page_title: Zgorzelec
section_title: 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Zgorzelec / History / 20th century
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Görlitz-Zgorzelec, Blick von der Altstadtbrücke (Grenzbrücke) auf die Neubauten im alten Baustil in der ul. Wroclawska in Zgorzelec
context_page_description: Zgorzelec is a town in southwestern Poland with 30,374 inhabitants. It lies in Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the seat of Zgorzelec County and of Gmina Zgorzelec. Zgorzelec is located on the Lusatian Neisse river, on the post-1945 Polish-German Neisse border adjoining the German town of Görlitz, of which it constituted the eastern part up to 1945.
context_section_description: After the abolition of the Kingdom of Prussia in the aftermath of World War I, Görlitz became a part of the newly established Province of Lower Silesia in the Free State of Prussia.
  During World War II a German prisoner-of-war camp, Stalag VIII-A was located in present-day territory of Zgorzelec. The French composer Olivier Messiaen was one of its inmates.
  The Treaty of Zgorzelec, between Poland and East Germany, was signed in the city's community center in 1950. The establishment of the Oder-Neisse line as the Polish-East German border divided Görlitz (lying on the Neisse) between the two countries. The German part retained the name Görlitz, while the Polish part became Zgorzelec. The German and Sorbian population was expelled from Zgorzelec. New Polish and Greek settlers arrived in the town.
  Starting in 1948, some 10,000 Greek Refugees of the Greek Civil War, mainly communist partisans, were allowed into Poland and settled mainly in Zgorzelec. There were Greek schools, a Greek retirement home and even a factory reserved for Greek employees. The majority of those refugees later returned to Greece, but a part remains to this day (see Greeks in Poland). The Greek community of Zgorzelec was instrumental in the building of The Orthodox church of Ss Constantine and Helen in 2002. Since 1999, an annual international Greek Song Festival has been held in Zgorzelec.
caption: Reconstructed Postal Square, seen from the river
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