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Posts by HWPiel  

Joined: 10 Oct 2008 / Male ♂
Last Post: 15 Feb 2010
Threads: Total: 1 / In This Archive: 1
Posts: Total: 64 / In This Archive: 36
From: South Grafton, MA, USA
Speaks Polish?: Light Conversation
Interests: Katyn; I am working on my Master's in History with concentration in Polish History.

Displayed posts: 37 / page 2 of 2
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HWPiel   
29 Oct 2008
History / Katyn- forgiven and forgotten? [111]

Interesting article, Celinski.

People share a misconception that a genocide cannot occur again because of World War II and international outcry - see [hawaii.edu/powerkills/PERSONAL.HTM] for some staggering numbers of genocides post-WW2.

Also, FWIW, I do appreciate the Katyń posts as it is an area that is not only next to my academic heart but one that I too feel must never be forgotten. My biggest fear is the continued white-wash of this topic in Russia and by her government, and since the rate of World War Two veterans dying off each month is a staggering 8000+ we will lose true objectivity, truth, and witnesses to this crime only to end up forgotten or celebrated by a minority like the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

Katyń is the one time I do not feel manipulative calling and crying "victim". An easy internet search at an academic website will show the numbers of the Poles that the Russians killed during September 17, 1939 to May 31, 1945, but off of the cuff I know it is equal if not greater than the NAZI-German death count.

Russians have never had any problem with killing people, even its own, which by modern accounts historian Norman Davies puts Soviet deaths of their own people (i.e., the Revolution of 1917 to the fall of communism in '89) at >55 million conservatively.

The Soviet machine is guilty of crimes against humanity, and her people victims.

Socialism, Communism, and Facism is bad; and history has proved that any of those 'options' has never worked. Even Lenin's model was change and altered by Stalin. Stailin's model replaced by Khruschev's 'Communism with a Human Face' model, and so on.

As kooky as people in the EU/world think America is... we've a splendid model based on freedom with responsibilities; strong and opininated, a true multi-party system.
HWPiel   
27 Oct 2008
History / Katyn- forgiven and forgotten? [111]

It is a false sense of nostalgia. The Russian people, as whole were victims just as the Poles and other satellite states they USSR manipulated. Putin is a hard line ex-KGB guy... if he remains in control, I say we will see another Cold War.

Stalin looked upon Poles and pigs and ignorant people, yet his own people drank the kool aid... or they were shipped off to the gulag. I have to admit that I look down my nose at Russians, but I think it is well deserved.
HWPiel   
25 Oct 2008
News / WAŁĘSA'S LATEST BOOK [7]

can you read polish?

Not real good... but thanks for the link.

H
HWPiel   
25 Oct 2008
Life / Polish Protestants [22]

I recently read a statistic, in a source which I cannot cite right now, that Poland was 70% Catholic and 30% other. I am a Lutheran, and I can say with a great degree of certainty that there are not too many of us Polack-Lutherans in America.
HWPiel   
25 Oct 2008
News / WAŁĘSA'S LATEST BOOK [7]

Has anyone read either of the two books that assert Walesa was a communist and spied against his own during the 1970s - 1980s? I read about the book's allegations in The White Eagle (Bialy Orzel) but have not seen either text in the States.

H
HWPiel   
12 Oct 2008
Life / List of Polish movies on DVD with English subtitles [30]

My favorite Polish movie is: Noz w Wodzie (Knife in Water), 1962, black and white with English sub-titles. I believe it was Roman Pulanski's first movie, and what a great movie it is. Filmed in the lakes region in Pomerania.

Jolanta Umecka... quite beautiful.

H
HWPiel   
11 Oct 2008
Travel / Traditional Polish Restaurants / Cuisine in Warsaw [11]

Traditional before the Iron Curtain fell... try a Milk Cafe, and there are some still around Warsaw.

Extrapolated from DK Eyewitness Travel Poland, c.2007

Old and New Towns area...

Kompania Piwna Podwale 25

Tel 022 635 63 14

"An Old Town gem with a courtyard designed to resemble a Central European town square and an interior filled with wooden benches and drinking slogans on the walls. Heaps of meat and potatoes come served on wooden boards by staff dressed in traditional attire. One of the few low-budget success stories in the Old Town"