The big three meets in Yalta, and discusses the future postwar development of Europe.
Americans are very needy for Soviet support in Asia, and are very uninterested regarding future of Europe.
For the Soviets, the goal was to press as far west as possible.
However Churchill was to have none of that. He was most dedicated to securing the independence of Poland: fir it alone was the reason why Britain entered the war in the first place.
His reply: "I am not to accept any changes of Polish borders.That is up to Raczkiewicz"(1) became legendary.
However, Stalin was pressing hard, and Churchill decided that East Prussia with exception of Ermland and Masuria was to be given to the Soviets as reward, while the two areas were to be given to Poland.
Furthermore an occupied Germany was decided: A soviet Pomerania,Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Lower Silesia, Saxony and Thuringia,an American Bavaria and Wurttemberg with Hesse, a French Baden and Rhineland a the rest British.
The border changes in the rest of Europe were unmentioned, but it was presumed that they would be reversed back.
Meanwhile Czechoslovak emigrants proposed ceding Egerland to Germany and getting Kladsko in return. Yugoslav exile was trying to restore prewar borders as well.
Lobbying by the Baltic states concerned their independence, and Romania wanted to restore prewar borders as well.
The Potsdam conference decides:
(1) Wladislaw Raczliewicz led the Polish government in exile
Americans are very needy for Soviet support in Asia, and are very uninterested regarding future of Europe.
For the Soviets, the goal was to press as far west as possible.
However Churchill was to have none of that. He was most dedicated to securing the independence of Poland: fir it alone was the reason why Britain entered the war in the first place.
His reply: "I am not to accept any changes of Polish borders.That is up to Raczkiewicz"(1) became legendary.
However, Stalin was pressing hard, and Churchill decided that East Prussia with exception of Ermland and Masuria was to be given to the Soviets as reward, while the two areas were to be given to Poland.
Furthermore an occupied Germany was decided: A soviet Pomerania,Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Lower Silesia, Saxony and Thuringia,an American Bavaria and Wurttemberg with Hesse, a French Baden and Rhineland a the rest British.
The border changes in the rest of Europe were unmentioned, but it was presumed that they would be reversed back.
Meanwhile Czechoslovak emigrants proposed ceding Egerland to Germany and getting Kladsko in return. Yugoslav exile was trying to restore prewar borders as well.
Lobbying by the Baltic states concerned their independence, and Romania wanted to restore prewar borders as well.
The Potsdam conference decides:
- 4Ds of Germany
- Allenstein region and Heilsberg district to be ceded to Poland, rest of East Prussia to Soviet Union.
- Gdansk and Posen-Westpreussen with Upper Silesia to ceded to Poland.
- Egerland exchanged for Kladsko, rounding of the Czech borders.
- A U.N. plebiscite about Slovak independence to be held.
- U.N. plebiscite in Budjak to be held, north Bukovina to Ukraine
- Hungarian-Romanian border corrections-Hungarian areas directly adjacent to the border to join Hungary
- Yugoslavia to gain Dalmatia, and twothirds of Istria
(1) Wladislaw Raczliewicz led the Polish government in exile