Editing Sorbs (section)

===Interbellum and World War II===
{{Main|Anti-Slavic sentiment}}
Although the [[Weimar Republic]] guaranteed constitutional minority rights, it did not practice them.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schönwälder |first=Karen |date=1996 |title=The Constitutional Protection of Minorities in Germany: Weimar Revisited |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4211979 |journal=The Slavonic and East European Review |volume=74 |issue=1 |pages=38–65 |jstor=4211979 |issn=0037-6795}}</ref>

Under [[Nazi Germany]], Sorbians were described as a German tribe who spoke a Slavic language. Sorbian costume, culture, customs, and the language was said to be no indication of a non-German origin. The Reich declared that there were truly no "Sorbs" or "Lusatians", only Wendish-speaking Germans. As such, while the Sorbs were largely safe from the Reich's policies of ethnic cleansing, the cultivation of "Wendish" customs and traditions was to be encouraged in a controlled manner and it was expected that the Slavic language would decline due to natural causes. Young Sorbs enlisted in the [[Wehrmacht]] and were sent to the front. The entangled lives of the Sorbs during [[World War II]] are exemplified by the life stories of [[Mina Witkojc]], {{Wikidata fallback link|Q159956}}<!---[[Měrčin Nowak-Njechorński]]--> and [[Jan Skala]].

Persecution of the Sorbs reached its climax under the Nazis, who attempted to completely assimilate and [[Germanization|Germanize]] them. Their distinct identity and culture and Slavic origins were denied by referring to them as "Wendish-speaking Germans". Under Nazi rule, the Sorbian language and practice of Sorbian culture was banned, Sorbian and Slavic place-names were changed to German ones,{{sfn|Golecka|2003|p=61}} Sorbian books and printing presses were destroyed, Sorbian organizations and newspapers were banned, Sorbian libraries and archives were closed, and Sorbian teachers and clerics were deported to German-speaking areas and replaced with German-speaking teachers and clerics. Leading figures in the Sorbian community were forcibly isolated from their community or simply arrested.{{Efn|name=Ramet|"Sorbs inhabiting Upper and Lower Lusatia, whose distinct identity and culture were simply denied by the Nazis, who described them as “Wendish-speaking” Germans and who, toward the end of the war, considered moving the Sorbs en masse to the mining districts of Alsace-Lorraine.".{{sfn|Ramet|2016|p=227}} }}{{Efn|name=Pynsent|"The Nazis intended to assimilate and permanently germanize these 'Wendish-speaking Germans' through integration into the 'National Socialist national community' and through the forbidding of the Sorbian language and manifestations of Sorbian culture, Sorbian and Slav place-names and local names of topographical features (fields, hills and so forth) were germanized, Sorbian books and printing presses confiscated and destroyed, Sorbian schoolteachers and clerics removed and put in German-speaking schools and parishes, and representatives of Sorbian cultural life were either forcibly isolated from their fellows or arrested."{{sfn|Pynsent|2000|p=115}} }}{{Efn|name=The Group|"[A]fter 1933, under the Nazi regime, the Sorbian community suffered severe repression, and their organizations were banned. Indeed, the very existence of the ethnic group was denied and replaced by the theory of the Sorbs as 'Slavic speaking Germans'. Plans were made to re-settle the Sorbian population in Alsace in order to resolve the 'Lusatian question'. The 12 years of Nazi dictatorship was a heavy blow for a separate Sorbian identity."{{sfn|The Group|1993|p=32}} }}{{Efn|"They pressed Sorbian associations to join Nazi organizations, often with Success, and the Domowina received an ultimatum to adopt a statute which defined it as a 'League of Wendish-speaking Germans'.” But the Domowina insisted upon the Slavonic character of the Sorbs. In March 1937 the Nazis forbade the Domowina and the Sorbian papers, all teaching in Sorbian was discontinued, and Sorbian books were removed from the school libraries."{{sfn|Zank|1998|p=173}} }}{{Efn|"[T]he programmatic re-invention of the Sorbian minority as wen- dischsprechende Deutsche under the Nazi regime..."{{sfn|Glaser|2007|p=275}} }} The Sorbian national anthem and flag were banned.{{sfn|Golecka|2003|p=60}} The specific ''Wendenabteilung'' was established to monitor the assimilation of the Sorbs.{{Efn|name=Remus}}

Towards the end of World War II, the Nazis considered the deportation of the entire Sorbian population to the mining districts of [[Alsace-Lorraine]].{{Efn|name=Ramet}}{{Efn|name=The Group}}