Potsdam Agreement
Events
in wich Poland was/is involved

The Potsdam Agreement

The Potsdam Conference was held from July 17 to August 2, 1945 in the Cecilienhof in Potsdam, Germany.
The participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the three largest and most powerful of the Allies that defeated the Axis Powers in World War II. They signed the Potsdam Agreement, that specified the policy for the occupation and reconstruction of Germany and other nations after World War II.
The Allies were represented by Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and later Clement Attlee, and President Harry S. Truman.

Decisions about Poland
  • There should be a Provisional Government of National Unity recognised by all three powers.
  • Those Poles who were serving in British Army formations should be free to return to Poland.
  •  The provisional western border should be the Oder-Neisse line, parts of East Prussia and former free City of Danzig should be under Polish administration.
  •  Poland had to give up its eastern area's in favour of the Soviet Union.
    • The shift forced the migration of millions of people, most of whom were Poles, Germans, Ukrainians.
    After World War II Poland had become 20% smaller then before the war. Poland is the only allied country that lost a part of its surface. The final delimitation of the frontiers of Poland should await the peace settlement, which had to await the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany in 1990.

    The Treaty of Zgorzelec
    (In German: Görlitzer Abkommen; Polish: Układ zgorzelecki) was signed in Zgorzelec, Poland, on July 6, 1950. The treaty acknowledged that the Oder-Neisse line was the Polish-German border, as it had been decided during the Potsdam Conference. It was signed by Józef Cyrankiewicz and Otto Grotewohl, the Prime Ministers of Poland and East Germany, respectively.
    See also the topic 'Polish Peoples Republic'.             More information

    Polonica stamps:

    German Dem. Rep. 1951, 22 IV
    		 German Dem. Rep. 1970, 01 VII
    		 German Dem. Rep. 1970, 28 VII