Kashubians in traditional clothing
Kashubians are a Slavic ethnic group native to eastern Pomerania in northern Poland. The Kashubians are linguistically, culturally, and ethnically related to Poles, practicing Catholicism and speaking a dialect of Polish. The Kashubians were considered to be of German stock by the Nazi Party, which considered them to be a group inclined towards Germanization. Under the communist government of Poland, the government sought to preserve the notion of a homogenous society, saying that the existence of Kashubians as a distinct ethnic group was mere folklore. In 2011, 233,000 Poles identified as ethnic Kashubians. Some Kashubians would rise to high positions under Nazi Germany, including Erich von Manstein (formerly Erich Lewinski) and Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski.