 The preamble of the declaration asserted both German responsibility for the War and the complete legal extinction of Nazi Germany consequent on the unconditional surrender of all German armed forces and the total absence of any German central government authority; although the text of the articles of the Declaration maintained, in several places, the continued existence of a German national people and territory which for the purpose of the Declaration was taken to be as defined on 31 December 1937 (after the 1935 Saar referendum and before the 1938 Anschluss), subject to the four signatory powers also asserting their authority to determine the future boundaries of Germany.This claimed authority to determine the boundaries of Germany would shortly be exercised in the incorporation of eastern territories into Poland and the Soviet Union, and the short-lived creation of the Saar Protectorate in the west.The preamble also confirmed the four nominated representatives of the Governments of the United States of America, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United Kingdom, and the Provisional Government of the French Republic as the "Allied Representatives" who would from then on exercise supreme civil and military authority within German territory and over former German forces.