 Subdivisions of Polish territories during World War II

Subdivision of Polish territories during World War II can be divided into several phases, when territories of the Second Polish Republic were administered first by Nazi Germany (in the west) and Soviet Union (in the east), then (following German invasion of the Soviet Union) in their entirety by Nazi Germany and finally (following Soviet push westwards) by the Soviet Union again.Starting with the reform of 1946, the administrative division was returned to Poland (see Administrative division of People's Republic of Poland).After Germany and the Soviet Union had partitioned Poland in 1939, following their invasion, most of the ethnically Polish territory ended up under German control while the areas annexed by the Soviet union was ethnically diverse peoples with the territory being divided into several areas some of which had a significant non-Polish majority (Ukrainians in the south and Belarusians in the north), many of whom felt alienated in the interwar Poland and welcomed the Soviets.