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rue-a / hofzuweisungslisten

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13789643
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Hofzuweisungslisten

This repository is used to manage the dataset Hofzuweisungslisten.csv. It documents resettlement campaigns of Volhynian, Galician, and Narew Germans (stemming from regions in today's western Ukraine, western Belarus, and southern and eastern Poland) into former Polish territories, during 1939 and 1940.

The dataset was derived from around 750 scanned pages containing mostly tabular data (see Preprocessing folder for more information). The orignial scans were downloaded from the state archive Łódź.

[!IMPORTANT]

This dataset is not exhaustive. The 750 source pages do not cover all resettlements. For example, according to Stephan Döring (Die Umsiedlung der Wolhyniendeutschen in den Jahren 1939 bis 1940, Stephan Döring, 2001, p. 341) there were about 66,000 resettlements from Volhynia, while this dataset documents only about 20,000 of them. In addition, only 8 resettlements from the Narew region are documented.

dataset map

Historical Context

In 1939/1940, the propaganda slogan Heim ins Reich (en: back home to the Reich) called upon numerous German-speaking population groups from Eastern and South-Eastern Europe to resettle in areas within the borders of the German Reich. However, the majority of these settlers were not granted land in the heartland but in the annexed territories. This “Germanization” of the east focused on formerly Polish territories, such as the Reichsgauen Wartheland (“Warthegau”) and Danzig-West Prussia. However, before the settlers were granted any land, they were placed in camps and underwent racial profiling, which (in essence) ascertained their degree of “Germaness”. If deemed insufficient, “inferior” settlers were deployed as cheap workforce in the heartland (Stephan Döring: Umsiedlung der Wolhyniendeutschen in den Jahren 1939 bis 1940). Conversly, the settlement of “racially acceptable” returnees was meticulously planned—often there were only a few hours between the expulsion of the former Polish owners from their farms and the arrival of the German settlers. Most of the expelled Poles were deported into the Generalgouvernement.

The resettlement campaigns were administered by the “Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle” (Vomi). Coordination and documentation was realized through so-called “Hofzuweisungslisten” (en: farm allocation lists). These were preprinted tabular forms, including the date of settlement, the settlement village, the names and family size of the settlers as well as those of the expelled former inhabitants, the settlers' place of origin and the camp in which the settlers lived. The columns of preprints were filled using typewriters some days ahead of the relocation of a family from the camp to their new homestead.

Dataset Description

The dataset comprises 4838 records with 21 fields and is provided as CSV (Comma-Separated-Values). Empty fields denote that no information was present in the original document. The field names correspond as far as possible to the field names in the original documents: spaces were replaced with underscore, stacked or otherwise combined columns were resolved into separate columns. Fields that were added by the editors are marked with an asterisk (*).

[!IMPORTANT] Despite extensive curation efforts, the dataset is not free from erroneous data. Please see Issues. You are invited to contribute.

Field Name Data Type Description
*id String ID of the record. ID = --. Both sheet number and row number begin with 0. The row number is not equal to the value in the field Lfd.Nr.
Datum_Liste Date Date when the list was created or documented.
Datum_Ansiedlung Date Date of resettlement event.
Ansiedlungsdorf String Name of the settlement village.
Gemeinde String Name of the community or municipality.
Kreis String Name of the district or region.
Lfd.Nr. Integer Sequential or running number for a certain resettlement event.
Heimatort String Place of origin or hometown of the German settlers.
Lager_lt_Vomi String Name of the camp according to Vomi (see below).
Lager_lt_AK-K String Name of the camp according to AK-K (see below).
Name String Last name of the family head of the German settlers.
Vorname String First name of the family head of the German settlers.
Umsiedlungsnummer String Resettlement number assigned to the individual or family (Germans). The number holds coded information about the settlers origin (see below).
Vomi-Kenn-Nummer String Vomi identification number.
Kopfzahl_der_Familie Integer Number of family members (German Settlers).
Hofnummer String Farm or homestead identification number.
Ehemalige_Besitzer String Previous owner(s) of the property.
Kopfzahl_ehemalige_Besitzer Integer Number of individuals in the previous owner's family.
Bemerkung String Additional remarks or comments regarding the record.
*notes_from_editors String Notes or annotations provided by the editors of the record.
*image_filename String Filename of the scan of the original document.

The Meaning of the Column Umsiedlungsnummer

In "Die Umsiedlung der Wolhyniendeutschen in den Jahren 1939 bis 1940" (Stephan Döring, 2001, en: Resettlement of the Wolhynian Germans in the years from 1939 to 1940), p. 88 f, p. 105, the meaning of the Umsiedlungsnummer and the resettlement process in general are explained:

Before the resettlement took place, each household/family that qualified to settle in the former West-Polish territories (namely Warthegau) was registered. The registration was organized by subdividing the territory in 50 areas (within 7 districts, within 3 regions). Each person that was willing and qualified for resettlement was registered and given a metal plate with their resettlement id (Umsiedlungsnummer), e.g. Ga I 3/16/4/24, stamped in. If we define an according scheme, a b c/d/e/f, then:

Application for this dataset

The scheme described by Döring does not exactly match the data present in the field Umsiedlungsnummer. This is mostly due to inconsistent separators across the dataset (the scheme in this dataset would be a b/c( ,.-=/)d/e/f, see Issue 9 for a Python snippet to normalize the separators). Also in this dataset B (for Blisk) does not appear, instead there are two occurrences of Bi I. Finally, sometimes the field is empty or contains information why data is missing, e.g., the string Vorumsiedler is a rather common entry.

Course of Resettlement and the Meaning of the Columns Lager_lt_Vomi and Lager_lt_AK-K

Vomi – Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle
AK-K – AK-Karte, Arbeitskarteikarte

The settlers left their homes by train (women, old people and children) or by covered wagon (men and older boys). Once they reached German territory, they were placed in camps to organise their resettlement. The first camps were set up by the Vomi in and around Lodz. As there was not enough space most of the settlers were only deloused, (initially) registered by the EWZ (Einwandererzentralstelle, Immigration Central Office), and then transferred to observation camps (Beobachtungslager) in the German heartland (Altreich), where they remained for a longer period. During this initial phase of the resettlement many families were separated.

Before a decision on the resettlement could be made, the settlers had to undergo a full registration by the EWZ. This entailed a racial profiling (Durchschleusung), which was kept secret from the settlers, but was crucial in determining whether or not they would be granted land. The results of this procedure were recorded on the AK-Ks of the EWZ.

Once the settlers had been allocated a new farm, they were moved to (Sammellager) on the eastern border of the Altreich, where the EWZ carried out any outstanding full registrations and reunited separated families. Finally, they were transferred to preparation camps (Bereitstellungslager), from where they were taken to their new homes.

Compiling this information, we think that the column Lager_lt_Vomi denotes the settler's initial camp at Lodz, and Lager_lt_AK-K the camp where the full registration by the EWZ, i.e. the racial profiling, was conducted.

(Die Umsiedlung der Wolhyniendeutschen in den Jahren 1939 bis 1940, Stephan Döring, 2001, p. 335 ff.)

Related Data

European level overview of migration processes from 1939 to 1943

Historical administrative units of Galicia 1857–1910

Historical National Boundaries

Maps of German Settlements in Galicia

Maps of German Settlements in Volhynia

Other