Editing History of Germany (section)

=== Expulsion ===

At the [[Potsdam Conference]], Germany was [[Partitions of Germany|divided into four military occupation zones]] by the Allies and did not regain independence until 1949. The provinces east of the Oder and Neisse rivers (the [[Oder-Neisse line]]) were transferred to Poland and Soviet Russia ([[Kaliningrad oblast]]) while Saarland separated from Germany to become a French [[protectorate]] on 17 December 1947 (joined West Germany on 1 January 1957), pending a final peace conference with Germany, which eventually never took place.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Geoffrey K. |last=Roberts, Patricia Hogwood |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q40tDwAAQBAJ |title=The Politics Today Companion to West European Politics |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2013 |isbn=978-1-8477-9032-3 |page=50}}; {{Cite book|title=The United States and Poland|author=Piotr Stefan Wandycz|publisher=Harvard University Press|date= 1980|page=303|isbn=978-0-6749-2685-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_XaFaNshCrkC}}; {{Cite book|title=The Oder-Neisse Line: a reappraisal under international law|author=Phillip A. Bühler|series=East European Monographs|date= 1990|page=33|isbn=978-0-8803-3174-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=riBpAAAAMAAJ}}</ref> Most of the remaining German population [[Expulsion of Germans after World War II|was expelled]]. Around 6.7 million Germans living in [[Territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II|"west-shifted" Poland]], mostly within previously German lands, and the 3 million in German-settled regions of Czechoslovakia were [[Ethnic cleansing|deported west]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schechtman |first=Joseph B. |date=April 1953 |title=Postwar Population Transfers in Europe: A Survey |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_review-of-politics_1953-04_15_2/page/151 |journal=Review of Politics |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=151–178 |doi=10.1017/s0034670500008081 |jstor=1405220 |s2cid=144307581}} "Most had left" is p. 158.</ref>