Subdivisions of Polish territories during World War II
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Subdivision of Polish territories during World War II can be divided into several phases. The territories of the Second Polish Republic were first administered first by Nazi Germany (in the west) and the Soviet Union (in the east), then (following the German invasion of the Soviet Union) in their entirety by Nazi Germany, and finally (following Soviet push westwards) by the Soviet Union again. In 1946, administrative control of the areas not annexed by the Soviet Union was returned to Poland.
Division of interwar Poland by the occupying powers | |
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1939–41 | |
1941–44 | |
After Germany and the Soviet Union conquered Poland in 1939, they partitioned the country. Germany took most of the ethnically Polish territory. The area annexed by the Soviet Union was ethnically diverse: Poles were the largest single ethnic group, but there were non-Polish majorities in some regions: Ukrainians in the south and Belarusians in the north.[1] Many of these people had felt alienated in the interwar Poland and welcomed the Soviets.[2]