Bukovina were resettled immediately after they were smuggled through – from spring 1941 – and the resettlers from southern Bukovina only settled in 1942 and 1943 in the old Reich. After being assigned from the camp, they were resettled by the respective employment offices – depending on their occupation – as industrial workers in armor or as farm workers on the large estates. The resettlement of the resettlers with the approach decision “O” from the entire Bukowina took place in the new German eastern areas (in the Warthegau and Upper Silesia) as well as in the Sudetenland and in the west (Lorraine and Luxembourg). The “O-Falls” from northern Bukovina were already settled there in spring 1941 and those from southern Bukovina from autumn 1941 and in spring 1942 in Warthegau and eastern Upper Silesia as farmers or craftsmen. Another part came to the Sudetenland or Styria to settle, and in the summer of 1943 even some to Lorraine and Luxembourg. The previous Polish or Czech owners etc. there were suddenly arrested and transported to their apartments by the security service in the morning hours, thus clearing the settlement site for the German settlers from Buchenland. Most of the resettlers were settled in these settlement areas as farmers on about ten to fifteen hectares of land. Some also as craftsmen such as: blacksmith, wheelwright, shoemaker, butcher, baker, etc. always in these settlement villages of the compatriots of their old home villages. in the summer of 1943 some even went to Lorraine and Luxembourg. The previous Polish or Czech owners etc. there were suddenly arrested and transported to their apartments by the security service in the morning hours, thus clearing the settlement site for the German settlers from Buchenland. Most of the resettlers were settled in these settlement areas as farmers on about ten to fifteen hectares of land. Some also as craftsmen such as: blacksmith, wheelwright, shoemaker, butcher, baker, etc. always in these settlement villages of the compatriots of their old home villages. in the summer of 1943 some even went to Lorraine and Luxembourg. The previous Polish or Czech owners etc. there were suddenly arrested and transported to their apartments by the security service in the morning hours, thus clearing the settlement site for the German settlers from Buchenland. Most of the resettlers were settled in these settlement areas as farmers on about ten to fifteen hectares of land. Some also as craftsmen such as: blacksmith, wheelwright, shoemaker, butcher, baker, etc. always in these settlement villages of the compatriots of their old home villages. were – by the security service – suddenly arrested in their apartments in the morning hours and transported there, thus clearing the settlement site for the German settlers from Buchenland. Most of the resettlers were settled in these settlement areas as farmers on about ten to fifteen hectares of land. Some also as craftsmen such as: blacksmith, wheelwright, shoemaker, butcher, baker, etc. always in these settlement villages of the compatriots of their old home villages. were – by the security service – suddenly arrested in their apartments in the morning hours and transported to them, thereby clearing the settlement site for the German settlers from Buchenland. Most of the resettlers were settled in these settlement areas as farmers on about ten to fifteen hectares of land. Some also as craftsmen such as: blacksmith, wheelwright, shoemaker, butcher, baker, etc. always in these settlement villages of the compatriots of their old home villages.
The resettlers with the approach decision “S” did not come to the state settlement, neither in the old Reich nor in the east. The majority of these resettlers were housed as stateless workers in the Old Reich. Anyone who received the additional letter “G” in addition to their initial decision “S” was deported to the General Government as a stateless worker. Many resettlers received the additional letter “R” or “U” and were intended to be returned to Romania or Hungary, which could not be implemented in all cases because Romania did not want to take these resettlers back. Already in August 1944, the settlers from the southern German beech region from Lorraine and Luxembourg had to flee eastwards after their grain harvest there. As a result, they came to the Palatinate or Saarland as refugees, where they mostly experienced the end of the war and some of them found a new home there afterwards. When the eastern front reached the settlement areas of Warthegau and Upper Silesia in mid-January 1945, everyone fled in panic – mostly with their horse and cart – as fast as they could in the direction of the west so as not to be overtaken by the Russians. Unfortunately, those who could not start this escape in time had to stay there and then endure what came next. Since most of the men of the resettlers were in the Wehrmacht, the women had to organize everything themselves with their children and escape in the winter cold. In some cases, these women also took their Polish workers with them as a coach driver, who thereby ended up in central Germany.
The resettlers from Bukowina, who were settled in the Warthegau or East Upper Silesia, mostly arrived on their horse-drawn carts after about four weeks in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt or Thuringia, where they were quartered there in mid-February 1945 and afterwards experienced the end of the war on May 8, 1945. Others of these refugees also reached Bavaria or Austria and settled there. The refugees from the Sudetenland settlement area still had to do after the end of the war to save their lives from the Czech fighters and most of them ended up in Bavaria. But many of the refugees from the eastern settlement areas were overrun by the rapidly approaching eastern front and their flight came to an end. They were sent back to their settlement areas by the Soviet Army,