After the defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II , Liegnitz and all of Silesia east of the Neisse was transferred to Poland following the Potsdam Conference in 1945 . The German population was expelled from their home town between 1945 and 1947 and Poles took their place . As the medieval Polish name '' Lignica '' was considered archaic , the town was renamed Legnica . The transfer to Poland decided at Potsdam in 1945 was officially recognized by East Germany in 1950 , by West Germany under Chancellor Willy Brandt in the Treaty of Warsaw signed in 1970 , and finally by the reunited Germany by the Two Plus Four Agreement in 1990 . By 1990 only a handful of Polonized Germans , prewar citizens of Liegnitz , remained of the pre-1945 German population . In 2010 the city celebrated the 65th anniversary of the " return of Legnica to Poland " and its liberation from the Nazis
Potsdam
Potsdam Conference
Legnica