Editing History of Poland (section)

==World War II==

{{further|History of Poland (1939–1945)}}

===Invasions and resistance===

[[File:Schleswig Holstein firing Westerplatte September 1939.jpg|thumb|right|German [[battleship]] {{SMS|Schleswig-Holstein||2}} [[Battle of Westerplatte|shells Westerplatte]], 1 September 1939]]

On 1 September 1939, Hitler ordered an [[invasion of Poland]], the opening event of [[World War II]]. Poland had signed an [[Anglo-Polish military alliance]] as recently as the 25th of August, and had long been in [[Franco-Polish alliance (1921)|alliance with France]]. The two Western powers soon declared war on Germany, but they remained largely inactive (the period early in the conflict became known as the [[Phoney War]]) and extended no aid to the attacked country. The technically and numerically superior ''[[Wehrmacht]]'' formations rapidly advanced eastwards and engaged massively in the murder of Polish civilians over the entire occupied territory.<ref name="Wrzesień '39">{{Harvnb|Wieliński|2011}}.</ref> On 17 September, a [[Soviet invasion of Poland]] began. The Soviet Union quickly occupied most of the areas of eastern Poland that were inhabited by a significant [[Ukrainians|Ukrainian]] and [[Belarusians|Belarusian]] minority.{{Ref label|h|h|none}} The two invading powers divided up the country as they had agreed in the secret provisions of the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]]. Poland's top government officials and military high command fled the war zone and arrived at the [[Romanian Bridgehead]] in mid-September. After the Soviet entry they sought refuge in [[Romania]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=362–369}}.</ref><ref name="Biskupski 214-215">{{Harvnb|Biskupski|2003|pp=214–215}}.</ref><ref name="Kochanski 59-93">{{Harvnb|Kochanski|2012|pp=59–93}}.</ref>

[[File:Poland in 1939.jpg|thumb|left|Map of Poland following the [[Invasion of Poland|German and Soviet invasions]] (1939)]]

Among the military operations in which Poles held out the longest (until late September or early October) were the [[Siege of Warsaw (1939)|Siege of Warsaw]], the [[Battle of Hel]] and the resistance of the [[Independent Operational Group Polesie]]. Warsaw fell on 27 September after a heavy German bombardment that killed tens of thousands civilians and soldiers.<ref name="Kochanski 59-93"/> Poland was ultimately partitioned between Germany and the Soviet Union according to the terms of the [[German–Soviet Frontier Treaty]] signed by the two powers in Moscow on 29 September.<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|pp=55–56}}.</ref>

[[Gerhard Weinberg]] has argued that the most significant [[Polish contribution to World War II]] was sharing its code-breaking results.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kozaczuk|Straszak|2004}}.</ref>  This allowed the British to perform the [[cryptanalysis of the Enigma]] and decipher the main German military code, which gave the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] a major advantage in the conflict.<ref name = "Winberg 2005 50">{{Harvnb|Weinberg|2005|p=50}}.</ref> As regards actual military campaigns, some Polish historians have argued that simply resisting the initial invasion of Poland was the country's greatest contribution to the victory over Nazi Germany, despite its defeat. The Polish Army of nearly one million men significantly delayed the start of the [[Battle of France]], planned by the Germans for 1939. When the Nazi offensive in the West did happen, the delay caused it to be less effective, a possibly crucial factor in the victory of the [[Battle of Britain]].<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 693–694"/>

After Germany invaded the Soviet Union as part of its [[Operation Barbarossa]] in June 1941, the whole of pre-war Poland was overrun and occupied by German troops.<ref>{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=68–69}}.</ref>

[[File:Dywizjon 303 in color.jpg|right|thumb|Pilots of [[No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron]] won fame in the [[Battle of Britain]]]]

[[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|German-occupied Poland]] was divided from 1939 into two regions: [[Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany]] directly into the [[German Reich|German ''Reich'']] and areas ruled under a so-called [[General Government]] of occupation.<ref name="playground 326-346">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|pp=326–346}}.</ref> The Poles formed an [[Polish resistance movement in World War II|underground resistance movement]] and a [[Polish government-in-exile]] that operated first in [[Paris]], then, from July 1940, in [[London]].<ref name="Czubiński 226"/> Polish-Soviet diplomatic relations, broken since September 1939, were resumed in July 1941 under the [[Sikorski–Mayski agreement]], which facilitated the formation of a Polish army (the [[Anders' Army]]) in the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=375–382}}.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|p=231}}.</ref> In November 1941, Prime Minister Sikorski flew to the Soviet Union to negotiate with Stalin on its role on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Soviet-German front]], but the British wanted the Polish soldiers in the [[Middle East]]. Stalin agreed, and the army was evacuated there.<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|pp=232–233}}.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Brzoza|2001|pp=316–317}}.</ref>{{Ref label|w|w|none}}

The organizations forming the [[Polish Underground State]] that functioned in Poland throughout the war were loyal to and formally under the Polish government-in-exile, acting through its [[Government Delegation for Poland]].<ref name="playground 344-346">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|pp=344–346}}.</ref> During World War II, hundreds of thousands of Poles joined the underground Polish [[Home Army]] (''Armia Krajowa''),<ref>{{Harvnb|Lukowski|Zawadzki|2006|pp=264–265}}.</ref> a part of the [[Polish Armed Forces in the West|Polish Armed Forces]] of the government-in-exile.<ref name="Czubiński 226"/> About 200,000 Poles fought on the [[Western Front (World War II)|Western Front]] in the [[Polish Armed Forces in the West]] loyal to the government-in-exile, and about 300,000 in the [[Polish Armed Forces in the East#Berling Army: 1943–1945|Polish Armed Forces in the East]] under the Soviet command on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]].<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 693–694">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|pp=693–694}}.</ref> The pro-Soviet resistance movement in Poland, led by the [[Polish Workers' Party]], was active from 1941. It was opposed by the gradually forming extreme nationalistic [[National Armed Forces]].<ref name="Czubiński 226">{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|p=226}}.</ref>{{Ref label|t|t|none}}

[[File:Stroop Report - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 09.jpg|thumb|right|[[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]]]]

Beginning in late 1939, hundreds of thousands of Poles from the Soviet-occupied areas were deported and taken east. Of the upper-ranking military personnel and others deemed uncooperative or potentially harmful by the Soviets, about 22,000 were secretly executed by them at the [[Katyn massacre]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|pp=67–68}}.</ref> In April 1943, the Soviet Union broke off deteriorating relations with the Polish government-in-exile after the German military announced the discovery of mass graves containing murdered Polish army officers. The Soviets claimed that the Poles committed a hostile act by requesting that the [[International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement|Red Cross]] investigate these reports.<ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=382–384}}.</ref>

From 1941, the implementation of the [[Nazi Party|Nazi]] [[Final Solution]] began, and [[the Holocaust in Poland]] proceeded with force.<ref name="playground 337-343">{{Harvnb|Davies|2005b|pp=337–343}}.</ref> Warsaw was the scene of the [[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]] in April–May 1943, triggered by the liquidation of the [[Warsaw Ghetto]] by German [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] units. The elimination of [[Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland]] took place in many cities. As the Jewish people were being removed to be exterminated, uprisings were waged against impossible odds by the [[Jewish Combat Organization]] and other desperate Jewish insurgents.<ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=389–390}}.</ref>

===Soviet advance 1944–1945, Warsaw Uprising===

[[File:Sikorski in Gibraltar.jpg|thumb|right|Gen. [[Władysław Sikorski]], prime minister of the [[Polish government-in-exile]] and commander-in-chief of [[Polish contribution to World War II|Polish armed forces]], shortly before his death in 1943]]

At a time of increasing cooperation between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union in the wake of the [[Operation Barbarossa|Nazi invasion of 1941]], the influence of the [[Polish government-in-exile]] was seriously diminished by the death of Prime Minister [[Władysław Sikorski]], its most capable leader, in a [[1943 Gibraltar B-24 crash|plane crash on 4 July 1943]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=73–75}}.</ref> Around that time, Polish-communist civilian and military organizations opposed to the government, led by [[Wanda Wasilewska]] and supported by Stalin, were formed in the Soviet Union.<ref name="Kochanski 371-377">{{Harvnb|Kochanski|2012|pp=371–377}}.</ref>

In July 1944, the Soviet [[Red Army]] and Soviet-controlled [[Polish People's Army]] entered the territory of future postwar Poland. In protracted fighting in 1944 and 1945, the Soviets and their Polish allies defeated and expelled the German army from Poland at a cost of over 600,000 Soviet soldiers lost.<ref name="Buszko 394-395">{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=394–395}}.</ref>

[[File:Warsaw Uprising Surrender- 5 of October 1944.jpg|thumb|left|Surrender of the [[Warsaw Uprising]]]]

The greatest single undertaking of the [[Polish resistance movement in World War II]] and a major political event was the [[Warsaw Uprising]] that began on 1 August 1944. The uprising, in which most of the city's population participated, was instigated by the underground [[Home Army]] and approved by the Polish government-in-exile in an attempt to establish a non-communist Polish administration ahead of the arrival of the Red Army. The uprising was originally planned as a short-lived armed demonstration in expectation that the Soviet forces approaching Warsaw would assist in any battle to take the city.<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|p=250}}.</ref> The Soviets had never agreed to an intervention, however, and they halted their advance at the [[Vistula]] River. The Germans used the opportunity to carry out a brutal suppression of the forces of the pro-Western Polish underground.<ref>{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|pp=650–663}}.</ref><ref name="Poland under Communism 4-5">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=4–5}}.</ref>{{Ref label|m|m|none}}

The bitterly fought uprising lasted for two months and resulted in the death or expulsion from the city of hundreds of thousands of civilians. After the defeated Poles surrendered on 2 October, the Germans carried out a [[planned destruction of Warsaw]] on Hitler's orders that obliterated the remaining infrastructure of the city. The [[First Polish Army (1944–1945)|Polish First Army]], fighting alongside the Soviet Red Army, entered a devastated Warsaw on 17 January 1945.<ref name="Poland under Communism 4-5"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Brzoza|2001|pp=386–387, 390}}.</ref>{{Ref label|n|n|none}}

===Allied conferences, Polish governments===

From the time of the [[Tehran Conference]] in late 1943, there was broad agreement among the three Great Powers (the [[United States]], the [[United Kingdom]], and the [[Soviet Union]]) that the locations of the borders between Germany and Poland and between Poland and the Soviet Union would be [[Territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II|fundamentally changed after the conclusion of World War II]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Davies|2001|pp=75, 104–105}}.</ref><ref name="Poland under Communism 1">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|p=1}}.</ref> Stalin's view that Poland should be moved far to the west was accepted by Polish communists, whose organizations included the [[Polish Workers' Party]] and the [[Union of Polish Patriots]]. The communist-led [[State National Council]], a quasi-parliamentary body, was in existence in Warsaw from the beginning of 1944.<ref>{{Harvnb|Snyder|2009}}.</ref> In July 1944, a communist-controlled [[Polish Committee of National Liberation]] was established in [[Lublin]], to nominally govern the areas liberated from German control. The move prompted protests from Prime Minister [[Stanisław Mikołajczyk]] and his Polish government-in-exile.<ref name="Buszko 394-395"/><ref name="Poland under Communism 4-5"/>

By the time of the [[Yalta Conference]] in February 1945, the communists had already established a [[Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland]]. The Soviet position at the conference was strong because of their decisive contribution to the war effort and as a result of their occupation of immense amounts of land in central and eastern Europe. The Great Powers gave assurances that the communist provisional government would be converted into an entity that would include democratic forces from within the country and active abroad, but the London-based [[Polish government-in-exile|government-in-exile]] was not mentioned. A [[Provisional Government of National Unity]] and subsequent democratic elections were the agreed stated goals.<ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=398–401}}.</ref><ref name="Poland under Communism 6-7">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=6–7}}.</ref> The disappointing results of these plans and the failure of the Western powers to ensure a strong participation of non-communists in the immediate post-war Polish government were seen by many Poles as a manifestation of [[Western betrayal]].

===War losses, extermination of Jews and Poles===

[[File:Samuel Willenberg Treblinka 2 sierpnia 2013 01.JPG|[[Samuel Willenberg]] showing his drawings of the [[Treblinka extermination camp]]|thumb|right]]

A lack of accurate data makes it difficult to document numerically the extent of the human losses suffered by Polish citizens during World War II. Additionally, many assertions made in the past must be considered suspect due to flawed methodology and a desire to promote certain political agendas. The last available enumeration of ethnic Poles and the large ethnic minorities is the [[Polish census of 1931]]. Exact population figures for 1939 are therefore not known.<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 694-695">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|pp=694–695}}.</ref><ref name="Polskosc nosze z soba w plecaku">{{Harvnb|Domagalik|2011}}.</ref>

According to the [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]], at least 3 million Polish [[Jews]] and at least 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish civilians were killed.<ref name="Polish victims">{{Harvnb|USHMM}}.</ref> According to the historians Brzoza and Sowa, about 2 million ethnic [[Polish people|Poles]] were killed, but it is not known, even approximately, how many Polish citizens of other [[ethnic group|ethnicities]] perished, including [[Ukrainians]], [[Belarusians]], and [[Germans]].<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 695-696"/> Millions of Polish citizens were deported to Germany for forced labor or to German [[extermination camp]]s such as [[Treblinka extermination camp|Treblinka]], [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]] and [[Sobibór extermination camp|Sobibór]]. Nazi Germany intended to exterminate the Jews completely, in actions that have come to be described collectively as [[the Holocaust]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Czubiński|2009|pp=215–217}}.</ref> The Poles were to be expelled from areas controlled by Nazi Germany through a process of [[Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany|resettlement that started in 1939]]. Such Nazi operations matured into a plan known as the ''[[Generalplan Ost]]'' that amounted to displacement, enslavement and partial extermination of the [[Slavs|Slavic]] people and was expected to be completed within 15 years.<ref>{{Harvnb|Berghahn|1999|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=j6VCNno2DVMC&pg=PA32 32]}}.</ref>

[[File:Warsaw Old Town 1945.jpg|thumb|left|[[Warsaw]] destroyed, photo taken January 1945]]

<!-- Please bring modifications to this paragraph to Talk first -->
The majority of Poles remained indifferent to the Jewish plight, and neither assisted nor persecuted Jews.<ref name="Winstone 2014">{{Cite book| publisher = Tauris| isbn = 978-1-78076-477-1 | last = Winstone| first = Martin| title = The Dark Heart of Hitler's Europe: Nazi rule in Poland under the General Government| location = London| date = 2014 |pages=181–186}}</ref><ref name="Connelly 2005">{{cite journal|first=John |last=Connelly |title=Why the Poles Collaborated so Little: And Why That Is No Reason for Nationalist Hubris |journal=Slavic Review |volume=64 |number=4 |year=2005 |pages=771–781|url= https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272584372 |doi=10.2307/3649912 |jstor=3649912|doi-access=free }}</ref> Of those who have helped [[Rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust|rescue, shelter and protect Jews from the Nazi atrocity]], [[Yad Vashem]] and the [[State of Israel]] have recognized 6,992 individuals as ''[[Polish Righteous Among the Nations|Righteous Among the Nations]]''.<ref name="YV Stats">Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, [https://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/statistics.html Names and Numbers of Righteous Among the Nations - per Country & Ethnic Origin, as of January 1, 2019]</ref>

In an attempt to incapacitate Polish society, the Nazis and the Soviets executed tens of thousands of members of the [[intelligentsia]] and community leadership during events such as the [[German AB-Aktion in Poland]], [[Operation Tannenberg]] and the [[Katyn massacre]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Naimark|2010|p=91}}; {{Harvnb|Snyder|2010|pp=126, 146–147, 415}}.</ref>{{Ref label|j|j|none}} Over 95% of the Jewish losses and 90% of the ethnic Polish losses were caused directly by Nazi Germany,{{Ref label|d|d|none}} whereas 5% of the ethnic Polish losses were caused by the Soviets and 5% by Ukrainian nationalists.<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 695-696">{{Harvnb|Brzoza|Sowa|2009|pp=695–696}}.</ref> The large-scale [[History of the Jews in Poland|Jewish presence in Poland]] that had endured for centuries was rather quickly put to an end by the policies of extermination implemented by the Nazis during the war. Waves of displacement and emigration that took place both during and after the war removed from Poland a majority of the Jews who survived. Further significant Jewish emigration followed events such as the [[Polish October]] political thaw of 1956 and the [[1968 Polish political crisis]].<ref name="Poland under Communism 157-163">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=157–163}}.</ref>

[[File:Auschwitz - panoramio (40).jpg|thumb|right|The infamous gatehouse at [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz-Birkenau]] concentration camp, where at least 1.1 million people were murdered by Nazi Germany]]

In 1940–1941, some 325,000 Polish citizens were deported by the Soviet Union.<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 695-696"/> The number of Polish citizens who died at the hands of the Soviets is estimated at less than 100,000.<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 695-696"/>

In 1943–1944, Ukrainian nationalists associated with the [[Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists]] (OUN) and the [[Ukrainian Insurgent Army]] perpetrated the [[Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia]].<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 695-696"/> Estimates of the number of Polish civilian victims vary greatly, from tens to hundreds of thousands.<ref name ="Motyka">{{Harvnb|Motyka|2011|pp=447–448}}.</ref>

Approximately 90% of Poland's war casualties were the victims of prisons, death camps, raids, executions, the annihilation of ghettos, epidemics, starvation, excessive work and ill treatment. The war left one million children orphaned and 590,000 persons disabled. The country lost 38% of its national assets (whereas Britain lost only 0.8%, and France only 1.5%).<ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=410–411}}.</ref> Nearly half of pre-war Poland was expropriated by the Soviet Union, including the two great cultural centers of [[Lviv|Lwów]] and [[Vilnius|Wilno]].<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 694-695"/>

The policies of Nazi Germany have been judged after the war by the International Military Tribunal at the [[Nuremberg trials]] and Polish genocide trials to be aimed at extermination of Jews, Poles and Roma, and to have "all the characteristics of genocide in the biological meaning of this term".<ref>Law-Reports of Trials of War Criminals, The United Nations War Crimes Commission, Volume VII, London, HMSO, 1948 CASE NO. 37 The Trial of Haupturmfuhrer Amon Leopold Goeth page 9.</ref>

===Changing boundaries and population transfers===

[[File:PKWN Manifest.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The [[PKWN Manifesto]], officially issued on 22 July 1944 in Soviet-liberated Poland. It heralded the arrival of a Polish communist government imposed by the [[USSR]].]]

By the terms of the 1945 [[Potsdam Agreement]] signed by the three victorious Great Powers, the Soviet Union retained most of the territories captured as a result of the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] of 1939, including western Ukraine and western Belarus, and gained others. [[Lithuania]] and the [[Kaliningrad Oblast|Königsberg area of East Prussia]] were officially incorporated into the Soviet Union, in the case of the former without the recognition of the Western powers.

Poland was compensated with the bulk of [[Silesia]], including [[Wrocław|Breslau (Wrocław)]] and [[Zielona Góra|Grünberg (Zielona Góra)]], the bulk of [[Pomerania]], including [[Szczecin|Stettin (Szczecin)]], and the greater southern portion of the former [[East Prussia]], along with [[Gdańsk|Danzig (Gdańsk)]], pending a final peace conference with Germany which eventually never took place.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Politics Today Companion to West European Politics|author=Geoffrey K. Roberts, Patricia Hogwood|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2013|page=50|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q40tDwAAQBAJ|isbn=9781847790323}}; {{cite book|title=The United States and Poland|author=Piotr Stefan Wandycz|publisher=Harvard University Press|year= 1980|page=303|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_XaFaNshCrkC|isbn=9780674926851}}; {{cite book|title=The Oder-Neisse Line: a reappraisal under international law|author=Phillip A. Bühler|series=East European Monographs|year= 1990|page=33|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=riBpAAAAMAAJ|isbn=9780880331746}}</ref>
Collectively referred to by the Polish authorities as the "[[Recovered Territories]]", they were included in the reconstituted Polish state. With Germany's defeat Poland was thus shifted west in relation to its prewar location, to the area between the [[Oder–Neisse line|Oder–Neisse]] and [[Curzon Line|Curzon]] lines, which resulted in a country more compact and with much broader access to the sea.{{Ref label|c|c|none}} The Poles lost 70% of their pre-war oil capacity to the Soviets, but gained from the Germans a highly developed industrial base and infrastructure that made a diversified industrial economy possible for the first time in Polish history.<ref>{{Harvnb|Kolko|Kolko|1972|p=188}}.</ref>

The [[flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland during and after World War II|flight and expulsion of Germans]] from what was eastern Germany prior to the war began before and during the Soviet conquest of those regions from the Nazis, and the process continued in the years immediately after the war.<ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=408–410}}.</ref>
8,030,000 Germans were evacuated, expelled, or migrated by 1950.<ref>''Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste. Bevölkerungsbilanzen für die deutschen Vertreibungsgebiete 1939/50''. Herausgeber: Statistisches Bundesamt. Wiesbaden Stuttgart: [[Kohlhammer Verlag]], 1958, pp. 38, 45</ref>

[[File:Curzon line en.svg|thumb|right|[[Territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II]]: the gray territories were transferred from Poland to the Soviet Union, whereas the pink territories were transferred from Germany to Poland. Poland's new eastern border was adjusted in the following years.]]

Early expulsions in Poland were undertaken by the Polish communist authorities even before the Potsdam Conference (the "wild expulsions" from June to mid July 1945, when the Polish military and militia expelled nearly all people from the districts immediately east of the [[Oder–Neisse line]]),<ref>Philipp Ther, ''Deutsche Und Polnische Vertriebene: Gesellschaft und Vertriebenenpolitik in SBZ/ddr und in Polen 1945–1956'', 1998, p. 56, {{ISBN|3-525-35790-7}}</ref> to ensure the establishment of ethnically homogeneous Poland.<ref name=Gibney197>Matthew J. Gibney, Randall Hansen, ''Immigration and Asylum: From 1900 to the Present'', 2005, p. 197, {{ISBN|1-57607-796-9|978-1-57607-796-2}}</ref><ref>Naimark, ''Russian in Germany''. p. 75 reference 31: a citation from the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish Workers Party, May 20–21, 1945.</ref> About 1% (100,000) of the German civilian population east of the Oder–Neisse line perished in the fighting prior to the [[End of World War II in Europe|surrender in May 1945]],<ref>Spieler, Silke. ed. ''Vertreibung und Vertreibungsverbrechen 1945–1948''. Bericht des Bundesarchivs vom 28. Mai 1974. Archivalien und ausgewählte Erlebnisberichte. Bonn: Kulturstiftung der deutschen Vertriebenen. (1989). {{ISBN|3-88557-067-X}}, pp. 23–41</ref> and afterwards some 200,000 Germans in Poland were employed as forced labor prior to being expelled.<ref>{{Harvnb|Gawryszewski|2005|p=312}}.</ref> Many Germans died in [[Forced labor of Germans after World War II|labor camps]] such as the [[Zgoda labour camp]] and the [[Central Labour Camp in Potulice|Potulice camp]]. Of those Germans who remained within the new borders of Poland, many later chose to [[Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950)|emigrate to post-war Germany]].

On the other hand, 1.5–2 million ethnic Poles moved or were expelled from the previously Polish [[Kresy|areas annexed by the Soviet Union]]. The vast majority were resettled in the [[Recovered Territories|former German territories]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Langenbacher|2009|pp=59–60}}.</ref> At least one million Poles remained in what had become the Soviet Union, and at least half a million ended up in the West or elsewhere outside of Poland.<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 695-696"/> However, contrary to the official declaration that the former German inhabitants of the [[Recovered Territories]] had to be removed quickly to house Poles displaced by the Soviet annexation, the [[Recovered Territories]] initially faced a severe population shortage.<ref>{{cite book|title=Orderly and Humane. The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War|author=R. M. Douglas|publisher=Yale University Press|pages=261}}</ref>

Many exiled Poles could not return to the country for which they had fought because they belonged to political groups incompatible with the new communist regimes, or because they originated from areas of pre-war eastern Poland that were incorporated into the Soviet Union (see [[Polish population transfers (1944–1946)]]). Some were deterred from returning simply on the strength of warnings that anyone who had served in military units in the West would be endangered. Many Poles were pursued, arrested, tortured and imprisoned by the Soviet authorities for belonging to the [[Home Army]] or other formations (see [[Anti-communist resistance in Poland (1944–1946)]]),<ref name="Poland under Communism 23-24">{{Harvnb|Kemp-Welch|2008|pp=23–24}}.</ref> or were persecuted because they had fought on the Western front.<ref>{{Harvnb|Radzilowski|2007|pp=223–225}}.</ref>

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 175-S00-00326, Flüchtlinge aus Ostpreußen auf Pferdewagen.jpg|thumb|left|German refugees fleeing from [[East Prussia]], 1945]]

Territories on both sides of the new Polish-Ukrainian border were also "[[ethnic cleansing|ethnically cleansed]]". Of the Ukrainians and [[Lemkos]] living in Poland within the new borders (about 700,000), close to 95% were [[Population exchange between Poland and Soviet Ukraine|forcibly moved]] to the [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Soviet Ukraine]], or (in 1947) to the new territories in northern and western Poland under [[Operation Vistula]]. In [[Volhynia]], 98% of the Polish pre-war population was either killed or expelled; in Eastern [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicia]], the Polish population was reduced by 92%.<ref>{{Harvnb|Snyder|1999}}; {{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|pp=179–203}}.</ref> According to [[Timothy D. Snyder]], about 70,000 Poles and about 20,000 Ukrainians were killed in the ethnic violence that occurred in the 1940s, both during and after the war.<ref name="Snyder 204-205">{{Harvnb|Snyder|2003|pp=204–205}}.</ref>

According to an estimate by historian [[Jan Grabowski (historian)|Jan Grabowski]], about 50,000 of the 250,000 Polish Jews who escaped the Nazis during the liquidation of ghettos survived without leaving Poland (the remainder perished).<ref>{{Harvnb|Maciorowski|2018}}.</ref> More were repatriated from the Soviet Union and elsewhere, and the February 1946 population census showed about 300,000 Jews within Poland's new borders.<ref name="Buszko 410">{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|p=410}}.</ref>{{Ref label|e|e|none}} Of the surviving Jews, many chose to emigrate or felt compelled to because of the [[Anti-Jewish violence in Poland, 1944–1946|anti-Jewish violence in Poland]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Prażmowska|2011|p=191}}.</ref>

Because of changing borders and the mass movements of people of various nationalities, the emerging communist Poland ended up with a mainly homogeneous, ethnically Polish population (97.6% according to the December 1950 census).<ref name="Brzoza Sowa 695-696"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Buszko|1986|pp=410, 414–417}}.</ref> The remaining members of ethnic minorities were not encouraged, by the authorities or by their neighbors, to emphasize their ethnic identities.{{Ref label|i|i|none}}{{Ref label|a1|a1|none}}