After World War II , the border was drawn from Świnoujście ( Swinemünde ) in the north at the Baltic Sea southward to the Czech Republic ( then part of Czechoslovakia ) border with Poland and Germany near Zittau . It follows the Oder – Neisse Line of the Oder ( Odra ) and Neisse ( Nysa ) rivers through most of their course . This was agreed upon by the main Allies of World War II – the Soviet Union , the United States , and the United Kingdom , at the Soviets ' insistence , and , without any significant consultations with Poland ( or Germany ) , at the Yalta Conference and Potsdam Conference . This border was a compensation to Poland for territories lost to the Soviet Union as a consequence of the Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact , and resulted in significant westward transfers of German population from the Recovered Territories , matching the Polish population transfers from the Kresy territories . It roughly matched the centuries-old , historical border between the Medieval Polish and German states . It divided several river cities into two parts – Görlitz/Zgorzelec , Guben/Gubin , Frankfurt ( Oder ) / Słubice , Bad Muskau/Łęknica
Potsdam Conference
Potsdam Conference
Germany–Poland border