Poles in the Luftwaffe?

[Telly123]

Hi
Have been looking into this for a while, can anyone tell me the liklihood of a Pole being conscripted into the Luftwaffe? Would he have to be considered Volksdeuche? I have records that indicate a Pole was fighting in the 1567-2/Flakers ABt 12 (2 Batterie Flakersatz-Abteilung 12 in 1941 in Berlin-Lankwitz and again in 1943 in Schweinwerfer-Flak-Abteilung in Berlin.
Would this assume a fluent German speaker?
Volunteer or conscript?
Ethnic Pole conscript or Ethnic German?

Thanks for any info, or any pointers to where I can find out more background.
Regards

[DLI]

Hi Telly - sometimes it's much quicker to simply use a web search engine rather than asking questions here! Perhaps you've done so already, but if not, google 'Polish Conscripts, German Army' and you will immediately get the answers you need. When I did it the first entry that came up was a previous discussion of the topic on this forum.

As usual, you will have to decide who is giving real information and who is merely offering an opinion! In the former camp, there is a really informative and unbiased article on the Nazi Volksliste on Wikipedia - I suggest you read that first.

[Telly123]

Hi Telly - sometimes it's much quicker to simply use a web search engine rather than asking questions here! Perhaps you've done so already, but if not, google 'Polish Conscripts, German Army' and you will immediately get the answers you need. When I did it the first entry that came up was a previous discussion of the topic on this forum.

As usual, you will have to decide who is giving real information and who is merely offering an opinion! In the former camp, there is a really informative and unbiased article on the Nazi Volksliste on Wikipedia - I suggest you read that first.

Thanks, I have read/googled about this issue and know about the conscription. I suppose I was trying to get to grips with the liklihood of Poles finding their way into the Luftwaffe - which I think was more elite - early on in the war. My conclusion, which is liable to be revised, is that early conscripts were perhaps Polish with some claim to being ethnic German, but later as things became more dire for the Germans, that anyone would do. I did think that fluent German was a necessity, but I am not even sure of that anymore.

There was an understandable reluctance for Poles who had served in the German forces to talk about, even with each other. Sorting out facts is rather difficult.
Thanks again for replying.