The Heim ins Reich was a foreign policy pursued by Adolf Hitler before and during World War II, beginning in 1938. The aim of Hitler's initiative was to convince all Volksdeutsche who were living outside Nazi Germany that they should strive to bring these regions "home" into Greater Germany, but also relocate from territories that were not under German control, following the conquest of Poland, in accordance with the Nazi–Soviet pact. The Heim ins Reich manifesto targeted areas ceded in Versailles to the newly reborn state of Poland, various lands of immigration, as well as other areas that were inhabited by significant ethnic German populations, such as the Sudetenland, Danzig, and the southeastern and northeastern regions of Europe after 6 October 1939.
Nazi Germany in 1939 (dark grey) after the conquest of Poland; with pockets of German colonists brought into the annexed territories of Poland from the Soviet "sphere of influence". – Nazi propaganda poster superimposed with the red outline of Poland missing entirely from the original print.
Poles expelled in 1939 from Reichsgau Wartheland.
Arthur Greiser welcoming the millionth Volksdeutsche resettled from Eastern Europe to occupied Poland, March 1944.
Arthur Greiser speaks to resettled Volksdeutsche at Łódź in March 1944
Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle
In Nazi Germany the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle or VoMi was a Nazi Party agency founded to manage the interests of the Volksdeutsche - the population of ethnic Germans living outside the Third Reich. Ultimately coming under Allgemeine-SS administration, it became responsible for orchestrating the implementation of Nazi Lebensraum policies in Eastern Europe during World War II.
Rudolf Hess and Heinrich Himmler visiting an exhibition of proposed rural German settlements within occupied Eastern Europe (March 1941).
Poles being deported during the ethnic cleansing of Greater Poland after its immediate annexation by Nazi Germany following the invasion of 1939.
German settlers are shown around their Nazi-appropriated farmhouse in occupied Poland in November 1939 during action "Heim ins Reich"
Volksdeutsche who had been resettled in the Wartheland by VoMi receive agriculture training in 1940.
