Division ofinterwar Poland by the occupying powers
1939–41
FourthPartition of Poland – aftermath of theNazi–Soviet Pact; division of Polish territories in the years 1939–1941
1941–44
Changes in administration of Polish territories following theGerman invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. The map shows the state in 1944

Subdivision of Polish territories during World War II can be divided into several phases. The territories of theSecond Polish Republic were first administered first byNazi Germany (in the west) and theSoviet Union (in the east), then (followingthe 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.

AfterGermany 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 andBelarusians in the north.^[1] Many of these people had felt alienated in the interwar Poland and welcomed the Soviets.^[2]

By the end of the Polish Defensive War the Soviet Union had taken over 52.1% of the territory of Poland (circa 200,000 km²), with over 13,700,000 people. The estimates vary; ProfessorElżbieta Trela-Mazur gives the following numbers in regards to the ethnic composition of these areas: 38% Poles (ca. 5.1 million people), 37% Ukrainians, 14.5% Belarusians, 8.4% Jews, 0.9% Russians and 0.6% Germans. There were also 336,000 refugees from areas occupied by Germany, most of them Jews (198,000).^[2] Areas occupied by theUSSR wereannexed to Soviet territory, with the exception of area ofWilno, whichwas transferred toLithuania, althoughsoon attached to USSR, whenLithuania became aSoviet republic.

Under the terms of theMolotov–Ribbentrop pact, adjusted by agreement on 28 September 1939, theSoviet Union, annexed all Polish territory east of the line of the riversPisa,Narew,Bug andSan, except for the area around Wilno (Vilnius), which was given toLithuania, and theSuwałki region, which was annexed by Germany. These territories were largely inhabited by Ukrainians and Belarusians, with minorities ofPoles andJews (see exact numbers inCurzon line). The total area, including the area given to Lithuania, was 201,000 square kilometres, with a population of 13.5 million. A small strip of land that was part ofHungary before 1914, was also given toSlovakia.

Under the terms of two decrees by Hitler (8 October and 12 October 1939), large areas of western Poland were annexed to Germany. These included all the territories taken by Prussia inPartitions of Poland which Germany subsequently lost under the 1918Treaty of Versailles, including thePolish Corridor,Wielkopolska, as well as territories divided after plebiscites such asUpper Silesia, as well as a large area east of these territories, including the city ofŁódź.

The area of these annexed territories was 94,000 square kilometres and the population was about 10 million, the great majority of whom were Poles. The annexed parts were controlled by a German administration ruled by a Gauleiter, a system similar in practice to that of the Reich itself. Nearly 1 million Poles were expelled from this German ruled area, while 600,000 Germans from eastern Europe and 400,000 from the German Reich were settled there.

The remaining block of territory was placed under a German administration called theGeneral Government (in GermanGeneralgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete), with its capital atKraków. The General Government was subdivided into four districts,Warsaw,Lublin,Radom, andKraków (Distrikt Krakau).

A German lawyer and prominent Nazi,Hans Frank, was appointed "Governor-General of the occupied Polish territories" on 26 October 1939. Frank oversaw the segregation of theJews intoNazi ghettos in the larger cities, particularly Warsaw, and the use of Polish civilians as forced and slave labour in German war industries.

AfterOperation Barbarossa, the June 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union, the Polish territories previously annexed to theUkrainian andByelorussian republics were organized by the Germans as follows:

• Bezirk Bialystok (district ofBiałystok), which included theBiałystok,Bielsk Podlaski,Grajewo,Łomża,Sokółka,Volkovysk, andGrodno counties, which was "attached to" (but not incorporated into)East Prussia;
• Generalbezirk Litauen – theVilna Province was incorporated intoLithuania, itself incorporated into theReichskommissariat Ostland;
• Generalbezirk Weißruthenien – "White Ruthenia" (the western section of modern-dayBelarus) was incorporated into theReichskommissariat Ostland;
• Generalbezirk Wolhynien und Podolien – the Polish province ofVolhynia, which was incorporated into theReichskommissariat Ukraine; and
• EastGalicia, which was incorporated into the General-Government and became its fifth district, theGalician District (Distrikt Galizien).

Soviet forces returned to former territories of the Second Polish Republic during the 1944 summer offensive,Operation Bagration, specifically in theLublin–Brest Offensive), leading toVistula–Oder Offensive of 1945. However, in terms of international politics, a far more important victory was won by Joseph Stalin already in 1943, when the Western Allies yielded to his demands during theTehran Conference, for the annexation of eastern Poland by the Soviet Union.^[5]

With full Soviet control and sponsorship, in July 1944, thePolish Committee of National Liberation (Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego, PKWN), aPolish provisional government was formed. Its purpose was to administer the territories earmarked for the return to the newly reformed Poland. Starting with the communist decrees of 1946, the legal powers were passed on to local administration (seeAdministrative division of People's Republic of Poland).^[6]

Throughout World War II, Poland had a unique underground administration maintained by thePolish Underground State. For regional divisions of Poland by the underground army known asArmia Krajowa, seeareas and regions of operation. Following the German surrender, Soviet agencies such asNKVD andSMERSH proceeded to eliminate all structures originating from the prewarSecond Polish Republic. Over 20,000 Poles, including the hero ofAuschwitz,Witold Pilecki, were murdered in communist prisons.^[7]

• German military administration in occupied Poland

• Map of Poland under German occupation

• Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)
• Former administrative divisions of Poland

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