German Exodus From Central and Eastern Europe - Nazi-Soviet Population Transfers

Nazi-Soviet Population Transfers

Germans were resettled from territories which were occupied by the Soviet Union in 1939 and 1940 as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, notably from Bessarabia and the Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia, all of which had large German minorities. The majority of the Baltic Germans had already been resettled in late 1939, prior to the occupation of Estonia and Latvia by the Soviet Union in June, 1940. These Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans) were then resettled in place of expelled Poles both in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany and in Zamość County in line with the Generalplan Ost.