English Translation

Introduction The tasks of the consolidation of German ethnicity and, above all, the diverse areas of work connected with the relocations comprise in their entirety such a plethora of problems that it is often not easy for the individual worker to overlook from the point of view of daily small work those basic seats and orders which serve as a guide both for the necessary cooperation with the numerous services and organizations involved as for his own temporary and performing work. The present brochure therefore follows the Zwec to provide the individual subject-matter officer with an aid which informs him in summary form of the most essential orders and guidelines given with regard to the "human possession of food" since the existence of the Reichskommissariat for the consolidation of German ethnicity. As shown in the discussion of this brochure, it is not intended to give a summary of all the work in this field. At least at this point in time, this would be all the more obvious as it would then be necessary to respond to the work of a large number of other service providers, who were and are still active in the acquisition of German ethnic groups from abroad within the framework of the human capital controlled by the Reichsführerff. However, from the orders and guidelines included below, the reader will find an approximate picture of the working area of human care, even though it may often only be possible with a certain effort to recognize the closeness to life and the complete novelty of the given task behind the sober wording of decrees. The heavy weight of the work of the Reichskommissar for the consolidation of German ethnicity in the area of human possession in the past months was undoubtedly in the sector of resettlement actions. By November 1940 about 435 000 German people had gone the way of the people's German return to the Reich. Faithful in heart, they followed the call of the Führer and gladly and joyfully accepted all the complaints of a often long and arduous journey — in confidence in the future of the Empire, that now also they will be granted his shot. This faithful trust, which the People's Germans bring with them, is a shaz that cannot be carefully guarded and cared for enough. He commits everyone who is active in the widespread organization of resettlement to prove worthy of this trust by an understanding and care of the returning German people and to do everything possible to facilitate their acclimatization into a new habitat and the establishment of a healthy existence. As necessary such care is, whether during transportation into the Reich, during the temporary stay in the camp or during the course of the settlement itself, the subsidies and aids granted by the Reich must nevertheless have an upper limit, so that the initiative and the self-creating will of the people's German settlers are not paralyzed and thus turned into the opposite by means of relief measures which exceed the necessary and desired efficiency. The returned people's German should not "sit in a made bed, and he does not want it either. He had already taken a hard life in a foreign environment and he is also well aware of the severity of the task of the national politics given to him. B., who has found his new home in Warthegau, knows a song about how much trouble it costs jeşt during the war, the lack of building materials and auxiliary staff poured the half decayed Polish cats and straw huts first to clean and usable dwellings or to make the run-off land and land profitable again. The harder this task comes to him, the more