Mobile Immigration Central Office (EWZ) Trains and Naturalization, 1943-44

They walked in one end as Soviet citizens, proceeded through a few wagons, and emerged out the other end as naturalized citizens of the German Reich.

Below is a newspaper article marking the completion of the registration and naturalization of some 35,000 Mennonite resettlers—plus other Black Sea Germans. By July 1944 all the treks or transports had arrived from the Black Sea region into Greater Germany [most in Warthegau], and almost all were now registered for a more permanent settlement situation in German-annexed Poland—or so they thought.

The translation is important because it offers a clear account of the process of naturalization, application and assessment. While not all Mennonites evacuated from Ukraine 1943-44 were naturalized in one of the visiting mobile Immigration Central Office trains, most were. The article and photos fill a gap in our knowledge of that experience in Nazi Germany and how naturalization was approached and experienced by some 30,000-plus Mennonites.

While previous posts (see Table of Contents) brush on aspects of the application procedure, this newspaper account gives a concrete picture from the era of the steps taken (literally), and the celebrative atmosphere of the occasion. While the article is a general propaganda piece, it calls into question post-war claims that Mennonites were coerced to take on German citizenship (see Table of Contents for related posts).

---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

Source: Ostdeutscher Beobachter 4, no. 190 [July 12, 1944], 3, https://www.wbc.poznan.pl/dlibra/publication/126128/edition/135300/content.

Text:

“... The resettlement of the Russian Germans from the East, which began in September last year as part of the withdrawal of the German front, has essentially been completed. Around 350,000 people were, in the long run, in danger of losing their intrinsic Germanhood due to the alien nature of Bolshevik dictatorship. They have now been saved and are being brought into a new, more meaningful call within the protective borders of the Reich. According to a promise [made in Halbstadt] from the Reichsführer SS and Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of the German Nationality, Heinrich Himmler, after a transitional period—which at the same time serves their acclimatization to the changed living and economic conditions—they will be able to acquire their own farm under the condition that they prove themselves capable of working the land.

Just as the Reichsgau Wartheland offered a new home to the vast majority of the resettlers during the previous resettlements, 220,000 of the 350,000 repatriated Russian Germans will remain in our region after their current job assignment has been completed. Around 120,000 from this latest group of resettlers, insofar as they are intended for the Wartheland, come from Transnistria, the German settlement area between the Dniester, the Ukrainian Bug and the Black Sea with Odessa in the southeastern tip of this area. It is the most fertile German ethnic group, with a birth rate of 45 per 1,000, more than twice the national average. 65,000 come from the closed German settlement areas of southern Russia, whose spatial location is characterized by the place names Halbstadt [=Molotschna], Melitopol, Kronau, Grünau, and Chortitza. The remaining 35,000 had their original home in the settlement area of Eastern Volhynia, which was no longer completely closed in terms of population, with Zhitomir as the eponymous center.

Parallel to the current vocational deployment of the Black Sea Germans [in Warthegau], their naturalization through the so-called "Durchschleusungs-” process, as it became known in previous resettlements, has also been underway for weeks. In addition to recording their personal details and history [demographic information], it also serves to determine the health and biological status of the resettlers, their kinship origins and ethnic background as well as their technical or professional skills, which are decisive for the nature of their future employment.

This “Durchschleusung” process, which culminates in the presentation of the naturalization certificate, is currently carried out in the individual districts by commissions of the Immigration Center [EWZ]. For this purpose, the special train of the Immigration Center [EWZ] is used in the Wartheland, which is equipped with all the necessary facilities for the immigration procedures. During its layover in the various places of operation, several hundred resettlers are processed daily. What could otherwise be much more time-consuming, the resettlers move efficiently from car to car—from registration to naturalization as freshly baked citizens of the Reich. Towards the end of this year we can expect the technical completion of this latest resettlement process, which, with the influx of a new stream of German blood, will broaden the ethnic basis for the Germanization of our Gau by a considerable amount.

Just as the birth of the Wartheland and its development in recent years were subject to wartime measures, these time-related difficulties inevitably had to affect an operation as massive as the resettlement of an entire ethnic group, which arrived overnight, so to speak. Simply by virtue of their existence and future determination, they not only wanted to be welcomed as guests, but they also desired their organic and permanent incorporation into the new community that is being knit together from the most diverse elements of origin.

In view of these unchangeable circumstances, even the spatial accommodation of the resettlers and their provision with the basic necessities of life has not been an easy task; their remaining outer shell had become thread-bare after years of Bolshevik rule, full of privation. Even with the best intentions, the possible is limited by present realities. However there will be no capitulation to the challenges of the present, and even if we are still far from the desirable state of affairs, the cooperation of all the agencies involved has made it possible to create generally acceptable, makeshift conditions—not unlike what millions of people throughout the Reich have had to accept because of the war, and have had to endure in the knowledge of the significance of this sacrifice.”

---

To cite this page: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, "Mobile Immigration Central Office (EWZ) Trains and Naturalization, 1943-44," History of the Russian Mennonites (blog), November 3, 2023, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/11/mobile-immigration-central-office-ewz.html.

Comments

The Jewish Colony (Judenplan) and its Mennonite Agriculturalists

Both Jews and Mennonites in Russia were dependent on separation, distinct external appearance, unique dialect, inner group cohesion, international familial networks, self-governing institutions, a sojourner mentality, sense of divine mission, and a view of the other as unclean or dangerous. Each had its distinct legal privileges, restrictions, and duties under the Tsar, and each looked out for their own. For both, moderation, spiritual values, family, learning and success were important, and their related dialects made communication possible. But the traditional occupation of eastern European Jews was as “middlemen” between the “overwhelmingly agricultural Christian population and various urban markets,” as peddlers, shopkeepers and suppliers of goods ( note 1 ). Jews were forbidden to stay for longer periods in German colonies or to erect houses or shops there. “If they try to stay, they are to be reported immediately. If they are not, the German mayor will be held responsible” ( no...

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 ...

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...

Formidable Fräulein Marga Bräul (1919–2011)

Fräulein Bräul left an indelible mark on two generations of high school students in the Mennonite Colony of Fernheim, Paraguay. Former students and acquaintances recall that Marga Bräul demanded the highest effort and achievements of her students, colleagues and of herself—the kind of teacher you either love or hate but will never forget! In March 1947, Marga was offered a position at the Fernheim Secondary School ( Zentralschule ). A recent refugee to Paraguay from war-torn Europe, she taught mathematics, physics, and chemistry. In 1952, she was the only female faculty member ( note 1 ). Marga wedded a strong commitment to academics with a passion for quality arts and crafts. She provided extensive extra-curricular instruction to students in handiwork and was especially renowned for her artwork—which included painting and woodworking— end of year art exhibits with students, theatre sets, and festival decorations. Marga’s pedagogical philosophy was holistic; she told Mennonite ed...

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 ...

Russia: A Refuge for all True Christians Living in the Last Days

If only it were so. It was not only a fringe group of Russian Mennonites who believed that they were living the Last Days. This view was widely shared--though rejected by the minority conservative Kleine Gemeinde. In 1820 upon the recommendation of Rudnerweide (Frisian) Elder Franz Görz, the progressive and influential Mennonite leader Johann Cornies asked the Mennonite Tobias Voth (b. 1791) of Graudenz, Prussia to come and lead his Agricultural Association’s private high school in Ohrloff, in the Russian Mennonite colony of Molotschna. Voth understood this as nothing less than a divine call upon his life ( note 1; pic 3 ). In Ohrloff Voth grew not only a secondary school, but also a community lending library, book clubs, as well as mission prayer meetings, and Bible study evenings. Voth was the son of a Mennonite minister and his wife was raised Lutheran ( note 2 ). For some years, Voth had been strongly influenced by the warm, Pietist devotional fiction writings of Johann Heinrich Ju...

"They are useful to the state." An almost forgotten Prussian view of Mennonites, ca. 1780s-90s

In 1787 Mennonite interest for emigration was extremely strong outside the quasi independent City of Danzig in the Prussian annexed Marienwerder and Elbing regions. Even before the land scouts Johann Bartsch and Jacob Höppner had returned from Russia later that year, so many Mennonite exit applications had flooded offices that officials wrote Berlin in August 1787 for direction ( note 1a ). Initially officials did not see a problem: because Mennonites do not provide soldiers, the cantons lose nothing by their departure, and in fact benefit from the ten-percent tax imposed on financial assets leaving the state. Ludwig von Baczko (1756-1823), Professor of History at the Artillery Academy in Königsberg, East Prussia, was the general editor of a series that included a travelogue through Prussia written by a certain Karl Ephraim Nanke. Nanke had no special love for Mennonites, but was generally balanced in his judgements and based his now almost forgotten account of Mennonites on perso...

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...

Non-Resistant Service: Forestry Camps

The 1902 photos are of the Mennonite Crimean Forestry ( Forstei ) “Commando” in the vineyards and orchards of southern Crimea on route to Yalta (" Gut [estate] Forroß"; note 1). The tasks for the units or commandos were to plant forests, lay out nurseries, and raise model orchards—work not directly or meaningfully connected to non-resistance, but deemed by the state as an acceptable alternative to state or military service. This non-combatant, alternative service program was the largest, most expensive and most formative, faith-based undertaking by Mennonites during the Mennonite "golden era" in Russia ( note 2 ). The first cohort of young men were chosen and sent for their term of alternative service in 1880: “On November 15 [1880] in Tokmak the first German youth were chosen [by lot] in the presence of the [Mennonite] district mayor and also of Elder A. Goerz. There, with singing and prayer, they beseeched the Lord for His mercy, which interested the Russian ...

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 ...

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog