Evening star., 1939-10-11
Germans Repatriation

Germans Repatriation
Germany has undertaken the re-
patriation from three Baltic states
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania-of
more than 1000 900 persons of German
blood and is reported to be negotiat-
ing with three Balkan countries
Rumania, Yugoslavia and Hungary
for the transfer to the Reich of some
100000 more who inhabit those
countries. The possibility of an ex-
change of Czechs and Slovaks for
Germans who still live in the Soviet
Union also has been raised.
These returning Germans, it is in
dicated would be used to settle the
conquered lands of Poland and
Czecho- -Slovakia, Transforming them
into ethnically German territories.
Behind this mass migration can
be seen broad motive, desire to
keep for the Reich the territories
Hitler has won for it, whether the
war results in victory or defeat for
Germany.
Hitlers enemies have made much
of his seizure of alien peoples, i'm
pugning the sincerity of his avowals
that he aims only to build a greater
Germany for the Germans and that
he wants no foreign peoples. He
sees in the future the day of settle
ment with his enemies, the day when
the new boundaries of Eastern Europe
will have to be redrawn, and he hopes
by resettling Germans in the con-
quered territories so to alter the eth
nographic facts of Europe as to fore
stall the stripping of those lands
from the Reich under any such slo-
gan as the self determination of
peoples.
Hitler realizes that the most pow
erful argument Germany will have
for the retention of the lands which
he has won by both diplomatic and
military means-Bohemia, Moravia,
Slovakia and Poland-will be the
presence of strictly German popu-
lations on that land, working it and
making their living from it. If Great
Britain and France attempt to re-
establish Poland and Czecho ! Slo-
vakia on any equitable basis they
will find it necessary, he hopes, to
take into account the wishes of
the people who inhabit those terri
tories at the moment. So Hitler may
be giving force to his reiterated
boast that the Poland of the Versail-
les treaty will never rise again, may
be putting the conquered territory
in the hands of Germans whom he
can trust to fight to keep it.
There are other angles to this re-
population of Germany's new 'Leb-
ensraum." First of all, Germany is
at war, with millions of men under
arms, out of industrial and agricul-
tural production. Germany's high
productivity in foodstuffs and in the
finished products with which she
buys food and raw materials thus is
endangered. With reduced produc-
tivity her capacity to live and fight
the war is put in serious jeopardy.
If, as appears likely, Germany sue
ceeds in recalling Germans home to
the Reich-by either force or induce
ment-the Reich will acquire a sub
stantial quantity of man power to
keep the wheels of industry turning
and the crops growing while the
cream of her manhood is at the
front.
If Germany's repatriation program
Is as broad as 1T now seems Hitler
would appear to be killing two very
desirable birds with one stone, name
ly, consolidation of his conquests
and acquisition of additional man
power with which to fight the war.
But beyond these there are other
gains from such a policy-elimina-
ton of minority quarrels with small
neighboring states. avoidance of dis
putes with Soviet Russia into whose
hegemony most of Eastern Europe
appears to be falling, and acquisi-
ton Of the wealth of the repatriates,
wealth which Germany may sorely
need before the present war is ended.