[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Volhynian Village Adventure Tours

[Kenneth Browne]

On 04/03/2016 05:29 PM, DLPratt123 at aol.com wrote:
> One of the highlights of each village was our
> search  for a person (usually a woman) old enough to remember Volhynia in the
> 1930s,  before the last Germans had to leave.
The message that included this little tidbit ended up in my Gmail spam 
folder :-( which I check using the webmail version of GMail whenever 
the number of SPAM messages is worth sorting. I mention this because 
it references a problem for which I've been unable to find an 
explanation. In
researching my German grandfather's family I've learned about the 
Lachmann's including great grandfather Samuel Lachmann who was born in
Rozhysche in 1865. He emigrated and settled in Chicago where my 
grandfather was born. After my parent's death I came across some letters
between my mother and her first cousin, also named Samuel Lachmann.

Eventually our email discussions led to him sending me two letters 
that his namesake had received in the 1930's. Letter #1 was written in 
Yiddish
which came as a distinct surprise as my understanding of my Lachmann 
ancestors is that they were Lutherans. Letter #2 does not exist but there
is a reference to 'TWO previous letters in Letter #3 which is written 
in English. Here's a direct quote of the pertinent portion. The letter 
was
from an address in Berlin and dated 1937.

"Back to Poland, I can not go because I am without passport."

By the time this 1937 letter was written I wonder:

a.) was the family still in Europe at the time living in what was 
Volhynia when my great grandfather emigrated? (1891)
b.) Was that same locale now part of Poland in the 1930's?
c.) When and under what arrangement were ethnic Germans forced to leave?
d.) Would this "edict?" have been enforced on Lutheran Germans? Jewish 
Germans? etc.

Ken