ABSTRACT
With an attack on Poland, on 1 September 1939, Hitler begins the Second World War. As a result of this, Europe witnesses the largest mass resettlements in human history. These affect over 9 million people in an area enveloping, as Wolfgang Benz listed ‘Finland from the north, from the east Ukraine, from the south Greece and France from the west’. A further 74,000 were transported during the final two years of the war. Those who survived returned to Poland after the war, with the majority settling in the Oder region. A much worse fate met those of Jewish background. Millions of Jews, including around 2.8 million Jews possessing Polish citizenship, were murdered by the Nazis or their bystanders. If one looks through the wartime regional periodical, it is difficult to get the impression that everyday life along the Oder had changed significantly.
