Poland–Romania relations

The beginnings of Polish influence in Romania can be traced back to the 14th century with the founding of the Principality of Moldavia. Trade between the Baltic and Black Seas between the two neighboring countries facilitated their growing bond. During this era Moldavia was a vassal state of first the Kingdom of Poland and later the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth several times.[3]

During World War I, on 18–23 January 1915, the Battle of Cârlibaba was fought in present-day northern Romania between the Polish Legions and Russian troops, won by the Poles.[4] There is a memorial at the site.[5] Poles from the Russian Partition of Poland conscripted to the Russian Army and Romanians were among Allied prisoners of war held by the Germans in a POW camp in Stargard in modern northwestern Poland.[6]

Bridge at the former Polish–Romanian border in Kuty seen from the Polish side of the border in 1930

Beginning in 1921, a series of treaties were signed in the interwar period by the Second Polish Republic and the Kingdom of Romania which created the Polish–Romanian alliance. The treaties formed a basis for good foreign relations between the two countries that lasted until World War II began in 1939.[7] Both countries shared a common border in the interbellum, before the Soviet Union invaded and eventually annexed eastern Poland and northeastern Romania following the German-Soviet Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.

Visit of Marshal Józef Piłsudski in Romania in 1931

After the invasion of Poland which started the Second World War, up to 120,000 Polish troops withdrew through the Romanian Bridgehead area to neutral Romania and Hungary. The majority of those troops joined the newly formed Polish Armed Forces in the West in France and the United Kingdom in 1939 and 1940. Because of their escape through Romania, the Polish army was one of the largest forces of the Allies prior to the United States entering the war and Germany's attack on the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa).[8] Also 25,000 civilian refugees fled from Poland to Romania.[9]

In mid-September 1939, despite German and Soviet pressure and Romania's declared neutrality, the Romanians agreed to transport evacuated Polish gold through Romanian territory to the port of Constanța, from where it was further evacuated via Turkey to Polish-allied France.[10] When the German ambassador to Romania, Wilhelm Fabricius, protested Romania's violation of neutrality, Romanian Foreign Minister Grigore Gafencu pretended to know nothing about the transport of Polish gold, only promising to "carry out a proper investigation."[11] The evacuation was successful. Romania's stance infuriated the Germans, and Fabricius threatened Minister Gafencu that Romania had "committed a grave breach of neutrality, which should never happen again."[12]

During the war, ten Polish elementary schools and seven high schools were established for Polish refugee children in Romania, including in Călimănești, Ploiești and Târgoviște.[9] Some young Poles then left Romania for France in 1940 to join the Polish Army in France and continue the fight against Germany.[13] In the second half of 1940, because of the German danger, some Polish refugees were evacuated from Romania to Cyprus.[13]

In 1940, the Soviets deported some 30,000 people from Soviet-occupied eastern Poland to Soviet-occupied eastern Romania.[14]

In 1942, Polish Prime Minister-in-Exile Władysław Sikorski's intervention to British and American authorities thwarted Soviet attempts to obtain Allied approval for the planned annexation of eastern Poland and Romania.[15]

From 1944, Romanian prisoners of war were held by the Germans, alongside Polish and other Allied POWs, in the Oflag 73, Stalag VIII-B and Stalag VIII-C POW camps, located in Beniaminów, Łambinowice and Żagań, respectively.[16]

After the war, many Poles from the sizeable Polish communities in Bukovina and Lupeni were repatriated to Poland.[17][18]