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Heim ins Reich

The Heim ins Reich (German pronunciation: [ˈhaɪm ʔɪns ˈʁaɪç] ⓘ; meaning "back home to the Reich") was a foreign policy pursued by Adolf Hitler before and during World War II, beginning in 1938. The aim of Hitler's initiative was to convince all Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans) who were living outside Nazi Germany (e.g. in Austria, Czechoslovakia and the western districts of Poland) that they should strive to bring these regions "home" into Greater Germany, but also relocate from territories that were not under German control, following the conquest of Poland, in accordance with the Nazi–Soviet pact.[2] The Heim ins Reich manifesto targeted areas ceded in Versailles to the newly reborn state of Poland, various lands of immigration, as well as other areas that were inhabited by significant ethnic German populations, such as the Sudetenland, Danzig (now Gdansk), and the southeastern and northeastern regions of Europe after 6 October 1939.

1938–1944

Territories controlled by Nazi Germany

Ethnic cleansing and population transfer

Lebensraum, Generalplan Ost

Adolf Hitler

Implementation of 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.[3]

Grams, Grant W.(2021). Return Migration of German Nationals from the United States and Canada, 1933–1941, Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland Publications.

Koehl, R. L. (1957). : German Resettlement and Population Policy 1939–1945. Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

RKFDV

Komjathy, Anthony and Stockwell, Rebecca (1980). German Minorities and the Third Reich: Ethnic Germans of East Central Europe between the Wars London: Holmes & Meier  9780841905405

ISBN

Lumans, Valdis O. (1993). Himmler's Auxiliaries: The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the German National Minorities of Europe, 1933-1945. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press  9780807820667

ISBN

Obermair, Hannes (2020). "Großdeutschland ruft!" Südtiroler NS-Optionspropaganda und völkische Sozialisation – "La Grande Germania chiamaǃ" La propaganda nazionalsocialista sulle Opzioni in Alto Adige e la socializzazione 'völkisch' (in German and Italian). : South Tyrolean Museum of History. ISBN 978-88-95523-35-4.

Tyrol Castle

Notes


Further reading Coming Home to the Third Reich

Media related to Resettlement of Volksdeutsche at Wikimedia Commons