"Aktion Saybusch" lasted from September to December 1940, with some 3,200 Volksdeutsche brought in "Heim ins Reich" (Home into the Empire) from Romanian Bukovina. The process of expulsions continued thereafter. In total, between 1940 and 1944, around 50,000 Poles were forcibly removed from the region and replaced with about 4,000 settlers from Eastern Galicia and Volhynia who were given new latifundia. Before the German attack on the Soviet Union, their transfer was agreed upon by both invaders at the Gestapo–NKVD Conferences. The expulsions from eastern Silesia were the direct responsibility of the "" Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, who was also responsible for instigating them.