Polish Germans in the Stutthof Concentration Camp

Prewar Polish Citizens of German Origin from the Former Pomeranian Voivodeship Incarcerated in KL Stutthof in 1942–1945 due to Disloyalty to the Authorities of the German Reich

Abstract

The paper explores the fates of ethnic Germans who were Polish citizens from the Pomeranian Voivodeship prior to the Second World War and who were incarcerated in KL Stutthof due to their pro-Polish and anti-German attitudes. They represented a small percentage of the group of camp inmates described as Volksdeutsche. These were people who were entered in the second category of the German People’s List (Deutsche Volksliste, DVL). It has been determined that members of the group of Volksdeutsche under consideration were sent to KL Stutthof for the following reasons: on suspicion of involvement in the resistance or providing help to partisan units, as well as having knowledge about such activities and failing to report it to the German police, obtaining entry in the second category of the DVL by means of deception and slandering German police forces. Attention is drawn to the possible correlation between the pro-Polish attitudes of inmates from the second category of the DVL and the intensity of their sense of Germanness, as well as their religion. The need for in-depth research on the national identity of both the prewar German minority and the people entered in the DVL during the war has been emphasized. In order to facilitate understanding, the situation and attitudes of the German minority both before and after 1 September 1939 were analyzed in addition to the German People’s List in Pomerania and the KL Stutthof camp as a site of repression against Germans.