[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] request: history lesson

[Günther Böhm]

Ken Browne schrieb:
> Perhaps I should know more about this but here's what I'd like to know.
>
>    * In pre_WWII times (dates please?) Hitler's regime confiscated
>      passports (of whom and why?).
>    *  What was the arrangement for "repatriation" and to whom did it
>      apply and when did occur?
>
>
> Based on to letters that I have I can deduce some partial answers, but I 
> would like to be more certain about timelines. More accurate knowledge 
> of the history of these years may help me unravel a mystery in my family 
> tree.
>   

Hello Ken,
formally, the action was based on a Polish decree of Oct. 6, 1938 to set 
all passports of Polish expats void on Oct. 30th, if they had no 
additional audit endorsement. The purpose of this decree was directed 
against the Polish Jews living in Austria which were believed to return 
en masse to Poland after the annexation of the country by Nazi-Germany. 
Most of the affected Polish citizens were turned stateless by this 
directive. In reaction, Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich HIMMLER ordered on 
Oct. 26th, that all Polish subjects had to leave Germany within three 
days. They were arrested and brought to the Polish border where 
provisional camps had been erected in a hurry on Polish territory.

Günther