Power Games: the German Nationality Policy (Volkstumspolitik) in Czernowitz before and during the Barbarrosa campaign

Abstract

Czernowitz, capital of Romania′s province of Bukovina, was a diplomatic, political, and ethnic battleground during World War II. Seeking to preserve its claim to the region against encroachments by the Soviets, Romania sought to suppress the region′s most powerful ethnic minority, the Ukrainians, pursuing a policy of expulsion aimed at creating a “Romanised” zone. At the same time, the German Sonderkommande 10b ensconced itself in the city, arresting the better part of the Jewish population and killing hundreds. The Romanian regime, which originally viewed Germany as an ally against Soviet designs, felt betrayed when the German force began to cooperate with the Ukrainian nationalist movement. In the end Romania prevailed because of Hitler`s decision not to establish an independent Ukraine that would include both Czernowitz and Bukovina. The Romanians herded 50,000 Czernowitz Jews into a ghetto; many of these were subsequently deported to Transnistria, but were not sent to death camps. But, after the war, the Jews never re-established themselves in the city, which had once been a vibrant center of Jewish culture.