Poland was reborn as an independent nation in 1918 after being partitioned and erased from the map for 123 years by Russia, Prussia, and Austria.

The interwar period was a challenging time for the new republic, which was located between a hostile Germany and Soviet Union.

World War II began on September 1, 1939, with the Nazi German invasion of Poland.

This was followed shortly after by a Soviet invasion from the east, as agreed upon in the secret Nazi-Soviet Pact.

Poland suffered immensely during the war, experiencing brutal occupation and becoming a primary site of the Holocaust, with death camps like Auschwitz located on its territory.

After the war, Poland fell under Soviet domination and became a communist satellite state.

The period of communist rule was marked by economic struggles and a lack of political freedom.

Resistance to communist rule was strong, with the Polish Catholic Church and the trade union movement, Solidarity, playing key roles.

Solidarity, led by Lech Wałęsa, was instrumental in the collapse of communist rule in Poland in 1989.

Poland's peaceful transition from communism to democracy was a catalyst for the revolutions that swept across Eastern Europe.