The Deutscher Volksverband (DVV) membership grew to over 25,000 participants in 1937.[1] It was helped by emissaries arriving in Poland from Germany and commanded by Abwehr,[6] with the aim of establishing the so-called 5th column among the Volksdeutsche,[7] as well as any willing colonists, including the Mennonites. By 1938, all local structures of the DVV were formed. Many members of the DVV became German partisans during the 1939 invasion of Poland according to research.