order to reduce minority control over businesses. Resettlement of all Baltic Germans (1939–1944) 1939–1940 In 1940, Estonia and Latvia became Soviet republics. One of the main conditions posed by Hitler to Stalin in August 1939 was the prior transfer of all ethnic Germans living in Estonia and Latvia to areas under German military control. These became known as the Nazi–Soviet population transfers. Stalin proceeded to set up Soviet military bases in Estonia and Latvia in late 1939. In a speech to the Reichstag on October 6, 1939, which was broadcast live on radio, Hitler announced that German minorities should be resettled in the Reich (Back home to Reich, heim ins Reich). Resettlement was overseen by Himmler who created a new Reich Commisariat for the Strengthening of Germandom for this purpose. Treaties were signed with Estonia and Latvia in 1939 and 1940 concerning the emigration of Baltic Germans and the liquidation of their educational, cultural, and religious institutions. Nazi Germany succeeded in getting the Baltic Germans to abandon their homes and homeland in haste. Due to the imposition of wartime rationing, Germans were banned from taking along any valuables, objects of historic value, fuels and even food. A massive sell-off of household items and small businesses followed. Larger properties, real estate and businesses were sold over a longer period of time by a special German commission to local governments. Some 13,700 Baltic Germans were resettled from Estonia by early 1940. Around 51,000 Baltic Germans were resettled from Latvia by early 1940. The Estonian and Latvian governments published books containing alphabetical lists of the names of resettled Baltic German adults together with their birthdate, birthplace and last address in the Baltics. Baltic Germans left by ships from the port cities of Estonia and Latvia to ports of Gotenhafen and Stettin and then were transported to Posen and Lodz in Reichsgau Wartheland (sometimes called Warthegau) and other Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany. The "new" homes and farms they were given to live in had been owned and inhabited by Poles and Jews just a few months earlier who were executed or deported eastwards when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. The new arrivals fulfilled Nazi plans for ethnic Germanization of these lands. Spring 1941 resettlement In early 1941, the Nazi German government arranged another resettlement for all those who had refused to leave in 1939 or 1940. The action was called the Nachumsiedlung. This