This history is not taught much in American schools.
12 thoughts on “When Poland Saved Europe”
This history is not taught much at all in American schools.
It just occurred to me that the same applies to Finland. About all Americans know about Finns is Linus Torvalds and Linux.
I’ve been to Finland, and of the two things you mention, I’ve certainly heard of Linux, but never associated it with Finland. The other, I’ve never heard of. (Just googled, okay, he developed Linux.)
I did, however, know of the Winter War (against the Soviets), long before going to Finland. I also knew that Finland was the only WWII nation to have to pay war reparations.
I hadn’t heard of that before. It was an interesting telling. It is nice to see Poland regaining its composure after all these years.
One of the great things about the USA is that we are supposed to give up our old grudges and allegiances. A drawback to this is that there are many people of Polish descent in the USA that support Marxism. Ideology isn’t hereditary and isn’t determined by skin color. We really are always one generation away from societal collapse.
I was expecting it to be assistance for one of the two sieges of Vienna. The Polish played a leading role in driving out the Ottoman besiegers permanently in 1683. But I can see blocking the Soviets during a decade of weakness was a huge deal of similar magnitude.
I first thought of Solidarność, a more recent example of Polands contributing to European freedom.
They also don’t teach that the U.S. and Great Britain essentially invaded Russia to try to keep it in the War. The survivors had to evacuated from Murmansk.
For what it’s worth, my high school history book had a photo of US troops near Murmansk, and did mention (very briefly) that the US had tried, and failed, to intervene in the Russian civil war.
I suspect that a current high school history book would be far more lacking and inferior – and of course, cost vastly more.
1919 was apparently also the year that the Hungarian government was overthrown in a communist revolution that lasted about a year. I know of this from autobiographies written by some of the Hungarian physicists that left for Germany for their doctoral studies at the time.
Some of them cry bitterly about the communist state being reversed by “right-wing extremists”, and the resulting anti-Semitism. I’ve come to wonder how much of the anti-Semitism of early 20th century Europe was really a result of these attempted coups and revolutions. The Jews in continental Europe were deeply involved in these communist movements. It very much was not some figment of Hitler’s imagination, as is taught in the US.
“the Jews”
PS: Poland gets a lot of dishonest shit from communists for being anti-communist. It’s become popular to accuse them of helping the NAZIs during WWII and being anti-Semitic, which is, as far as I can tell, a slander against them.
Poland took the Jews in in the middle ages when they were being expelled from everywhere else in Europe, formally granted them protection and rights, and let them live there in peace for something like 300 years. They were very much not complacent during NAZI occupation either, as Witold Pilecki’s report gives an example. The NAZIs put their death camps in Poland because that was where the other nations of Europe first expelled the Jews to.
The Poles resisted the NAZIs. The Poles resisted the communists. They seem basically decent, and aren’t very ideologically pliable, making them the enemies of would-be tyrants. That’s why they’re “dumb” and “evil” and everyone hates them today.
It would be wrong to say that Poles in general supported the Nazis, it would also be wrong to ignore that some did. Just as in France and every other occupied country. And especially, some were on board for the final solution.
The same is true in terms of Communism. There were plenty of Poles that ran the government and all it’s apparatus, including the Secret Police. There are also plenty of Poles occupying mass graves constructed by the Communists.
I’d wager that a careful examination of those shouting loudest to the contrary have reason to not allow the truth to come to light.
This history is not taught
muchat all in American schools.It just occurred to me that the same applies to Finland. About all Americans know about Finns is Linus Torvalds and Linux.
I’ve been to Finland, and of the two things you mention, I’ve certainly heard of Linux, but never associated it with Finland. The other, I’ve never heard of. (Just googled, okay, he developed Linux.)
I did, however, know of the Winter War (against the Soviets), long before going to Finland. I also knew that Finland was the only WWII nation to have to pay war reparations.
I hadn’t heard of that before. It was an interesting telling. It is nice to see Poland regaining its composure after all these years.
One of the great things about the USA is that we are supposed to give up our old grudges and allegiances. A drawback to this is that there are many people of Polish descent in the USA that support Marxism. Ideology isn’t hereditary and isn’t determined by skin color. We really are always one generation away from societal collapse.
I was expecting it to be assistance for one of the two sieges of Vienna. The Polish played a leading role in driving out the Ottoman besiegers permanently in 1683. But I can see blocking the Soviets during a decade of weakness was a huge deal of similar magnitude.
I first thought of Solidarność, a more recent example of Polands contributing to European freedom.
They also don’t teach that the U.S. and Great Britain essentially invaded Russia to try to keep it in the War. The survivors had to evacuated from Murmansk.
For what it’s worth, my high school history book had a photo of US troops near Murmansk, and did mention (very briefly) that the US had tried, and failed, to intervene in the Russian civil war.
I suspect that a current high school history book would be far more lacking and inferior – and of course, cost vastly more.
1919 was apparently also the year that the Hungarian government was overthrown in a communist revolution that lasted about a year. I know of this from autobiographies written by some of the Hungarian physicists that left for Germany for their doctoral studies at the time.
Some of them cry bitterly about the communist state being reversed by “right-wing extremists”, and the resulting anti-Semitism. I’ve come to wonder how much of the anti-Semitism of early 20th century Europe was really a result of these attempted coups and revolutions. The Jews in continental Europe were deeply involved in these communist movements. It very much was not some figment of Hitler’s imagination, as is taught in the US.
“the Jews”
PS: Poland gets a lot of dishonest shit from communists for being anti-communist. It’s become popular to accuse them of helping the NAZIs during WWII and being anti-Semitic, which is, as far as I can tell, a slander against them.
Poland took the Jews in in the middle ages when they were being expelled from everywhere else in Europe, formally granted them protection and rights, and let them live there in peace for something like 300 years. They were very much not complacent during NAZI occupation either, as Witold Pilecki’s report gives an example. The NAZIs put their death camps in Poland because that was where the other nations of Europe first expelled the Jews to.
The Poles resisted the NAZIs. The Poles resisted the communists. They seem basically decent, and aren’t very ideologically pliable, making them the enemies of would-be tyrants. That’s why they’re “dumb” and “evil” and everyone hates them today.
It would be wrong to say that Poles in general supported the Nazis, it would also be wrong to ignore that some did. Just as in France and every other occupied country. And especially, some were on board for the final solution.
The same is true in terms of Communism. There were plenty of Poles that ran the government and all it’s apparatus, including the Secret Police. There are also plenty of Poles occupying mass graves constructed by the Communists.
I’d wager that a careful examination of those shouting loudest to the contrary have reason to not allow the truth to come to light.