Poles in Lwf

[Brian Bines]

On the Do24 Homepage under 'people' Henri Dannemark states his crew consisted of a German, a Pole, a Frenchman and a Belgium. There are a couple of books including 'The Forgotten Soldier' which seems to explain the situation as prior to 1919 a lot of people in Europe were born as German but had their nationalities changed in the hand over of former German territory following the Treaty of Versailles. After the German Invasion of 1939 their forces retook these areas and many people became German again, some serving in German forces. There are several references in 'K' reports to captured airmen being worried on capture because they were of Polish descent . I suppose these people fell under the change of status category described in 'The Forgotten Soldier'.

[mars]

Yes, that was what I refered in my previous post, most likely they were so called Volksdeutsche, a term that was used by the Nazis to describe "Germans in terms of people or race", regardless of citizenship.

[RolandF]

I confirm Brian´s statement. My grandfather was born Russian, became Lithuanian in 1919 and German in '39. He was drafted in the Wehrmacht and became officer until '45. Douglas Pitcairn of JG 51 was born German, became Lithuanian, too, and served in the German Luftwaffe though being of Scottish descent.

Regards

RolandF

[hangar300]

Generally:
In the Third Reich in the interwar period was a very large Poles living in. They were primarily Poles natives from Silesia, Opole (approx. 700 000) and Warmia, Mazury and Powiśle (approx. 400 000), whose division boundaries after World War I has placed outside reborn homeland. To seek a also emigrants who settled in the depths of Germany for economic reasons before and after World War I (mass emigration lasted until 1932. When the borders of Germany were closed, and after 1937. When they return opened) . In the Ruhr there was also a large Poles living in, partly Germanized descendants of emigrants back to the second half of the nineteenth century, the so-called. "Ruhrpolen". It is assumed estimated that in the interwar period in Germany lived approx. 1.5 million of German citizens - Polish nationality.

website only in Polish: http://www.wehrmacht-polacy.pl/dlaczego_wcielano.html

S. Arczynski history of service in the Luftwaffe: http://www.wehrmacht-polacy.pl/biogram_arczynski.html

Kris

[Larry deZeng]

The S. Arczynski history is interesting but he was not aircrew. He was a photo lab technician developing aerial reconnaissance photos for 5.(H)/Aufkl.Gr. 32, then later a soldier with one of the Lw.-Felddivisionen, ending the war in Kurland.

L.