German minority in Poland
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The registered German minority in Poland at the Polish census of 2021 were 144,177.
Commanders of the Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz, a paramilitary organization composed of members of the German minority living in pre-war Poland, 1939
Willy-Brandt-Schule in Warsaw
Władysław Anders, a general in the Polish Army and prominent member of the Polish government-in-exile in London was of Baltic-German ancestry.
The occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II (1939–1945) began with the Invasion of Poland in September 1939, and it was formally concluded with the defeat of Germany by the Allies in May 1945. Throughout the entire course of the occupation, the territory of Poland was divided between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union (USSR), both of which intended to eradicate Poland's culture and subjugate its people. In the summer-autumn of 1941, the lands which were annexed by the Soviets were overrun by Germany in the course of the initially successful German attack on the USSR. After a few years of fighting, the Red Army drove the German forces out of the USSR and crossed into Poland from the rest of Central and Eastern Europe.
Beginning of Lebensraum, the German expulsion of Poles from western Poland, 1939
Operation Tannenberg, October 1939, mass murder of Polish townsmen in western Poland
German and Soviet soldiers stroll around Sambir after the German-Soviet invasion of Poland.
Expulsion of Poles from western Poland, with Poles led to the trains under German army escort, 1939.