This article is about the Polish territories annexed into Nazi Germany. For the other territories that were occupied in 1939 but not directly annexed, see General Government.
Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany
In darker colours, Polish territories annexed by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union with semi-colonial General Government in light yellow (centre)
Fourth Partition of Poland – The Nazi–Soviet Pact
Territorial evolution of Poland in the 20th century
Pre-World War II
Revolution in Congress Poland (1905–1907)
Ostrowiec Republic
Zagłębie Republic
Separation of Kholm Governorate from Congress Poland and annexation into Russian Kiev General Governorate (1913)
Act of 5th November by the Central Powers proclaiming Kingdom of Poland (1916)
Central Powers-Ukrainian People's Republic/Ukrainian State Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918)
Central Powers-Soviet Russia Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918)
Short-lived Byelorussian, Ukrainian and Rusyn republics (1917-1920): West Ukrainian People's (later absorbed into Poland-allied Ukrainian People 's), Belarusian Democratic, Lemko, Komancza
Local revolts and transient polities in postwar power vacuum (1918)
Tarnobrzeg Republic
Republic of Zakopane
First Republic of Pińczów
Witkowo Revolt
Republic of Ostrów
Restoration of Polish independence (1918) and ensuing wars to preseve it (1918-1922):
Greater Poland uprising
Silesian Uprisings
Polish–Czechoslovak War
Polish-West Ukrainian War
War of Polish-Ukrainian alliance against Soviet Russia (1920-1921) and its satellites:
Ukrainian SSR
short-lived Galician SSR later merged into the former
short-lived SSR of Lithuania and Belorussia
attempted Polish SSR later dissolved and replaced with token Polish National Districts
Polish-Lithuanian War
Treaty of Versailles (1919)
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919)
Suwałki Agreement (1920)
Treaty of Warsaw (1920) with Ukrainian People's Republic
1920 East Prussian plebiscite (1920)
Polish satellite states
Republic of Central Lithuania (1920-1922)
Free City of Danzig under League of Nations protection (1921-1939)
Peace of Riga (1921): eastern border of Poland accepted by Russian SFSR and its satellites (Byelorussian SSR which replaced SSR of Lithuania and Belorussia, and Ukrainian SSR which replaced Ukrainian People's Republic)
Taken Lands (remainder of Russian partition of Poland)
Wileńszczyzna
Grodzieńszczyzna
Lwów Land
Areas of Galicia and Lodomeria east of river San
Kresy Zachodnie ("Western Borderlands")
1815-1918 used as synonymous with entire Prussian partition of Poland
1918-1945 used in altered meaning
regions unsuccessfully claimed from Germany by interwar Poland, in particular Upper Silesia, Warmia, Masuria, Powiśle, Posen-West Prussia, sometimes also Starostwo of Draheim, Lauenburg and Bütow Land and easternmost Hither Pomerania (Lands of Schlawe and Stolp)
Zaolzie
After 1945, the former eastern territories of Germany were called Recovered Territories, while the term Kresy Zachodnie fell into disuse, though it was sometimes invoked to denote Polish claims to some East German territories such as Wolgast Pomerania, Milsko, Miśnia or Lausitz, raised typically only until early 1970s as counterclaims to retaliate for West German calls for revision of Oder–Neisse line.
Demarcation lines
Greater Poland military demarcation line (1919-1920)
Cieszyn Silesia demarcation line (1918-1920)
Polish–Lithuanian demarcation line (1919-1920)
Curzon Line (1920)
Upper Silesia demarcation line (1921-1922)
Polish–Lithuanian demarcation line (1923-1938)
Oder–Neisse line (1945–1951)
Adjacent countries
Territorial evolution of Germany
Territorial changes of the Baltic states
Territorial evolution of Russia
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Territorial evolution of Germany in the 20th century
Pre-World War II
Act of 5th November proclaiming Kingdom of Poland (1916)
Treaty of the Cession of the Memel Territory to Germany (1939)
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (1939)
World War II
Großdeutschland
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany
General Government
Zone interdite
German–Soviet Border and Commercial Agreement (1941)
Tehran Conference (1943)
Moscow Conference and Declaration on Austria (1943)
Yalta Conference (1945)
Potsdam Conference (1945)
Post-World War II
Berlin Declaration (1945)
Potsdam Agreement (1945)
Luxembourg's annexations (1946 and 1949)
Saar Protectorate (1947)
Paris Protocol (1949)
Dutch annexation of Elten and Selfkant (1949)
Belgian annexations (1949)
Esrablishment of East and West Germany (1949)
Treaty of Zgorzelec (1950)
Minor territorial exchanges between East Germany and Poland (1949 and 1951)
Bonn–Paris conventions and de facto return of Heligoland from the UK (1952)
Return of Kehl from France (1953)
London and Paris Conferences (1954)
Austrian State Treaty (1955)
Saar Treaty (1956)
"Little Reunification" with Saarland (1957)
Belgium–Germany border treaty and return of the majority of annexations (1958)
Return of Kammerwald from Luxembourg (1959)
Ausgleichsvertrag (1960)
Return of Selfkant (1963)
Polish–East German Baltic Continental Shelf Delimitation Treaty (1968)
Treaty of Moscow (1970)
Treaty of Warsaw (1970)
Four Power Agreement on Berlin (1971)
Basic Treaty (1972)
Treaty of Prague (1973)
United Nations Security Council Resolution 335 (1973)
Polish–East German Maritime Boundary in Pomeranian Bay Delimitation Treaty (1989)
German–Polish Border Treaty (1990)
Two Plus Four Treaty (1991)
Treaty of Good Neighbourship (1991)
Areas and issues
Alsace–Lorraine
Former eastern territories of Germany
German question
Hallstein Doctrine
Drang nach Osten
Lebensraum
Ostpolitik
Adjacent countries
Territorial evolution of France
Territorial evolution of Poland
Territorial evolution of Switzerland
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Following the Invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II, nearly a quarter of the entire territory of the Second Polish Republic was annexed by Nazi Germany and placed directly under the German civil administration. The rest of Nazi-occupied Poland was renamed as the General Government district.[1] The annexation was part of the "fourth partition of Poland" by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, outlined months before the invasion, in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.[2]
Some smaller territories were incorporated directly into the existing Gaue East Prussia and Silesia, while the bulk of the land was used to create new Reichsgaue Danzig-West Prussia and Wartheland. Of those, Reichsgau Wartheland was the largest and the only one comprising solely the annexed territory.[3]
The official term used by the Nazi authorities for these areas was the "incorporated Eastern territories" (German: Eingegliederte Ostgebiete).[4] They planned for a complete Germanization of the annexed territories, considering them part of their lebensraum.[5] The local Jewish population was forced to live in ghettos, and was gradually deported to concentration and extermination camps, the most infamous of which, Auschwitz, was located in annexed East Upper Silesia. The local Polish population was to be gradually enslaved, exterminated and eventually replaced by German settlers. The Polish elite especially became subject to mass murder,[6] and an estimated 780,000 Poles were subject to expulsion, either to the General Government or to the Altreich for forced labour. The remaining Polish population was strictly segregated from the German population and subject to a variety of repressive measures. These included forced labour and their exclusion from all political and many cultural aspects of society. At the same time, the local German minority was granted several privileges, and their number was steadily raised by the settlement of ethnic Germans, including those displaced by the Nazi-Soviet population transfers.[7]
After the Vistula–Oder Offensive in early 1945, the Soviet Union took control over the territories. The ethnic German population either fled the Red Army or were later expelled and the territories became part of the People's Republic of Poland.
^Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "German Occupation of Poland" (Washington, D.C.: Dale Street Books, 2014), pp. 12–16.
^Maly Rocznik Statystyczny (wrzesien 1939 – czerwiec 1941), Ministerstwo Informacji i Documentacji, London 1941, p.5, as cited in Piotr Eberhardt, Political Migrations in Poland, 1939–1948, Warsaw 2006, p.4 "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-10-18. Retrieved 2016-02-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^Czesław Łuczak (1987). Położenie ludności polskiej w Kraju Warty 1939–1945. Dokumenty niemieckie. Poznań: Wydawn. Poznańskie. pp. V–XIII. ISBN 8321006329. Google Books.
^The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression Volume 1 Chapter XIII – Germanization and Spoliation. Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library. Avalon Project : Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression – Volume 1 Chapter XIII – Germanization and Spoliation
^"Poles: Victims of the Nazi Era Archived 2013-03-03 at the Wayback Machine"
^Cite error: The named reference cry was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "German Occupation of Poland" (Washington, D.C.: Dale Street Books, 2014), pp. 16–45.
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