Skip to main content

Danzig-West Prussian Mennonites as Nazi Party “Local Group Leaders,” 1941

Danzig-West Prussian Mennonites generously embraced and cared for the religious and political challenges faced by Mennonites on the “trek” out of Ukraine (1943-44). A year later the Prussians would also flee the advancing Soviet armies, losing all. Memoirs capture that trauma—including multiple family suicides with weapon or poison (note 1). After the war many settled in Uruguay and later in Canada as well. Siegfried Bartel—a Mennonite Prussian military captain—became an evangelist for non-resistance in his later years (note 2). 

More recently historian Colin Neufeldt has explored his mother’s family story in an essay on “Mennonite collaboration with Nazism.” His “Ratzlaff family” was from the Mennonite community of Deutsch-Wymyschle (annexed Poland). Writing was difficult “especially when your family is on the wrong side of history and actively collaborated with the Nazis,” Neufeldt confessed (note 3). These Mennonites in Poland were among the first to be “liberated” by the German Reich.

A church directory of German Mennonites including Danzig-West Prussians was published in 1936 (note 4). Prussian enthusiasm for National Socialism was especially strong. An “overwhelming majority of elders and ministers in West Prussia and Danzig” are “members of the [Nazi] Party,” Russian Mennonite leader Benjamin Unruh boasted to officials in 1938, and “as Party members they wear the swastika on their chest with pride and joy,” according to denominational chair and lead minister in Elbing, Emil Händiges (note 5). These church leaders oriented co-religionists coming from Ukraine into the strange new world of Nazi Germany, instructed them in faith, and baptized them.

Recently I found a list of Danzig-West Prussian Nazi Party “Local Group Leaders” and compared it with the church directory (note 6). To my surprise the former is full of active, baptized Mennonites.

NSDAP (Nazi) Party leadership at the local level was in the hands of these “Local Group Leaders.” Cell and Block Nazi Party Wardens reported to their respective Local Group Leader. The local ideological training leader, the propaganda leader, the press leader, agricultural leaders, and the heads of the local chapters of Party women's organizations, Hitler Youth and League of German Girls, local Party members, etc. also reported to the Local Group Leader (see attached organizational chart). The Local Group Leader was obligated to monitor the ideological formation and orientation of all “leaders” within his area, with the responsibility to carry out Party priorities, the right of surveillance, the right to forbid or approve measures, meetings or activities, etc., according to the best interests of the Party, and charged to unite those under him into a cohesive corps (note 7).

In each of these roles the "political" and local administrative typically were fused into one person. Under the Group Leader, Party "Block Wardens" would, for example, encourage every household to subscribe to the Party’s monthly educational paper for political and ideological training, with topics, e.g., on genetics and keeping German blood pure, on Jews as scapegoats for Germany’s loss in World War, the importance of racial division and hierarchy, and on most subjects of the Party’s platform—and report back to the Group Leader (note 8).

Nazi Party “Local Group Leaders” in Danzig-West Prussia in 1941 who were baptized members of Mennonite congregations included:

  • Cornelius Dyck (Ladekopp; Heubuden Mennonite)
  • Gustav Fieguth (Simonsdorf; member of Heubuden Mennonite)
  • Albert Neufeldt (Rückenau; member of Heubuden Mennonite)
  • Hermann Neufeld (Groß Mausdorf; member of Heubuden Mennonite)
  • Gustav Sprunk (Wotzlaff; member of Heubuden Mennonite)
  • Walter Willms (Mühlbanz; member of Heubuden Mennonite)
  • Johannes Warkentin (Altmünsterberg; member of Tiegenhagen Mennonite)
  • Helmuth Klaassen (Tiegenort; Tiegenhagen Mennonite; baptism not confirmed)
  • Cornelius Dyck (Tiegenhagen; Member of Ladekopp Mennonite)
  • Ulrich Goertz (Falkenau; member of Tragheimerweide Mennonite)
  • Georg Unrau (Bonhöf; member of Tragheimerweide Mennonite)
  • Rudolf Janzen (Schwansdorf; member of Thiensdorf-Pr. Rosengart Mennonite)
  • Horst Ewert (Linde; member of Schönsee Mennonite)
  • Hans von Riesen (Neumünsterberg; member of Fürstenwerder Mennonite)
  • Georg Kerber (Montau; member of Montau-Gruppe Mennonite)
  • Heinrich Kopper (Dragaß; member of Montau-Gruppe Mennonite)
  • Albert Schroeder (Ligowo; member of Montau-Gruppe Mennonite)
  • Emil Wiebe (Münsterwalde; member of Danzig Mennonite)
  • Johannes Wiens (Altfelde; unable to confirm which Johannes Wiens)
  • Johannes Wiens (Jankendorf; unable to confirm which Johannes Wiens)


Other typical Mennonite names on the 1941 list of Danzig-West Prussian Nazi Party “Local Group Leaders” and who were also located in historic Mennonite communities include:

  • Gustav Bachman (Pelplin)
  • Günther Boese (Wandau)
  • Walter Dau, (Hohenstein)
  • Heinrich Dück (Dobrin)
  • Otto Funk (Kurzeback (Mewischfelde)
  • Emil Lemke (Reinland; Fürstenwerder)
  • Otto Lemke (Schöneberg)
  • Willi Peters (Lipno, Czernikowo)
  • Franz Reimer (Neukirch; Elbing)
  • Hans Reimer (Graudenz)
  • Erich Siebert (Markushof)
  • Heinrich Töws (Schöneich, Kulm)
  • Friedrich Unruh (Danzig)
  • Fritz Wiebe (Lipno)
  • Werner Wiens (Rosenort).

I have not been able to confirm the families and congregations of the individuals in the second list.

Background: After 1933, elected German state or provincial bodies were effectively replaced by 36 Nazi Party regional administrative districts--or the Gau system. Each Gau was led by a high-ranking Party official with near autocratic power, responsible to Hitler directly.

With the invasion of Poland and the Free City of Danzig in September 1939 two new Gaue (plural) were added to the Reich: Wartheland (or Warthegau) and Danzig-West Prussia (eventually a total of 43 Gaue). The Gau Deputy Leader for Danzig-West Prussia until 1939 was Otto Andres, member of the Tiegenhagen Mennonite Church and also Party District Leader (i.e., very powerful).

Each Gau was subdivided into districts (Kreise), each with a ranking Party member as District Leader (Kreisleiter), responsible to carry out the instructions of the Gau Leader. Danzig-West Prussia had 31 Party districts. Walter Neufeldt was Leader for the Marienburg Party District, and in 1941 District Leader for the Großes Werder as well. He was a member of the Heubuden Mennonite congregation. In his first speech in Danzig in 1939, Hitler asked Neufeldt about the Mennonites and was tasked to put together a briefing (note 9).

Under each District Leader were Local Group Leaders (Ortsgruppenleiter; 503 in the Gau in total) and below them, 2,938 Party “cells,” broken down further into “blocks,” each with their own Leader (see diagram).

Danzig-West Prussian Mennonites were involved at each level of Nazi Party leadership. Colin Neufeldt has given an example for Mennonite historians and families on how to explore this difficult chapter. Mennonite memoirs of the “trek” out of Ukraine in 1943-44 and the embrace by Prussian Mennonites are typically silent about the political entanglements of their co-religionists as well. I expect that materials like those above from Polish archives will continue to become more accessible in the years ahead. Greater scrutiny and honesty in telling this period of Mennonite history is overdue.

            --Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: As reported by Mennonite and former Party “Local Group Leader,” Gustav Fieguth: https://archive.org/details/ErichKernVerbrechenAmDeutschenVolkEineDokumentationAlliierterGrausamkeiten/page/n115/mode/2up?q=tiegenhof.

Note 2: Siegfried Bartel, Living with Conviction: German Army Captain Turns to Cultivating Peace (Winnipeg, MB: CMBC Publications, 1994), https://www.cmu.ca/docs/cmupress/CMU-BARTEL-Living-with-Conviction.pdf.

Note 3: Colin Neufeldt, “Mennonite collaboration with Nazism: A Case Study,” in European Mennonites and the Holocaust, edited by Mark Jantzen and John D. Thiesen, 172–201 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020), 192. See also idem and W. Marchlewski, "Divided loyalties: The political radicalization of Wymyśle Niemieckie Mennonites in interwar Poland (1918-1939)," Rocznik Teologiczny 64, no. 1 (2022), 175-229, http://rocznikteologiczny.eu/app/uploads/2022/05/rt_2022_06.pdf.

Note 4: See Christian Neff, ed., Mennonitisches Adreßbuch (Weierhof, 1936), https://mla.bethelks.edu/holdings/scans/Mennonitisches%20Adressbuch/; also individual 1935 congregational lists: https://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/prussia/.

Note 5: “Bericht über die Verhandlung im Braunen Haus in München betreffend die Regelung der Eidesfrage,” recorded by Gustav Reimer [deacon, Heubuden], July 4, 1938, 3; also Emil Händiges to Vereinigung Executive, June 23, 1938; in Vereinigung Collection, File Folder 1938, Mennonitische Forschungsstelle Weierhof.

Note 6: “Neues Anschriftenverzeichnis der Kreise und Ortsgruppen der NSDAP, Gau Danzig-Westpreußen,” Verordnungsblatt der NSDAP Gau Danzig-Westpreußen 5, no. 6 (June 1941), 8-37, https://pbc.gda.pl/dlibra/publication/117319/edition/104759/content.

Note 7: For the tasks of the Nazi Party’s Group, Cell, and Block Leaders, see: “Menschenführung und -betreuung in der Ortsgruppe der NSDAP,” Schulungsbrief 8 & 9 (1938), 319-325, https://archive.org/details/nsdap-schulungsbrief-1938-08-09/page/n52/mode/1up (includes organizational pics as well). See also related Wikipedia entry: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struktur_der_NSDAP#Ortsgruppenleiter.

Note 8: See the various of issues of the Party’s Schulungsbrief, https://archive.org/search?query=schulungsbrief&sort=-date.

Note 9: Diether Götz Lichdi, Mennoniten im Dritten Reich. Dokumentation und Deutung (Weierhof/Pfalz: Mennonitischer Geschichtsverein, 1977), 180 n.62, https://archive.org/details/mennonitenimdrit0000lich/.

---

To cite this page: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, “Danzig-West Prussian Mennonites as Nazi Party ‘Local Group Leaders,’ 1941,” History of the Russian Mennonites (blog), May 9, 2023, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/05/danzig-west-prussian-mennonites-as-nazi.html. 

Print Friendly and PDF

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

1929 Flight of Mennonites to Moscow and Reception in Germany

At the core of the attached video are some thirty photos of Mennonite refugees arriving from Moscow in 1929 which are new archival finds. While some 13,000 had gathered in outskirts of Moscow, with many more attempting the same journey, the Soviet Union only released 3,885 Mennonite "German farmers," together with 1,260 Lutherans, 468 Catholics, 51 Baptists, and 7 Adventists. Some of new photographs are from the first group of 323 refugees who left Moscow on October 29, arriving in Kiel on November 3, 1929. A second group of photos are from the so-called “Swinemünde group,” which left Moscow only a day later. This group however could not be accommodated in the first transport and departed from a different station on October 31. They were however held up in Leningrad for one month as intense diplomatic negotiations between the Soviet Union, Germany and also Canada took place. This second group arrived at the Prussian sea port of Swinemünde on December 2. In the next ten ...
1 comment
Read more

Ukraine Independence--Russian Aggression--German Interests (1918)

The semi-autonomous Ukrainian People's Republic was established shortly after Russia's February Revolution in 1917. Much was still fluid, however. After the October Bolshevik Revolution the Central Rada of Ukraine in Kyiv declared full state independence from the Russian Republic on January 22, 1918. The Ukrainian People's Republic negotiated an end to its participation in Great War, and on February 9, 1918 signed a protectorate treaty in Brest-Litovsk. On February 17, Ukraine appealed to Germany and Austria-Hungary for assistance to repel Russian Bolshevik “invaders,” to detach Ukraine from Russia, and to establish conditions of stability. The World War had not yet ended. Imperialist Germany was desperate for grain and natural resources from Ukraine, eager to end the war in the east while containing Russia, and determined to establish post-war markets for German goods, technologies and influence ( note 1 ). For its part the Russian Bolshevik regime was eager to save ...
Post a Comment
Read more

“The way is finally open”—Russian Mennonite Immigration, 1922-23

In a highly secretive meeting in Ohrloff, Molotschna on February 7, 1922, leaders took a decision to work to remove the entire Mennonite population of some 100,000 people out of the USSR—if at all possible ( note 1 ). B.B. Janz (Ohrloff) and Bishop David Toews (Rosthern, SK) are remembered as the immigration leaders who made it possible to bring some 20,000 Mennonites from the Soviet Union to Canada in the 1920s ( note 2 ). But behind those final numbers were multiple problems. In August 1922, an appeal was made by leaders to churches in Canada and the USA: “The way is finally open, for at least 3,000 persons who have received permission to leave Russia … Two ships of the Canadian Pacific Railway are ready to sail from England to Odessa as soon as the cholera quarantine is lifted. These Russian [Mennonite] refugees are practically without clothing … .” ( Note 3 ) Notably at this point B. B. Janz was also writing Toews, saying that he was utterly exhausted and was preparing to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Outrage in Canada: Ukrainian in Waffen-SS honoured in Parliament. Mennonite Connections

As an historic peace church, Russian Mennonite congregations in Canada never celebrated “their veterans” who had volunteered with the Waffen-SS or Wehrmacht in complex times; hundreds did however volunteer to protect and defend their corner of Ukraine from a new era of Moscow-based Bolshevism. Some later self-identified as "The Lost Generation." German Prussian Mennonites in contrast understood that heritage differently and celebrated the “Heroes' Day Memorial” service anually until 1945. After 1945 Germany appropriately renamed their remembrance day as Volkstrauertag —the People’s Day of Mourning ( note 1 ). Many descendents live in Canada. A parallel Ukrainian story made the news in Canada in September 2023. The Speaker of the House of Commons invited a 98-year-old Ukrainian-Canadian war veteran to a joint session of Parliament for the visit and address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on September 22.  Without good vetting by the Speaker, the guest was laud...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is the Church to Say? Letter 4 (of 4) to American Mennonite Friends

Irony is used in this post to provoke and invite critical thought; the historical research on the Mennonite experience is accurate and carefully considered. ~ANF Preparing for your next AGM: Mennonite Congregations and Deportations Many U.S. Mennonite pastors voted for Donald Trump, whose signature promise was an immediate start to “the largest deportation operation in American history.” Confirmed this week, President Trump will declare a national emergency and deploy military assets to carry this out. The timing is ideal; in January many Mennonite congregations have their Annual General Meeting (AGM) with opportunity to review and update the bylaws of their constitution. Need help? We have related examples from our tradition, which I offer as a template, together with a few red flags. First, your congregational by-laws.  It is unlikely you have undocumented immigrants in your congregation, but you should flag this. Model: Gustav Reimer, a deacon and notary public from the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Shaky Beginings as a Faith Community

With basic physical needs addressed, in 1805 Chortitza pioneers were ready to recover their religious roots and to pass on a faith identity. They requested a copy of Menno Simons’ writings from the Danzig mother-church especially for the young adults, “who know only what they hear,” and because “occasionally we are asked about the founder whose name our religion bears” ( note 1 ). The Anabaptist identity of this generation—despite the strong Mennonite publications in Prussia in the late eighteenth century—was uninformed and very thin. Settlers first arrived in Russia 1788-89 without ministers or elders. Settlers had to be content with sharing Bible reflections in Low German dialect or a “service that consisted of singing one song and a sermon that was read from a book of sermons” written by the recently deceased East Prussian Mennonite elder Isaac Kroeker ( note 2 ). In the first months of settlement, Chortitza Mennonites wrote church leaders in Prussia:  “We cordially plead ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mennonite-Designed Mosque on the Molotschna

The “Peter J. Braun Archive" is a mammoth 78 reel microfilm collection of Russian Mennonite materials from 1803 to 1920 -- and largely still untapped by researchers ( note 1 ). In the files of Philipp Wiebe, son-in-law and heir to Johann Cornies, is a blueprint for a mosque ( pic ) as well as another file entitled “Akkerman Mosque Construction Accounts, 1850-1859” ( note 2 ). The Molotschna Mennonites were settlers on traditional Nogai lands; their Nogai neighbours were a nomadic, Muslim Tartar group. In 1825, Cornies wrote a significant anthropological report on the Nogai at the request of the Guardianship Committee, based largely on his engagements with these neighbours on Molotschna’s southern border ( note 3 ). Building upon these experiences and relationships, in 1835 Cornies founded the Nogai agricultural colony “Akkerman” outside the southern border of the Molotschna Colony. Akkerman was a projection of Cornies’ ideal Mennonite village outlined in exacting detail, with un...
Post a Comment
Read more

Catherine the Great’s 1763 Manifesto

“We must swarm our vast wastelands with people. I do not think that in order to achieve this it would be useful to compel our non-Christians to accept our faith--polygamy for example, is even more useful for the multiplication of the population. … "Russia does not have enough inhabitants, …but still possesses a large expanse of land, which is neither inhabited nor cultivated. … The fields that could nourish the whole nation, barely feeds one family..." – Catherine II (Note 1 ) “We perceive, among other things, that a considerable number of regions are still uncultivated which could easily and advantageously be made available for productive use of population and settlement. Most of the lands hold hidden in their depth an inexhaustible wealth of all kinds of precious ores and metals, and because they are well provided with forests, rivers and lakes, and located close to the sea for purpose of trade, they are also most convenient for the development and growth of many kinds ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A-Cases and O-Cases. After the Trek, 1944

Some 35,000 Mennonites evacuated from Ukraine by the retreating Reich German military in 1943-44 applied for naturalization /citizenship once in German-annexed Poland (mostly Warthegau). The applications made through the “EWZ” ( Einwandererzentralstelle ) are easy to attain today ( note 1 ). Much information may be new and useful for families; however just as much is disturbing, including the racial assessments, categorization, and separation of so-called “A-cases” from “O-cases.” What are they?  The EWZ files contain the application for naturalization made by the head of a family unit, the certificate of naturalization, and sometimes correspondence/ claims regarding property and possessions left behind in Ukraine. Each form contains information about the applicant’s spouse and children, as well as a genealogy listing parents and grandparents, and those of their spouse as well; racial background is calculated by percentage (!). Applicants were asked about their citizenship, their e...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fraktur (or Gothic) font and Kurrent- (or Sütterlin) handwriting: Nazi ban, 1941

In the middle of the war on January 1, 1942, the Winnipeg-based Mennonitische Rundschau published a new issue without the familiar Fraktur script masthead ( note 1 ). One might speculate on the reasons, but a year earlier Hitler banned the use of the font in the Reich . The Rundschau did not exactly follow all orders from Berlin—the rest of the paper was in Fraktur (sometimes referred to as "Gothic"); when the war ended in 1945, the Rundschau reintroduced the Fraktur font for its masthead. It wasn’t until the 1960s that an issue might have a page or title here or there with the “normal” or Latin font, even though post-war Germany was no longer using Fraktur . By 1973 only the Rundschau masthead is left in Fraktur , and that is only removed in December 1992. Attached is a copy of Nazi Party Secretary Martin Bormann's official letter dated January 3, 1941, which prohibited the use of Fraktur fonts "by order of the Führer. " Why? It was a Jewish invention, apparent...
1 comment
Read more