St. Antony's/MacMillan Series Civil Engineering and Engineer

1 total work

Lower Silesia from Nazi Germany to Communist Poland, 1942-49

by Sebastian Siebel-Achenbach

Published 1 January 1994

Lower Silesia was one of the regions Germany lost to Poland following World War II. During the space of but a few years, the entire territory was transformed, reversing the tradition of centuries. The eviction and suffering of the indigenous Germans is contrasted with the similar hardships the Polish resettlers were forced to undergo. Striking is the similarity of manipulation of both Silesian groups by their political masters. Equally, the reasons for the territorial transfer by the triumphant Allies has not been neglected. That Lower Silesia was ceded at all reveals much about wartime and postwar Allied negotiations which culminated in the Cold War. This text displays original documentation from diverse sources, presenting a complete picture of developments in a neglected region of Eastern Europe. Both diplomatic negotiations and actual developments have been analyzed and presented as a series of interrelated events.