Heim ins Reich
| Back home to the Reich | |
The Third Reich in 1939 (dark grey) after the conquest of Poland; with pockets of German colonists brought into the annexed territories of Poland from the Soviet "sphere of influence". – Nazi propaganda poster superimposed with the red outline of Poland missing entirely from the original print.
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Exhibition "Planung und Aufbau im Osten" with places of origin and numbers of German colonists brought to occupied Poland between 1939 and 1941.
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| Duration | 1938–1944 |
| Location | Territories controlled by Nazi Germany |
| Type | Ethnic cleansing and population transfer |
| Cause | Lebensraum, Generalplan Ost |
| Patron(s) | Adolf Hitler |
The Heim ins Reich (German pronunciation: [ˈhaɪm ɪns ˈʁaɪç]; meaning "back home to the Reich") was a foreign policy pursued by Adolf Hitler during World War II, beginning in 1938. The aim of Hitler's initiative was to convince all Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans) who were living outside of Nazi Germany (e.g. in Austria, and in the western districts of Poland) that they should strive to bring these regions "home" into Greater Germany, but also, relocate from outside German-controlled territories, following the conquest of Poland in accordance with the Nazi-Soviet pact.Heim ins Reich manifesto targeted areas ceded in Versailles to newly reborn Poland, as well as other areas inhabited by significant German populations such as the Sudetenland, Danzig, and the south-eastern with the north-eastern Europe after October 6, 1939.
The policy was managed by VOMI (Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle or "Main Welfare Office for Ethnic Germans"). As a state agency of the NSDAP, it handled all Volksdeutsche issues. By 1941, the VOMI was under the control of the SS.
The end of World War I in Europe led to the emergence of the new ‘minority problems’ in the areas of collapsing German and Austro-Hungarian empires. Over 9 million ethnic Germans found themselves living in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia; as a result of Paris Peace Conference, 1919. Unlike the new sovereign states, Germany was not required to sign the Minority Treaties. Prior to the Anschluss, a powerful radio transmitter in Munich bombarded Austria with propaganda of what Hitler had already done for Germany, and what he could do for his native home country Austria. The annexation of Austria was presented by the press as the march of the German armed forces into purported German land: "as representatives of a general German will to unity, to establish brotherhood with the German people and soldiers there." In a similar manner, the 1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania leading to annexation of Memel from the Republic has been glorified as Hitler's "latest stage in the progress of history."
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Wikipedia