Early expulsions in Poland were undertaken by the Polish Communist military authorities[10] even before the Potsdam Conference ("wild expulsions"),[11] to ensure the later integration into an ethnically homogeneous Poland[12] as envisioned by the Polish Communists.[13][14] Between seven hundred and eight hundred thousand Germans were affected.[4] Contrary to the official declaration that the former German inhabitants of the so-called Recovered Territories had to be removed quickly to house Poles displaced by the Soviet annexation, the lands initially faced a severe population shortage.[15]