Ethnic minorities in Poland

After centuries of relative ethnic diversity, the population of modern Poland has become nearly completely ethnically homogeneous Polish as a result of altered borders and the Nazi German and Soviet or Polish Communist population transfers, expulsions and deportations (from or to Poland) during and after World War II.

The early influx of Czechs, Hungarians, Slovaks, and Germans was particularly notable, and they formed significant minorities (or majorities) in urban centers.

[4] This increased due to the Polish victory in the Polish-Soviet War and the large territorial gains in the east as a consequence.

[4] Before World War II, one-third of Poland's population belonged to ethnic minority groups.

Under the National Repatriation Office (Państwowy Urząd Repatriacyjny), millions of Poles were forced to leave their homes in the eastern Kresy region and settle in territories regained from Germany in the west.

Between 40,000 and 100,000 Polish Jews survived the Holocaust in Poland, another 50,000 to 170,000 were repatriated from the Soviet Union, and 20,000 to 40,000 came from Germany and other countries.

There were 180,000 to 240,000 Jews in Poland at the country's postwar peak, settled mainly in Warsaw, Łódź, Kraków and Wrocław.