To understand the people involved in the resettlements and the documents found in the PUR collection, a short general history must be provided. Before World War II, Poland was an ethnically diverse country. It had a wide range of ethnic groups, religions and languages. Although Poles still made up the majority of the population, they were mainly concentrated in the middle of the country. On the borders, Poles did not always make up the majority, and in some places, made up only a small fraction of the population.

Breakdown of population by native language of the three Eastern Galician provinces from 1931 Census

The times between the two world wars saw great ethnic strife between the various ethnic groups. Poland endured political conflict, sometimes leading to open war, within its own borders with ethnic groups such as Czechs, Ukrainians, Belorusians, Lithuanians and Germans. Clearly beyond the scope of this article, I recommend others to read histories, available in English, on this critical subject.

At the treaty of Yalta in February 1945, while the Nazi Germans were retreating on all fronts, the Allied Powers consisting of the Soviet Union (which at the start of the war was allied with Germany, but later became an enemy after the German invasion), England and the US, discussed a new world order after victory. One of their ideas was to redraw the map of Europe, especially in terms of Poland. They stated that "the Polish frontier should run along the Curzon line" and that "Poland ought to acquire considerable territorial gains in the north and west". (Klafkowski, 71) Notably absent from the agreement was a representative of Poland. Later after the war was over, the same three powers concluded the Pottsdam Agreement in August 1945. In this treaty, the decision was to move Poland roughly 200 kilometers to the west.

In addition to moving the borders, the decision called for a massive relocation of populations. Ethnic Germans (not already fleeing with the German army) would be forced out of the land that became western Poland. Ethnic Poles from the pre-war Eastern Territories would be moved to the western lands vacated by the Germans, often called in Polish histories as the Recovered Territories, or in Polish, Ziemie Odzyskane. Backed by the Soviet government, the Polish government reasoned that the acquiring of this German territory was an historical move to take back for Poland what rightfully belonged to Poland before the 14^th Century. (This assertion is really quite absurd for it completely ignores the last 600 years of history and development.) The legal aspect of this border change, the result of which is accepted officially without reservation by the countries today, is still questionable to some historians.

The intent of this policy was to remove the ethnic tension seen before (and even during) World War II. The effect though, was a complete upheaval of Polish society and horrible tragedy to the individuals involved. Furthermore, society in the western provinces for decades was overshadowed by the contrast between the indigenous inhabitants and those people who were relocated. Kersten writes "Local traditions and symbols, places of worship, and traditional cultural signs that had defined identities and provided feelings of stability and safety became things of the past. Attempts were made to preserve certain vestiges to transfer old cultural reference points to new homes. Most of these efforts were in vain. The chaotic nature of the resettlement made it impossible to recreate familiar environments in the newly settled areas. People did, in time, take root in their new communities, but these roots were much weaker than the old ones had been." (Kersten 83)

Sources of inflow and the location of particular groups in the Recovered Territories on January 1, 1947^3
3Ziółkowski, 138.

Breakdown of New Arrivals to the Recovered Territories up to 1950^4
4Ziółkowski, 144
Resettlers’ place of origin based on residence in August 1939.

This short history is not meant to be inclusive. I avoid the many aspects concerning ethnic relations from before, during and after the war. I further avoided giving details and reasons to the ethnic tensions and the impact of the foreign invading German and Soviet forces. I intend this over-simplification solely as a background to the genealogical documents. I strongly recommend everyone interested to read more on the subject.

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