The territorial changes of Poland after World War II were very extensive. In 1945, following the Second World War, Poland's borders were redrawn following the decisions made at the Potsdam Conference of 1945 at the insistence of the Soviet Union. The eastern Polish territories, which the Soviet Union had occupied in 1939 (excluding the Białystok region) were permanently annexed, and most of their Polish inhabitants expelled. Today, these territories are part of Belarus, Ukraine, and Lithuania.
In turn, Poland received the Free City of Danzig and former German territory east of the Oder-Neisse line, consisting of the southern two-thirds of East Prussia and most of Pomerania, Neumark (East Brandenburg), and Silesia. The German population was forcibly expelled before these "recovered territories" were repopulated with Poles from central Poland and those expelled from the eastern regions. The area of Zaolzie, which had been annexed by Poland in late 1938, was returned to Czechoslovakia, by order of Joseph Stalin.
Famous quotes containing the words territorial, poland, immediately, world and/or war:
“All the territorial possessions of all the political establishments in the earth—including America, of course—consist of pilferings from other people’s wash.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“It is often said that Poland is a country where there is anti-semitism and no Jews, which is pathology in its purest state.”
—Bronislaw Geremek (b. 1932)
“What we do in our dreams we also do when we are awake: we invent and make up the person we are dealing with—and immediately forget that we have done it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“There are loyal hearts, there are spirits brave,
There are souls that are pure and true;
Then give to the world the best you have,
And the best will come back to you.”
—Madeline Bridges (fl. C. 1840)
“The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)