Poland to name 6m war dead

[IndianaGreen]

Poland to name 6m war dead

Ian Traynor, central Europe correspondent
Monday September 4, 2006
The Guardian

Poland is to name as many as possible of the more than 6 million Poles who perished in the second world war in a project aimed at countering what it sees as German attempts to rewrite the history of the war.

The announcement coincided with ceremonies marking the 67th anniversary of the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 that started the war and also coincides with a bitter dispute between Berlin and Warsaw over historical truth.

<snip>

The Stalinists who took over Poland at the end of the war following the Yalta accords of the allied victors calculated in 1947 that 6,028,000 Poles lost their lives in the war. Some 5 million were civilians. Half the total were Polish Jews who were murdered in the Nazi Holocaust. The main Nazi concentration and death camps were located in Poland. The Polish toll was the heaviest proportionately of any country in the war.

The new government, fiercely anti-communist, is unhappy with the 1947 tally and wants a more exact reckoning. "The programme's goal is to commemorate by name as many Polish citizens as possible who were persecuted - killed, imprisoned or resettled - between 1939 and 1945 under German occupation," the National Remembrance Institute said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/secondworldwar/story/0,,1864691,00.html?gusrc=ticker-103704

[sofa king]

1. I applaud Poland.

In commemorating those who died, Poland also deserves acclamation for its direct and unique contribution to the winning of the Second World War itself. The Poles managed to find themselves at virtually every important juncture of the war in Europe. Though overwhelmed by the German and Soviet invasions at the very onset of the war, Poland did not surrender. Its government moved to London, its intelligence network still functioned, and its sailor, soldiers, and airmen, some 200,000 of them, still fought in the field.

In that capacity the Poles made invaluable, perhaps essential contributions to the war effort. Polish pilots were among the most experienced and successful pilots in the Battle of Britain and eventually supplied fifteen squadrons for the duration. The Polish Navy slipped out of the Baltic to join with the Royal Navy, helped evacuate at Dunkirk, chased the Bismarck, participated in every major Allied amphibious landing and many special operations, and provided critical merchant shipping escort. The Polish Army fought on from Norway to North Africa to the Middle East. Poles fought at Narvik, Tobruk, Dieppe, Normandy, Monte Cassino, Falaise, Arnhem, Warsaw, Prague, and Berlin. At home, partisans resisted fiercely and tragically, and their spy network operated tirelessly. Polish intelligence made the first successful inroads into cracking the Enigma codes, and shared its results with the British and the French prior to the onset of war; it would appear as if the cryptologer Marian Rejewski divined part of the machine's wiring through the application of mathematical theory alone, perhaps one of the greatest cryptological feats of all time.

As an example of how hard and how well the Poles prosecuted their part of the war, consider this: the 145 Polish pilots who participated in the Battle of Britain are thought to have accounted for some twelve percent of all German planes lost.

Yet through the vagaries of politics and geography, the West turned its back on Poland at the end of the war, allowing it to continue for forty full years under direct German or Soviet influence and occupation. Many Polish fighters found it too dangerous to return home, and instead became exemplary citizens elsewhere, notably in the United Kingdom and here in the United States.

Thank you for everything, Poland. I think you you're great.

[IndianaGreen]

2. Let's not forget the White Eagle, the Polish resistance

They paid a heavy price for their opposition to German occupation.

[Lisa]

3. when I think of the Polish cavalry charging the Nazis -- and winning

It just makes me weep.

http://www.polishnews.com/fulltext/history/2001/history4.shtml


A lot of Polish people immigrated to Canada, in the 19th and 20th centuries. Unfortunately they had to deal with some awful prejudice, from snobs who thought that they (like the Irish and Italians) were somehow inferior. But they certainly proved that Canada was lucky to have them!