(Rasse-und Siedlungshauptamt, RuSHA), Nazi office that dealt with racial matters. Established in 1931, RuSHA was designated as an SS Main Office (the central office of an SS organization) in 1935. The office's tasks included doing research and providing instruction on race issues, including special training courses for elite Nazi groups; making sure that SS men and their wives were racially pure; carrying out the resettlement of SS men in Nazi-occupied countries as part of the global Nazi plan for expanding the German Reich throughout Europe; and encouraging them to settle on farm lands near cities. RuSHA's staff included many determined and industrious young men who either had medical or some other professional eligibility. Some were later promoted to senior SS positions.
The RuSHA began evicting landowners from their homes and settling Germans in their place in mid-1939. RuSHA offices established in the parts of Poland annexed to the Reich were in charge of confiscated Jewish- and Polish-owned land. In 1940 RuSHA came up with the plan to "Germanize" Poles who had the appropriate racial qualities. Possible candidates were screened and interviewed by "race experts and qualifications examiners." These experts also checked out the racial authenticity of Poles who registered themselves as "ethnic Germans" (Volksdeutsche). In addition, RuSHA made plans to "Germanize" the Ukrainian people
