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Hegewald was a short-lived German colony during World War II, situated near Zhytomyr in Reichskommissariat Ukraine. It was repopulated in late 1942 and early 1943 by Volksdeutsche settlers transferred from occupied territories of Poland, Croatia, Bessarabia, and the Soviet Union to an area earmarked for the projected Germanization of the Ukrainian lands. Plans were prepared months in advance by the SS, RKFDV and VoMi, but major problems with supplies occurred right from the region's initial establishment. Himmler's original plans to recruit settlers from Scandinavia and the Netherlands were unsuccessful.

History

Heinrich Himmler announced plans to establish a Volksdeutsche colony at Hegewald in September, 1942. The initial scheme proved difficult to implement for a number of reasons, including reluctance and fear among many Volksdeutsche owing to partisan activities in the Hegewald area. Elaborate guidelines were set up to prepare the locations. The new settlers were to receive the homes of killed or evicted Ukrainian peasants, as well as their furniture, livestock, and food; furthermore, new schools were to be built. This required a massive deportation effort, mostly on foot, carried out in October 1942. Most homes were in terrible shape by German standards. There was a considerable shortage of lumber, and general lack of winter clothing and shoes.

The Ukrainian and Polish German settlers arrived by train, having been forcibly removed from their homes, to be doled out plots of land and informed of their quotas. They received use, but not ownership, of the land assigned to them.

Neither the deported Ukrainians nor the ethnic Germans received more than a few hours' notice of their relocation. Despite damage to the houses, most could be made functional before snowfall. Elaborate Christmas pageants were set up, deliberately irreligious, to celebrate the return of light and to contrast it to the "dark powers" surrounding Germany, and gifts and food were provided.

All did not go as planned. The intended preparations were undermined by filching of craftsmen, and neither food nor clothing arrived as promised. Furthermore, many evicted Ukrainians returned to the area. Efforts were made to continue, with members of the League of German Girls being sent even when they had to receive gas masks and soldier escorts, but by November 1943 the inhabitants were in flight before the Red Army. These were the first of massive flights of Germans from Eastern Europe.

Villages

The colony consisted of 27 villages, all renamed in German; they were situated along the Zhytomyr-Berdychiv road. The villages reverted to their Ukrainian names after the war.

See also

• Wehrbauer

Notes

1. Lynn H. Nicholas, Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Web pp. 336, 473, ISBN 0-679-77663-X.
2. Lynn H. Nicholas, Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Web p 330-1, ISBN 0-679-77663-X
3. Lower, Wendy (2005). "Hitler's 'Garden of Eden' in Ukraine: Nazi Colonialism, Volksdeutsche, and the Holocaust, 1941-1944". In Petropoulos, Jonathan; Roth, John K. (eds.). Gray Zones: Ambiguity and Compromise in the Holocaust and Its Aftermath. Studies on war and genocide, Volume 8. New York: Berghahn Books. p. 196. ISBN 9781845453022. Retrieved 13 May 2024. Himmler announced his plans to form a Volksdeutsche colony at Hegewald in September, 1942 .
4. ^ Nicholas, pp. 331, 474.
5. Nicholas, p 331-2
6. Pringle, Heather (17 July 2007) . "Heinrich Himmler: The Nazi Leader's Master Plan". World War II. HistoryNet. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 13 May 2024. Himmler resolved to establish a small trial colony around his own field headquarters at Hegewald, not far from the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. He proceeded with his customary blend of brutality and efficiency. On October 10, 1942, his troops began rounding up 10,623 Ukrainian men, women and children from around Hegewald, packing them at gunpoint into boxcars destined for labor camps in the south. By the middle of the month, many houses in the region stood eerily empty, with dishes still on the tables and linen neatly folded in the cupboards. Soon after, trains began disgorging thousands of new settlers—ethnic German families forcibly removed from villages and towns in northern Ukraine.
7. Nicholas, p. 474.
8. Heather Pringle, "Heinrich Himmler: The Nazi Leader's Master Plan" Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
9. ^ Karel C. Berkhoff, Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine Under Nazi Rule p 45 ISBN 0-674-01313-1
10. Nicholas, p 336
11. Nicholas, p 336-7,
12. Nicholas, p 338
13. Nicholas, Lynn H. (2005). Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Web. Borzoi. A.A. Knopf. p. 339. ISBN 9780679454649. Retrieved 13 May 2024. In the spring of 1943 it became clear that many of the Ukrainians who had been evicted were filtering back to Hegewald and hiding with unevicted relatives.
14. Lower, Wendy (2005). "Hitler's 'Garden of Eden' in Ukraine: Nazi Colonialism, Volksdeutsche, and the Holocaust, 1941-1944". In Petropoulos, Jonathan; Roth, John K. (eds.). Gray Zones: Ambiguity and Compromise in the Holocaust and Its Aftermath. Studies on war and genocide, Volume 8. New York: Berghahn Books. p. 198. ISBN 9781845453022. Retrieved 13 May 2024. The evacuation of the Hegewald settlement was hastily carried out a few weeks before the Red Army arrived in November 1943.
15. Nicholas, p 339
16. Nicholas, p 434
17. Lower, Wendy: Nazi empire-building and the Holocaust in Ukraine, p. 176. University of North Carolina Press, 2005.

References

• Lynn H. Nicholas (2011). Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Web. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0307793829 – via Google Books.

• The Holocaust in Ukraine
• Cultural assimilation
• Poland in World War II
• Heinrich Himmler