 Because of this, many increased their preparedness for evacuation.When Nazi Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the Soviet Union in 1939 (just before the outbreak of World War II), the fate (unknown to those affected) of the Germans in Bukovina was sealed.In a secret supplementary protocol, it was agreed (among other points) that the northern part of Bukovina would be annexed by the Soviet Union under a territorial re-organization in Central-Eastern Europe, with the German sub-populations therein undergoing compulsory resettlement to other future Nazi-occupied territories.