1939: Nazi Resettlement Policy in South Tyrol

In the second half of the 1930s, there was a rapprochement between dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, which found expression in the Berlin-Rome Axis. Increasingly, the South Tyrol problem – the German-speaking minority in the Brenner Pass region that could not be integrated – now proved to be a disruptive element in the friendly relationship of the axis powers. The solution was resettlement: this exodus goes down in history as the option since the German-speaking people in the territories south of the Brenner had the “freedom of choice” in the fall of 1939: they could either decide to remain in the country under Italian rule or emigrate to the German Reich.

A propaganda campaign of hitherto unknown dimensions, supported by the Nazi Party, achieved clear results: about 86 per cent of the German-speaking population decided to emigrate to the German Reich, whereby approx. 75,000 people actually left. They were welcome as reinforcement of the Wehrmacht on the war fronts and as support for the war economy. After the Second World War only about a third of the migrants returned to South Tyrol.