Editing Silesia (section)

====Consequences of World War II====
After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, following [[Racial policy of Nazi Germany|Nazi racial policy]], the Jewish population of Silesia was subjected to Nazi genocide with executions performed by Einsatzgruppe z. B.V. led by [[Udo von Woyrsch]] and Einsatzgruppe I led by [[Bruno Streckenbach]],<ref>Popularna encyklopedia powszechna – Volume 10 – Page 660 Magdalena Olkuśnik, Elżbieta Wójcik – 2001 Streckenbach Bruno (1902–1977), funkcjonariusz niem. państwa nazistowskiego, Gruppenfuhrer SS. Od 1933 szef policji po- lit w Hamburgu. 1939 dow. Einsatzgruppe I (odpowiedzialny za eksterminacje ludności pol. i żydowskiej na Śląsku).</ref><ref>Zagłada Żydów na polskich terenach wcielonych do Rzeszy Page 53 Aleksandra Namysło, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej—Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu – 2008
W rzeczywistości ludzie Udona von Woyr- scha podczas marszu przez województwo śląskie na wschód dopuszczali się prawdziwych masakr ludności żydowskiej.</ref> imprisonment in ghettos and ethnic cleansing to the [[General Government]]. In their efforts to exterminate the Jews through murder and ethnic cleansing Nazi established in Silesia province the Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen camps. Expulsions were carried out openly and reported in the local press.<ref name="Steinbacher, S 2004 P126">Steinbacher, S. "In the Shadow of Auschwitz, The murder of the Jews of East Upper Silesia", in Cesarani, D. (2004) ''Holocaust: From the persecution of the Jews to mass murder,'' Routledge, P126</ref> Those sent to ghettos would from 1942 be expelled to concentration and work camps.<ref name="Steinbacher, S 2004 pp.110-138">Steinbacher, S. "In the Shadow of Auschwitz, The murder of the Jews of East Upper Silesia", in Cesarani, D. (2004) ''Holocaust: From the persecution of the Jews to mass murder,'' Routledge, pp.110–138.</ref> Between 5 May and 17 June, 20,000 Silesian Jews were sent to Birkenau to gas chambers<ref>The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939 – March 1942 – Page 544
Christopher R. Browning – 2007
Between 5 May and 17 June, 20,000 Silesian Jews were deported to Birkenau to be gassed.</ref> and during August 1942, 10,000 to 13,000 Silesian Jews were murdered by gassing at Auschwitz.<ref>Christopher R. Browning (2007). ''The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939 – March 1942,'' University of Nebraska Press, p.544.</ref> Most Jews in Silesia were exterminated by the Nazis. After the war Silesia became a major centre for repatriation of the Jewish population in Poland which survived Nazi German extermination<ref>The International Jewish Labor Bund After 1945: Toward a Global History David Slucki, page 63</ref> and in autumn 1945, 15,000 Jews were in Lower Silesia, mostly Polish Jews returned from territories now belonging to Soviet Union,<ref>A narrow bridge to life: Jewish forced labor and survival in the Gross-Rosen camp system, 1940–1945, page 229 Belah Guṭerman</ref> rising in 1946 to seventy thousand<ref>Kochavi, AJ (2001)Post-Holocaust politics: Britain, the United States & Jewish refugees, 1945–1948, University of North Carolina Press P 176</ref> as Jewish survivors from other regions in Poland were relocated.<ref name="Kochavi, AJ 2001 p.176">Kochavi, AJ (2001). ''Post-Holocaust politics: Britain, the United States & Jewish refugees, 1945–1948,'' University of North Carolina Press, p.176.</ref>

The majority of Germans fled or were expelled from the present-day Polish and Czech parts of Silesia during and after World War II. From June 1945 to January 1947, 1.77&nbsp;million Germans were expelled from Lower Silesia, and 310,000 from Upper Silesia.<ref>DB Klusmeyer & DG Papademetriou (2009). ''Immigration policy in the Federal Republic of Germany: negotiating membership and remaking the nation,'' Berghahn, p.70.</ref> Today, most German Silesians and their descendants live in the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany, many of them in the [[Ruhr area]] working as miners, like their ancestors in Silesia. One of its most notable but controversial spokesmen was the [[Christian Democratic Union (Germany)|Christian Democratic Union]] politician [[Herbert Hupka]].

The expulsion of Germans led to widespread underpopulation. The population of the town of [[Głogów]] fell from 33,500 to 5,000, and from 1939 to 1966 the population of Wrocław fell by 25%.<ref>Scholz, A (1964). ''Silesia: yesterday and today,'' Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, p.69.</ref> Attempts to repopulate Silesia proved unsuccessful in the 1940s and 1950s,<ref>Mazower, M (1999). ''Dark Continent: Europe's 20th Century,'' Penguin, p.223.</ref> and Silesia's population did not reach pre-war levels until the late 1970s. The Polish settlers who repopulated Silesia were partly from the former Polish [[Kresy|Eastern Borderlands]], which was annexed by the [[Soviet Union]] in 1939. Wrocław was partly repopulated with refugees from the formerly Polish city of [[Lviv|Lwów]].