[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] German Russians

[Will Genz]

I too have done considerable research on this topic.  In my father's case he was born in Eastern Volhynia in 1905 at which time the area was under the control of the Russian Czar.  He was born of a German family who had maintained their German citizenship at that time and even later under the Stalinist regime. Even so, after serving a total of nine years in Red slave labor camps he was officially and involuntarily declared a Russian citizen by virtue of having been penalized for Christian activism and being German. Even though this happened in the ethnic area of the Ukraine, the Ukraine was not recognized as a separate nation until 1991 when the Soviet empire collapsed so he could not have been a German Ukrainian.  Close to the end of German control he and our family were again officially reconfirmed German by German law. So between 1915 and 1944 one could say that we were German Russians from the point of view by the Stalinist regime but not by the German government. I have reason to believe that many other families have a similar background.
A book entitled "Upon Eagle's Wings" will be published soon that contains much more information on this and related subjects.
Will Grenz.