Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle

Main articles:LebensraumandThe Holocaust

Coordination Center
for Ethnic Germans

Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (VoMi)
Rudolf HessandHeinrich Himmlervisiting an exhibition of proposed rural German settlements within occupied Eastern Europe (March 1941).
Agency overview
Formed	c.1937
Preceding agencies	Volksdeutscher Rat(VR) - (Ethnic German Council) (1933-1935) Büro von Kursell
Dissolved	May 8, 1945
Superseding agency	Reichskommissar für die Festigung deutschen Volkstums(RKFDV)
Jurisdiction	Germany Occupied Europe
Headquarters	Unter den Linden 64,Berlin 52°31′1.03″N13°23′0.28″E
Employees	5,000c.January 1942
Ministers responsible	NSDAPReichsschatzmeisterFranz Xaver Schwarz,(1937–1939) Reichsführer-SSHeinrich Himmler,(1939–1945)
Agency executive	SS-ObergruppenführerWerner Lorenz,Chef für Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle(1937–1945)
Parent agency	NSDAP Allgemeine-SS

InNazi GermanytheVolksdeutsche MittelstelleorVoMi(Coordination Center for Ethnic Germans) was aNazi Partyagency founded to manage the interests of theVolksdeutsche- the population of ethnic Germans living outside theThird Reich.Ultimately coming underAllgemeine-SSadministration, it became responsible for orchestrating the implementation of NaziLebensraum(English:living-space) policies inEastern EuropeduringWorld War II.

Formation

It was founded in 1937 under the command of SS-ObergruppenführerWerner Lorenzas a state office of theNazi Party.Its headquarters were onUnter den Linden,Berlin(this changed to Keithstraße in 1943 due toAllied 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 theReichsgaueof theGerman Reich;these includedWartheland(Posen) andDanzig-West Prussia(Danzig).

RKFDV

Poles being deported during the ethnic cleansing ofGreater Polandafter its immediate annexation byNazi Germanyfollowing theinvasion of 1939.

See also:Polish areas annexed by Nazi GermanyandExpulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany (1939–1944)

On October 7, 1939, two days afterPoland had been overrun,Adolf Hitlerappointed theReichsführer-SSHeinrich Himmlerto the new role ofReich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood(German:Reichskommissariatfür die Festigung deutschen Volkstums- RKFDV). This position authorized the SS to plan, initiate, and control the pace ofGermanization,settlementandpopulation transfer projectsinoccupied Poland,and later, after theinvasion 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 theReich 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 becleared or annihilatedin order to make room for the German settlers. As RKFDV chief, Himmler authorized theSS-Einsatzgruppen(mobile death squads) and other SS police units to round up and killJews,SlavsandRoma.

In June 1942 Himmler put all VoMi personnel under the jurisdiction of theSS Police and Courts.With Hitler's blessing, Himmler now had complete control over VoMi,ethnic Germans outside Imperial Germanypolicy andliving spaceprograms. Although VoMi remained technically an office of theNazi Partyuntil the end of theSecond World War,it was under the control of the SS.

Organization

TheRKFDV-VOMiwas organized into 11 departments (1942):

Amt I: Führungsamt

( "Headquarters" ) This department, unlike other VoMi Amts, contained only SS personnel. It containedSS legal officersand aWaffen-SSunit.

German settlersare shown around their Nazi-appropriated farmhouse inoccupied Polandin November 1939 during action "Heim ins Reich"

Amt II: Organisation und Personal

( "Organization and Personnel" ) This was managed by anSDofficer. It dealt with SS and non-SS personnel within theVolksdeutsche.In the later period of the war, Amt II's importance increased as it was responsible for allocatingVolksdeutscheto the Reich Labor Service.

Amt III: Finanzen, Wirtschaft und Vermögensverwaltung

( "Finances, Economics and Administration" ) It was responsible for financing VoMi projects and distributing funds toVolksdeutsche.It was the only department that remained under complete control of theNazi Stateand not theAllgemeine SS.

Amt IV: Informationen

( "Information" ) This department documented and reported all VoMi activity and resettlement projects. It worked closely withJoseph Goebbels'Ministry of Information.Amt IV also published information journals for theGerman settlers.

Volksdeutschewho had been resettled in theWarthelandby VoMi receive agriculture training in 1940.

Amt V: Deutschtumserziehung

( "Germanness education" ) This provided cultural and educational services to helpVolksdeutscheassimilate toGerman ways.

Amt VI: Sicherung Deutschen Volkstums im Reich

( "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 ofGermany.It also assessed potential candidates for settlement grading them on their ethnicity, politics and skills. However, Amt VI, although tasked with the welfare ofVolksdeutsche,worked closely with theGestapoand theSDof theRSHA.

Amt VII: Sicherung Deutschen Volkstums in den neuen Ostgebieten

( "Office of ethnic Germans in the neweastern areas") It had a similar role as Amt VI but looked after the welfare ofethnic Germansin Eastern Europe, such as inoccupied Poland,CzechoslovakiaandRussia.It had field offices inKraków,RigaandKiev.

Amt VIII: Kultur und Wissenschaft

( "Culture and science" ) This section was engaged in collating and archiving the cultural history of resettledVolksdeutsche.The department also acted as acuratorfor artifacts, treasure and documents belonging to ethnic Germans.

Amt IX: Politische Führung Deutscher Volksgruppen

( "Political office of German ethnic groups" ) TheSSconsidered this to be the most important department within VoMi as it provided the political leadership for ethnic Germans within theThird Reichandoccupied Europe.Amt IX had several sub divisions, these included domestic affairs, relations between ethnic Germans and the Nazi Party, affairs between foreign states and theThird Reichregarding ethnic Germans and liaisons with theNazi Foreign Ministry.

The SS Ethnic Germans Welfare Office inLodz, Poland,occupied Polandin 1940. On September 26, 1942,August Frank,an official of theSS concentration camp administration departmentdirected that allproperty of the Jewsmurdered inAktion Reinhardbe sent to this office.

Amt X: Führung der Wirtschaft in den Deutschen Volksgruppen

( "Office managing the economics of ethnic Germans" ) This office established agriculture, work projects, banking and credit for theVolksdeutsche.During theSecond World Warits main role was the exploitation of theethnic Germansin the interest of theThird Reich.

Amt XI: Umsiedlung

( "Resettlement" ) This department was primarily responsible for handling the massivegermanisationoperation tosettleVolksdeutschethroughout Germany andOccupied Europe.

Role in the Holocaust

A VoMi unit,Sonderkommando R (Russland),institutional successor toEinsatzgruppe Din 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 GermanSelbstschutzmilitia 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-StandartenfuherHorst 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-ObersturmführerStreit
• Lichtenfeld - SS-ObersturmführerFranz Liebl
• Rastatt - SS-HauptsturmführerRudolf 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'sThe Holocaust in Romania: The Destruction of Jews and Gypsies Under the Antonescu Regime, 1940-1944does not cover Sk-R, nor does Valdis O. Lumen's book dedicated to VoMi.

SS-ObergruppenführerAugust Frankwas an official of theSS-Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungshauptamt(SS Main Economic and Administrative Office), which was responsible for the administration of theNazi concentration camps.Frank was responsible for taking the property from Jews murdered inAktion Reinhardin 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 inŁódź,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 inThe Holocaust.

Kommandobuch issued to the members of the SS VoMi serving in Transnistria.

See also

• Rassenpolitisches Amt,NSDAP office founded in 1933 and tasked with creating and formulating the Third Reich's racial policy.
• RuSHA,SS organization that enforcedAryan ideology,oversaw marriage licenses and child-breeding programs.
• Generalplan Ost,thedestructionofSlavic peoplesand thegermanizationofEastern Europe.

References

Notes

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 Universität Oldenburg.