Border conflicts between Poland and Czechoslovakia

Border conflicts between Poland and Czechoslovakia began in 1918 between the Second Polish Republic

Second Polish Republic

The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...

and First Czechoslovak Republic, both freshly created states. The conflicts centered on the disputed areas of Cieszyn Silesia

Cieszyn Silesia

Cieszyn Silesia or Těšín Silesia or Teschen Silesia is a historical region in south-eastern Silesia, centered around the towns of Cieszyn and Český Těšín and bisected by the Olza River. Since 1920 it has been divided between Poland and Czechoslovakia, and later the Czech Republic...

, Orava Territory

Orava (county)

Árva is the Hungarian name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in northern Slovakia and southern Poland...

and Spiš

Spiš

Spiš is a region in north-eastern Slovakia, with a very small area in south-eastern Poland. Spiš is an informal designation of the territory , but it is also the name of one the 21 official tourism regions of Slovakia...

. After World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

they broadened to include areas around the cities of Klodzko

Klodzko

Kłodzko is a town in south-western Poland, in the region of Lower Silesia. It is situated in the centre of the Kłodzko Valley, on the Nysa Kłodzka river....

and Racibórz

Racibórz

Racibórz is a town in southern Poland with 60,218 inhabitants situated in the Silesian Voivodeship , previously in Katowice Voivodeship...

, which until 1945 had belonged to Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

. The conflicts became critical in 1919 and were finally settled in 1958 in a treaty between the People's Republic of Poland

People's Republic of Poland

The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...

and Czechoslovakia.

Before World War I

Before the First World War both Spiš

Spiš

and Orava

Orava (region)

Orava is the traditional name of a region situated in northern Slovakia and partially also in southern Poland . It encompasses the territory of the former Árva county.-History:...

were multi-ethnic areas. The inhabitants of the northernmost parts of both lands were predominantly Gorals

Gorals

The Gorale are a group of indigenous people found along southern Poland, northern Slovakia, and in the region of Cieszyn Silesia in the Czech Republic...

, whose dialect and customs were in many ways similar to those of the Podhale

Podhale

The Podhale is Poland's most southern region, sometimes referred to as the "Polish highlands". The Podhale is located in the foothills of the Tatra range of the Carpathian mountains, and is characterized by a rich tradition of folklore that is much romanticized in the Polish patriotic imagination...

Gorals. Another Goral enclave was situated in Čadca

Cadca

Čadca is a district town in northern Slovakia, near the border with Poland and the Czech Republic.-Geography:It is located south of the Jablunkov Pass, surrounded by the Javorníky, Kysucké Beskydy and Turzovská vrchovina mountain ranges. It lies in the valley of the Kysuca river, around 30 km...

area. At the end of 19th century tourism in and around the Tatra Mountains

Tatra Mountains

The Tatra Mountains, Tatras or Tatra , are a mountain range which forms a natural border between Slovakia and Poland, and are the highest mountain range in the Carpathian Mountains...

became very popular among the Polish educated public and the folklore

Folklore

Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...

of the Podhale Gorals was heavily romanticized by writers and artists. Because of their archaic Polish basis, the Goral dialects became a popular object of study among linguists dealing with the history of the Polish language

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

.

As a result, by the end of the 19th century Polish intellectuals commonly saw the Goral speaking areas in Spiš, Orava and around Čadca as being ethnographically Polish just like Podhale, irrespective of their inhabitants' actual national consciousness (or lack of it). Actually, the Slovak national movement in these areas was older and stronger than Polish . The exception was northeastern Orava, with an influx of Polish or Polish-educated priests into the local catholic parishes and some circulation of the Polish-language newspaper Gazeta Zakopiańska from nearby Podhale.

Creation of Poland and Czechoslovakia

After the end of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, both of the two newly created independent states of Second Polish Republic

Second Polish Republic

and First Czechoslovak Republic claimed the area of Cieszyn Silesia

Cieszyn Silesia

. Czechoslovakia claimed the area partly on historic and ethnic grounds, but especially on economic and strategic grounds. The disputed area was part of the historic lands of Bohemian Crown. The only railway from Czech territory to eastern Slovakia ran through this area (Košice-Bohumín Railway

Košice-Bohumín Railway

The Košice–Bohumín Railway can refer to:*originally: A private railway company established in 1869 in Austria-Hungary. In 1924 the company was nationalised and put under the Czechoslovak State Railways....

), and access to the railway was critical for Czechoslovakia: the newly-formed country was at war with Béla Kun

Béla Kun

Béla Kun , born Béla Kohn, was a Hungarian Communist politician and a Bolshevik Revolutionary who led the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919.- Early life :...

's revolutionary Hungarian Soviet Republic

Hungarian Soviet Republic

The Hungarian Soviet Republic or Soviet Republic of Hungary was a short-lived Communist state established in Hungary in the aftermath of World War I....

, which was attempting to re-establish Hungarian sovereignty over Slovakia. The area is also very rich in black coal, and it was the most industrialized region of all Austria-Hungary. The important Třinec Iron and Steel Works

Trinec Iron and Steel Works

Třinec Iron and Steel Works is a producer of long rolled steel products in Třinec, Moravian-Silesian Region, Czech Republic. TŽ produces over a third of all steel produced in the Czech Republic . Since its establishment, Třinecké železárny's plants have produced more than 150 million tons of...

are also located here. All these raised the strategic importance of this region to Czechoslovakia. On the other hand, majority of the population was Polish, with substantial Czech and German minorities.

The Polish side based its claim to the area on ethnic criteria: a majority of the area's population was Polish according to the last (1910) Austrian census.

Two local self-government councils, Polish and Czech, were created. Initially, both national councils claimed the whole of Cieszyn Silesia for themselves, the Polish Rada Narodowa Księstwa Cieszyńskiego in its declaration "Ludu śląski!" of 30 October 1918 and the Czech Národní výbor pro Slezsko in its declaration of 1 November 1918. On 31 October 1918, in the wake of World War I

World War I

and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, most of the area was taken over by local Polish authorities. The short-lived interim agreement of 2 November 1918 reflected the inability of the two national councils to come to final delimitation

Boundary delimitation

Boundary delimitation, or simply delimitation, is the term used to describe the drawing of boundaries, but is most often used to describe the drawing of electoral boundaries, specifically those of precincts, states, counties or other municipalities...

, and on 5 November 1918 the area was divided between Poland and Czechoslovakia by another interim agreement. In 1919 the councils were absorbed by the newly created and independent central governments in Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

and Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

.

The inclusion of Spiš and Orava in the new state of Czechoslovakia was also not welcomed by all of its residents. In early November 1918 National Council of Poles in Upper Orava constituated itself in Jabłonka and pro-Polish Spisz National Council declared its existence in Stará Ľubovňa

Stará Lubovna

Stará Ľubovňa is a town with approximately 16,000 inhabitants in northeastern Slovakia. The town consists of the districts Podsadek and Stará Ľubovňa.-Geography:...

, both groups being in contact with Republic of Zakopane

Republic of Zakopane

The Republic of Zakopane or Commonwealth of Zakopane refers to the area of the city of Zakopane and a few nearby villages that created its own "parliament" on October 13, 1918, whose main goal was to join the forming independent state of Poland...

– a short (1 month) lived autonomous Polish statelet in Podhale, whose president was Stefan Żeromski

Stefan Zeromski

Stefan Żeromski was a Polish novelist and dramatist. He was called the "conscience of Polish literature". He also wrote under the pen names: Maurycy Zych, Józef Katerla and Stefan Iksmoreż.- Life :...

. On 6 November 1918, Polish forces entered Spiš, but retreated after a defeat at Kežmarok

Kežmarok

Kežmarok is a town in the Spiš region of eastern Slovakia , on the Poprad River.-History:...

on 7 December 1918 as well as pressure from the Entente

Allies of World War I

The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...

. In June 1919, however, the Poles captured again northern Spiš and in addition northern Orava. In Spiš they demanded the whole northern half of the region down to Poprad

Poprad

Poprad is a city in northern Slovakia at the foot of the High Tatra Mountains famous for its picturesque historic centre and as a holiday resort. It is the biggest town of the Spiš region and the tenth largest city in Slovakia with a population of approximately 55,000.The Poprad-Tatry Airport is...

, though units were withdrawn after orders from Warsaw in January 1919. Although both governments promised to carry out plebiscites in villages in northern Spiš and northeastern Orava about whether those people want to live in Poland or in Czechoslovakia, plebiscites were not held and both governments agreed to arbitration.

In Poland the case was advocated by Polish Tatra Society and later by National Committee for Defense of Spisz, Orawa, Czadca and Podhale established in Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

and led by Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer

Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer

Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer was a Polish poet, novelist, playwright, journalist and writer. He was a member of the Young Poland movement.-Life:...

, a popular writer known for his stories on Tatra mountains and Goral folklore. It's worth to notice, that the whole conflict was seen as Polish-Czech issue rather than Polish-Slovak, with phrases like "Czech invasion" in common use . The Committee organized a delegation, whose members - Ferdynand Machay, a priest born in Jabłonka (Orava), Piotr Borowy from Rabče (Orava) and Wojciech Halczyn from Lendak

Lendak

Lendak is a village and municipality in Kežmarok District in the Prešov Region of north Slovakia.-Geography:The municipality lies at an altitude of 749 metres and covers an area of 19.658 km².It has a population of about 4620 people.-Local Enterprises:...

(Spiš) went to Paris and, during a personal audience, talked to president Thomas Woodrow Wilson.

Czechoslovak-Polish conflict in 1919

In January 1919 a war erupted between Second Polish Republic

Second Polish Republic

and First Czechoslovak Republic over the Cieszyn Silesia

Cieszyn Silesia

area in Silesia

Silesia

Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...

. The Czechoslovak government in Prague requested that the Poles cease their preparations for national parliamentary elections in the area that had been designated Polish in the interim agreement as no sovereign rule was to be executed in the disputed areas. The Polish government declined and the Czechoslovak side decided to stop the preparations by force. Czechoslovak troops entered area managed by Polish interim body on January 23. Czechoslovak troops gained the upper hand over the weaker Polish units. The majority of Polish forces were engaged in fighting with the West Ukrainian National Republic

West Ukrainian National Republic

The West Ukrainian People's Republic was a short-lived republic that existed in late 1918 and early 1919 in eastern Galicia, that claimed parts of Bukovina and Carpathian Ruthenia and included the cities of Lviv , Przemyśl , Kolomyia , and Stanislaviv...

over eastern Galicia at that time. Czechoslovakia was forced to stop the advance by the Entente

Allies of World War I

, and Czechoslovakia and Poland were compelled to sign a new demarcation line on February 3, 1919 in Paris.

At the Paris Peace Conference

Paris Peace Conference, 1919

The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities...

(1919), Poland requested northwesternmost Spiš (including the region around Javorina

Javorina

Javorina was a military district in the Kežmarok District in northern Slovakia, in the Levoča Hills. Its area is 316.24km² and has no permanent population.-History: The military district was created in 1952...

Negotiations of the 1920s

A final line was set up at the Spa Conference

Spa Conference

The Spa Conference was a meeting between the Supreme War Council and Weimar Republic in Spa, Belgium on 5–16 July 1920. It was the first post-war conference to include German representatives. The attendees included British and French Prime Ministers Lloyd George and Alexandre Millerand, German...

in Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

. On July 28, 1920, the western part of the disputed territory was given to Czechoslovakia while Poland received the eastern part, thus creating a Zaolzie

Zaolzie

Zaolzie is the Polish name for an area now in the Czech Republic which was disputed between interwar Poland and Czechoslovakia. The name means "lands beyond the Olza River"; it is also called Śląsk zaolziański, meaning "trans-Olza Silesia". Equivalent terms in other languages include Zaolší in...

with a substantial Polish minority.

Edvard Beneš

Edvard Beneš

Edvard Beneš was a leader of the Czechoslovak independence movement, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the second President of Czechoslovakia. He was known to be a skilled diplomat.- Youth :...

also agreed to cede to Poland 13 villages (especially Nowa Biała, Jurgów

Jurgów

Jurgów is a small village in the Spisz region of southern Poland, near the border with Slovakia and the town of Bukowina Tatrzańska, on the Białka river. It used to be a part of Slovakia...

and Niedzica

Niedzica

Niedzica , is a resort town in Nowy Targ County of Lesser Poland province, Poland, located on the banks of Czorsztyn lake. It is famous for Niedzica Castle, also known as Dunajec Castle, an important centre of Polish-Hungarian relations built between the years 1320 and 1326 on foundations of a...

; 195 km²; pop. 8747) in northwestern Spiš and 12 villages in northeastern Orava (around Jabłonka; 389 km²; pop. 16133), in matter of fact the Czechoslovak authorities officially regarded their inhabitants as exclusively Slovak, while Poles pointed out that the dialect used there belonged to Polish language

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

. The Polish government was not satisfied with this results.

The conflict was only resolved by the Council of the League of Nations

League of Nations

The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

(International Court of Justice) on 12 March 1924, which decided that Czechoslovakia should retain the territory of Javorina

Javorina

and Ždiar

Ždiar

Ždiar is a village and municipality in the Poprad District in the Prešov Region in Spiš in northern Slovakia.-Geography:The municipality lies at an elevation of 896 metres and covers an area of 27.323 km². It has a population of about 1,340 people....

and which entailed (in the same year) an additional exchange of territories in Orava - the territory around Nižná Lipnica went to Poland, the territory around Suchá Hora

Suchá Hora

Suchá Hora is a village and municipality in Tvrdošín District in the Žilina Region of northern Slovakia.-Geography:...

and Hladovka

Hladovka

Hladovka is a village and municipality in Tvrdošín District in the Žilina Region of northern Slovakia.-History:In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1598...

went to Czechoslovakia. The new frontiers were confirmed by a Czechoslovak-Polish Treaty on 24 April 1925 and are identical with present-day borders.

World War II

Within the region originally demanded from Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany in 1938 was an important railway junction city of Bohumín

Bohumín

Bohumín is a town in Karviná District, Moravian-Silesian Region, Czech Republic on the border with Poland. The confluence of the Oder and Olza Rivers is situated just north of the town. The town lies in the historical region of Cieszyn Silesia....

. The Poles regarded the city as of crucial importance to the area and to Polish interests. On 28 September, Beneš composed a note to the Polish administration offering to reopen the debate surrounding the territorial demarcation in Těšínsko in the interest of mutual relations, but he delayed in sending it in hopes of good news from London and Paris, which came only in a limited form. Beneš then turned to the Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

leadership in Moscow, which begun a partial mobilisation in eastern Belarus and the Ukrainian SSR

Ukrainian SSR

The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 to the breakup in 1991...

and threatened Poland with the dissolution of the Soviet-Polish non-aggression pact

Soviet-Polish Non-Aggression Pact

The Soviet–Polish Non-Aggression Pact ) was an international treaty of non-aggression signed in 1932 by representatives of Poland and the USSR. The pact was unilaterally broken by the Soviet Union on September 17, 1939, during the Nazi and Soviet invasion of Poland.-Background:After the...

.

Nevertheless, the Polish leader, Colonel Józef Beck

Józef Beck

' was a Polish statesman, diplomat, military officer, and close associate of Józef Piłsudski...

believed that Warsaw should act rapidly to forestall the German occupation of the city. At noon on 30 September, Poland gave an ultimatum to the Czechoslovak government. It demanded the immediate evacuation of Czechoslovak troops and police and gave Prague time until noon the following day. At 11:45 a.m. on 1 October the Czechoslovak foreign ministry called the Polish ambassador in Prague and told him that Poland could have what it wanted. The Polish Army, commanded by General Władysław Bortnowski, annexed an area of 801.5 km² with a population of 227,399 people.

The Germans were delighted with this outcome. They were happy to give up a provincial rail centre to Poland; it was a small sacrifice indeed. It spread the blame of the partition of Czechoslovakia, made Poland a seeming accomplice in the process and confused the issue as well as political expectations. Poland was accused of being an accomplice of Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

– a charge that Warsaw was hard put to deny.

Poland occupied some northern parts of Slovakia and received from Czechoslovakia Zaolzie

Zaolzie

, territories around Suchá Hora and Hladovka, around Javorina, and in addition the territory around Lesnica

Lesnica

Lesnica may refer to the following places:*Lesnica, Stará Ľubovňa, Slovakia*Lešnica, Serbia*Leśnica, a town in Opole Voivodeship *Leśnica, a district of Wrocław, Poland*Leśnica, Greater Poland Voivodeship...

in the Pieniny

Pieniny

Pieniny is a mountain range in the south of Poland and the north of Slovakia.The Pieniny mountain range is divided into three parts – Pieniny Spiskie and Pieniny Właściwe in Poland; and, Malé Pieniny in Slovakia. The Pieniny mountains consist mainly of the limestone and dolomite rock strata...

Mountains, a small territory around Skalité

Skalité

Skalité is a village and municipality in Čadca District in the Žilina Region of northern Slovakia.-History:In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1662. In late October 1938, Skalite, together with adjacent villages, was occupied by the Polish Army...

and some other very small border regions (they officially received the territories on 1 November 1938 (see also Munich Agreement

Munich Agreement

The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...

and First Vienna Award

First Vienna Award

The First Vienna Award was the result of the First Vienna Arbitration, which took place at Vienna's Belvedere Palace on November 2, 1938. The Arbitration and Award were direct consequences of the Munich Agreement...

).

The First Slovak Republic, however, received back both the territories lost in 1938 and annexed the territories "lost" in 1920–1924. This re-annexation happened in October 1939 (officially confirmed on 24 November 1939) when Slovakia supported Nazi Germany's attack on Poland in September 1939

Invasion of Poland (1939)

The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...

. The annexation by the puppet state of Slovakia saved the population of the area from the naked terror of Nazi Germany as it was practised in the General Government

General Government

The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...

until Slovakia agreed to take part in the Holocaust, but even then the genocidal policy was directed exclusively against the Jews and Gypsies.

In January 1945, these border territories were liberated by the Soviet Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

. The inhabitants of Orava and Spiš (including the territories "lost" by Czechoslovakia in 1920–1924) created authorities similar to those in the remaining Czechoslovakia (Slovakia ceased to exist as an independent state) and sought to prevent Polish authorities, which were trying to recover the territories they had before WWII, from entering the region .. The Czechoslovak President Beneš, however, decided to give the territories regained during WWII (i. e. northern Spiš and northern Orava) to Poland again (the corresponding formal act was signed on 20 May 1945), although Slovak organised poll on the territories showed support of the population in favour of Czechoslovakia. There were many protests in the form of delegations visiting the president, petitions to Prague and Poland, protests by American Slovaks and protests by the Slovak clergy

Clergy

Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....

. Despite these, on 20 May 1945, the pre-WWII borders between Czechoslovakia and Poland were restored.

Aftermath

In 1945 the border between Poland and Czechoslovakia was set at the 1920 line.

Polish troops then occupied northern Orava

Orava

Orava may refer to:*Orava , a region in Slovakia and Poland*Orava in Slovakia*Orava , a castle in Slovakia*Orava , a reservoir in Slovakia...

and Spiš

Spiš

on 17 July 1945. Reports of lootings, expulsions and persecutions of Slovaks in the annexed regions followed. There were armed clashes and fatalities in some villages over the following two years. Slovaks from the Polish part of Spiš settled mainly in the newly created industrial town of Svit

Svit

Svit is a small town and municipality in Poprad District in the Prešov Region in northern Slovakia. It lies west of the city of Poprad, at the foothills of the High Tatras.-History:Svit is one of the youngest Slovak towns...

near Poprad

Poprad

, Kežmarok

Kežmarok

Kežmarok is a town in the Spiš region of eastern Slovakia , on the Poprad River.-History:...

, Poprad, and in depopulated German villages (from which the German inhabitants had been previously expelled

Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia

The expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia after World War II was part of a series of evacuations and expulsions of Germans from Central and Eastern Europe during and after World War II....

) near Kežmarok. Slovaks from the Polish part of Orava settled mainly in Czech Silesia

Czech Silesia

Czech Silesia is an unofficial name of one of the three Czech lands and a section of the Silesian historical region. It is located in the north-east of the Czech Republic, predominantly in the Moravian-Silesian Region, with a section in the northern Olomouc Region...

, and in depopulated German villages in the Czech lands (Sudetenland

Sudetenland

Sudetenland is the German name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the northern, southwest and western regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans, specifically the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia being within Czechoslovakia.The...

).

On 10 March 1947 a treaty guaranteeing basic rights for Slovaks in Poland was signed between Czechoslovakia and Poland. As a result, 41 Slovak basic schools and 1 high school were opened in Poland. Most of these however were shut down in the early sixties because of lack of Slovakian teachers.

On June 13, 1958, in Warsaw, the two countries signed a treaty confirming the border at the line of January 1, 1938 (that is, returning to the situation before the Nazi-imposed Munich Agreement transferred territory from Czechoslovakia to Poland), and since then there have been no conflicts regarding this matter.

In March 1975 Czechoslovakia and Poland modified their border along the Dunajec to permit Poland to construct a dam in the Czorsztyn

Czorsztyn

Czorsztyn is a village in Poland, in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Nowy Targ County. The village lies in Pieniny, is located in the mountain range on the current Polish-Slovakian border...

region, southeast of Kraków

Kraków

The present era

In 2002, Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

and Slovakia

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

made some further minor border adjustments:

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