Posen – Baltenlager

In the autumn of 1939, a dozen Baltenlager in Posen (polish Poznan) was established. These reception camps was set up for people with german hereditary who forcily was moved by the german authorities from the Baltics to the Reichsgau Wartheland area. This was an area in western Poland which, in connection with the occupation, had been incorporated into the German empire. The people were Germans who had long resided in the Baltics but who now in connection with the occupation would be returned back to the Reich (Heim ins Reich). To make room the Germans forcibly deported ethnic poles eastward (mainly to the General government) whose homes were confiscated and given to Baltic germans. But before their "new" homes were ready to be moved into, they stayed in temporary camps called Baltenlager. These camps was set up in school buildings or similar. It was not only from the Baltic states that people of german origin came from, but also central and southern parts of Eastern Europe. Approximately 900,000 people "moved" to Wartheland between 1939 and 1944. The first transport of people from the Baltics arrived on October 31, 1939, and by January, 1940, some 65,000 people from Estonia and Latvia had been sent to Posen.