Poles in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Their destiny was tied closely to that of the Ukrainian minority, with whom they joined the Yugoslav Resistance after the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia.

After the Second World War, Bosnian Poles faced difficulties with establishing their rights as a minority as well as persecution by local population and remaining fascist collaborators.

There were around 30,000 Poles in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1930, while their number today is estimated to be less than a thousand, with communities in the major cities of Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Zenica and Mostar.

[3] The Polish settlers were predominantly ethnic Roman Catholic farmers from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, a crown land of Austria.

Civil servants, physicians, engineers and lawyers,[2] all driven by expectations of fast career advancement and higher wages,[1] were also among Polish settlers.

[3] The Bosnian Poles were appraised beekeepers and also left a great mark on the country's agriculture, as they introduced synthetic fertilizers and non-food crops in the regions they inhabited.

These benefits lapsed following the First World War, when Austria-Hungary broke apart and Bosnia and Herzegovina was incorporated into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

Dąbrowska wrote that as much as 80% were pressured into becoming Yugoslav citizens, which deprived them of the right to appeal to Polish consulates and had an adverse effect on their political status.

Its regime organized the transfer of many Bosnian Poles to villages in the adjacent region of Slavonia in order to raise the percentage of Roman Catholics there.

[2] Bosnian Poles joined the resistance movement led by the Yugoslav Partisans rather reluctantly, possibly due to a "different treatment by the Germans in Bosnia".

The Partisans were eager to induce both groups and considered it a success when the number of mobilized Poles and Ukrainians from the Prnjavor area rose to 20.

[2] Their emigration was hastened by a terror campaign launched against them and Ukrainians by the Chetniks "with the support of a large part of the Serb population" who "did not view these minorities with sympathy".