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Volksdeutsche
Title for ethnic Germans in Nazi Germany / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Nazi German terminology, Volksdeutsche (German pronunciation: [ˈfɔlksˌdɔʏtʃə] ⓘ) were "people whose language and culture had German origins but who did not hold German citizenship."[1] The term is the nominalised plural of volksdeutsch, with Volksdeutsche denoting a singular female, and Volksdeutscher, a singular male. The words Volk and völkisch conveyed the meanings of "folk".[2]
Volksdeutsche | |
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![]() Volksdeutsche of Łódź greeting German cavalry in 1939 | |
![]() Volksdeutsche meeting in occupied Warsaw, 1940 |
Ethnic Germans living outside Germany shed their identity as Auslandsdeutsche (Germans abroad), and morphed into the Volksdeutsche in a process of self-radicalisation.[3] This process gave the Nazi regime the nucleus around which the new Volksgemeinschaft was established across the German borders.[3]
Volksdeutsche were further divided into "racial" groups—minorities within a state minority—based on special cultural, social, and historic criteria elaborated by the Nazis.[4]