There are about 400,000 ethnic Poles living in the west of the country.
What was to happen to the Poles living there?
Poles have lived in France since the 18th century.
Altogether, the number of ethnic Poles living abroad is estimated to be around 20 million.
In 1914, there were 1,640,000 Poles living in that region.
Poles as an ethnic group have lived in Azerbaijan for centuries.
There were about 20,000 Poles living in Siberia around 1860s.
Church and independent estimates show estimates of 650,000 to 700,000 Poles living in that area.
There were also many mixed marriages with Poles living there.
In 1939 the bank had branches in virtually every capital city of countries where Poles lived.