366 GOLGOTA
Map 18. Poland's Changing TerritoryJewry had virtually ceased to exist. As a result, political, cultural, and economic
life could never be the same.
The national minorities had almost disappeared. The loss of the Jews, the
expulsion of the Germans, the incorporation of Byelorussians and Ukrainians
into the USSR', and the influx of Poles from the east, left the Polish-speaking
Roman Catholic population in an overwhelming majority. This fundamental
change could not but affect the temper of public life. The People's Republic was
to be the first truly national state in Polish history.
Thus when Poland reopened for business in 1944-5, under communist
auspices, it was not merely the regime that was new. It was a new Poland.