In 1918 various proposals emerged defining the division of Upper Silesia . At the Paris Peace Conference a commission for Polish affairs was created to prepare proposals for Polish borders . In their first two proposals ( of 27 March 1919 and of 7 May 1919 ) most of the future province was ceded , together with the region of Oppeln , to Poland . Yet that was not accepted by the '' Big Four '' , and following David Lloyd George 's suggestion , a plebiscite was organized . Before it took place on 20 March 1921 , two Silesian Insurrections instigated by Polish inhabitants of the area were organized . After the referendum , in which Poland had 41 % of the votes , a plan of division was created that divided Upper Silesia . Following this , the Third Silesian Uprising took place . A new plan of division was prepared by an ambassadors commission in Geneva in 1922 , but it still created a situation in which some rural territories that voted mostly for Poland were granted to Germany and some urban territories with a German majority were granted to Poland . The Polish Sejm decided that the eastern-most Upper Silesian areas should become an autonomous area within Poland organised as the Silesian Voivodeship and with Silesian Parliament as a constituency and Silesian Voivodeship Council as the executive body . A central political figure was Wojciech Korfanty . The part of Silesia awarded to Poland was by far the best-developed and richest region of the newly formed state , producing most of Poland 's industrial output . Consequently , to the division in 1922 , the German-Polish Accord on East Silesia ( Geneva Convention ) was concluded on 15 May 1922 which dealt with the constitutional and legal future of Upper Silesia as it has partly became Polish territory . After the division of Upper Silesia , the Polish minority in the German part of Upper Silesia was discriminated and persecuted . The major part of Silesia remaining in Germany , was reorganised into the two provinces of Upper Silesia and Lower Silesia . After the Nazi 's rise to power , the synagogues in modern-day Wrocław ( ) and in many other cities were destroyed during Kristallnacht of 1938 . In October 1938 , Zaolzie ( part of Cieszyn Silesia , the disputed area west of the Olza River : with 258,000 inhabitants ) , was taken by Poland from Czechoslovakia following the Munich Agreement that surrendered border areas of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany . Czech Silesia with Slezská Ostrava was incorporated into the Sudetenland Gau , while Hultschin was incorporated into Upper Silesia province
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
History of Silesia