Editing Lusatia (section)

=== Prussian rule ===
The Lusatians in Prussia demanded that their land become a distinct administrative unit, but Lower Lusatia was incorporated into the [[Province of Brandenburg]], while the Upper Lusatian territories were attached to the [[Province of Silesia]] instead.

One of the main escape routes for insurgents of the unsuccessful Polish [[November Uprising]] from partitioned Poland to the [[Great Emigration]] led through [[Lübben (Spreewald)|Lübben]] and [[Luckau]].<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Umiński|first=Janusz|year=1998|title=Losy internowanych na Pomorzu żołnierzy powstania listopadowego|magazine=Jantarowe Szlaki|volume=4 |language=pl|issue=250|page=16}}</ref>

The 19th and early 20th centuries witnessed an era of cultural revival for Sorbs. The modern languages of Upper and Lower Lusatian (or Sorbian) emerged, national literature flourished, and many national organizations such as [[Maćica Serbska]] and [[Domowina]] were founded. There were also notable Polish communities in Lusatia, such as [[Klettwitz]] ({{langx|hsb|link=no|Klěśišća}}, {{langx|pl|link=no|Kletwice}}), inhabited in the 1930s by some 550 Poles.<ref>{{cite book|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Leksykon Polactwa w Niemczech|year=1939|language=pl|publisher=Związek Polaków w Niemczech|location=Opole|page=364}}</ref>

In the interbellum, the German government carried out a massive campaign of changing of place names in Lusatia in order to erase traces of Slavic origin, and while most of the historic names were restored after [[World War II]], some were retained.

This era came to an end during the [[Nazism|Nazi]] regime in Germany, when all Sorbian organizations were abolished and forbidden, newspapers and magazines closed, and any use of the Sorbian languages was prohibited. During World War II, some Sorbian activists were arrested, executed, exiled or sent as [[political prisoner]]s to [[concentration camps]]. From 1942 to 1944 the underground [[Lusatian National Committee]] was formed and was active in [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|German-occupied]] [[Warsaw]].

During the war, the Germans established and operated several [[German prisoner-of-war camps in World War II|prisoner-of-war camps]], including [[Oflag III-C]], [[Oflag IV-D]], Oflag 8, Stalag III-B, [[Stalag IV-A]] and [[Stalag VIII-A]], with multiple [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|forced labour]] subcamps in the region. Prisoners included Polish POWs and civilians, and [[French prisoners of war in World War II|French]], Belgian, British, Australian, New Zealander, Canadian, South African, Dutch, Italian, Soviet, Serbian, Slovak and American POWs.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Megargee|first1=Geoffrey P.|last2=Overmans|first2=Rüdiger|last3=Vogt|first3=Wolfgang|year=2022|title=The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1933–1945. Volume IV|publisher=Indiana University Press, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|pages=211–212, 235, 240, 405–406, 413, 443–444|isbn=978-0-253-06089-1}}</ref> There were also several Nazi prisons with multiple forced labour subcamps, including in [[Görlitz]], [[Luckau]], [[Zittau]], and a prison solely for women in [[Cottbus]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=1557|title=Gefängnis Görlitz|website=Bundesarchiv.de|access-date=25 November 2023|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=2576|title=Zuchthaus Luckau|website=Bundesarchiv.de|access-date=25 November 2023|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=100001395|title=Gerichtsgefängnis Zittau|website=Bundesarchiv.de|access-date=25 November 2023|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=985|title=Frauenzuchthaus Cottbus|website=Bundesarchiv.de|access-date=25 November 2023|language=de}}</ref> and multiple [[List of subcamps of Gross-Rosen|subcamps]] of the [[Gross-Rosen concentration camp]], the prisoners of which were mostly Jews, Poles and Russians, but also Frenchmen, Italians, Yugoslavs, Czechs, Belgians, etc.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.gross-rosen.eu/historia-kl-gross-rosen/filie-obozu-gross-rosen/|title=Subcamps of KL Gross- Rosen|website=Gross-Rosen Museum in Rogoźnica|access-date=25 November 2023}}</ref>

[[File:GedenksteinBautzen.jpg|thumb|Memorial to Soviet and Polish troops fallen in the [[Battle of Bautzen (1945)]]]]
During the war, the Poles postulated that after the defeat of Germany, the Sorbs should be allowed free national development either within the borders of Poland or [[Czechoslovakia]], or as an independent Sorbian state in alliance with Poland.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Orzechowski|first=Marian|year=1976|title=Kwestia serbołużycka w polskiej myśli politycznej w latach 1939–1947|journal=Śląski Kwartalnik Historyczny Sobótka|publisher=Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, Wydawnictwo [[Polish Academy of Sciences|Polskiej Akademii Nauk]]|location=Wrocław|language=pl|volume=XXXI|issue=2|pages=380–381}}</ref>

The [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]] reached Lusatia in early 1945, with Soviet and Polish troops defeating the Germans and capturing the region. In [[Horka, Saxony|Horka]], on April 26, 1945, the Germans carried out a [[Niederkaina massacre|massacre of a field hospital column of the 9th Polish Armored Division]], killing some 300 POWs, mostly wounded soldiers and medical personnel (see ''[[German atrocities committed against Polish prisoners of war]]'').<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Woszczerowicz|first1=Zuzanna|date=2022|url=https://www.journals.polon.uw.edu.pl/index.php/zl/article/view/954|title=Recenzja: Zbigniew Kopociński, Krzysztof Kopociński, Horka – łużycka Golgota służby zdrowia 2. Armii Wojska Polskiego|journal=Zeszyty Łużyckie|volume=57|pages=257|doi=10.32798/zl.954 |issn=0867-6364|language=pl|doi-access=free}}</ref>