AGOFF Silesia is the Silesia genealogy research center for Arbeitsgemeinschaft Ostdeutscher Familienforscher, an East German Genealogy Society with research centers throughout Eastern Europe.

“By the stipulations of the Potsdam Agreement of August 1945 , Silesia fell to Poland, with the exception of the areas lying west of the Lausitzer Neiße; the German population was largely expelled by the winter of 1946/47 ; more than one million people were declared autochthons in Upper Silesia Could stay. The country was populated by Polish settlers, who came from the part of Galicia and from Central Poland, which had fallen to the Soviet Union. About 400,000 civilians died in the years between 1945 and 1947. A part of the Oberschlesier emigrated to the Federal Republic, especially since the seventies, The German population is still considerable, and since 1989 these can also organize independently. At present, about 300,000-500,000 Germans live in the voivodes of Opole and Silesia (with Katowice), who are represented in the Sejm with a deputy.”

“The part of the province of Lower Silesia to the west of the Lusatian Neisse was annexed to the Land of Saxony, to which it belonged until 1815. In the course of the reform of the Länder in 1952, the area belonged to the Cottbus and Dresden districts. Since 1990 it has returned to Saxony, where it now belongs to the rural districts of Bautzen and Görlitz.”

“With the entry into force of the border treaty between Germany and Poland concluded in 1990 , the part of the formerly Prussian Silesia located east of the Neiße finally came under international law to the Republic of Poland. The administrative reform in 1999 took partial account of the historical boundaries of Silesia. The Polish Silesia is today divided into the provinces of Lower Silesia, Opole and Silesia, small parts belong to Lebus, Great and Little Poles.”

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