When will Russia and Germany return the things they took from the Polish in Poland ?

Just goes to show us how much you really "care" about Poland, so sad..........

It would've made a hell of a lot of sense - and I'd go one step further and ban the payment of any financial compensation. The abuses by one particular institution with headquarters in its own tax haven is a scandal waiting to emerge.

The recent case where someone was awarded their old property back despite willingly giving it up in the 70's was a disgrace.

It still can: why should Poland and the people who work to make our country great have to pay out for people who have never done a day's work for the country or paid any tax here?! If people don't want to live here and pay taxes here, they have no right to own property here, let alone to 'reclaim' property. Sure people sometimes have to flee Poland, but if they can't be bothered to come back here, they should have no claim go parts of Poland.

Perhaps you could show us how much you really care about Poland? It seems that so far the sum total of your 'care' has been sending presents to your family and very occasionally helping your uncle's neighbour. Why don't you pay some taxes here? Or perhaps do some volunteer work here? Peace Corps has moved on from Poland but I'm sure it would be easy for somebody as well-qualified as you to find a position in which you could make a positive contribution to Poland, if you actually wanted to.

Problem is, although it's easy to be a patriotic Pole on the internet, it's much harder to actually get off your ass and start volunteering with alcoholics/in nurseries/etc.

Poland hasn't got much in the way of volunteering, so I'm sure that PennBoy, being such a proud Pole, will take me up on the offer to start volunteering with children. I can even organise the kindergarten for him :)

What "amazes" me is the fact that supposedlly inteligent people still find it "amazing" that "Poles and other nationalities can coexist together here in America whereas their mutual history in Europe was sometimes so violent"....its pretty obvious that people dont give a flying fig where their neighbours ancestors are buried as long as their neighbour is a stand up guy,and frankly Europes centuries of warfare were nothing to do with huge gulfs between people but purely greedy,incompitent or plain evil leaders.......

As to the other theory, my two penneth worth is,the further removed from what you call your roots the more vocal your proclomations of loyalty are. Its the old story of the most tarten clad,haggis eating,bagpipe playing "Scotsmen" tend to be 15th generation Scots Americans/canadians etc rather than some ned in Aberdeen.

When Im in my home area Ive a pretty neutral ,well spoken "northern middle class" accent,when I get near london I sound like,well, eeh bah tat lad,wheres tha going wi tha whippet .....

AMEN! What a great post!

The homeless charity I did some work for some years back is almost certainly still looking for staff to help them out. I had to stop doing hands-on work with them due to lack of language skills but I can certainly dig out my old contacts if a proud Polish patriot would like to come here and work for the benefit of Poland.

Alternatively I could check out my old contacts from the university I worked at: I'm sure that there's a couple of primary schools in some small town in a poor part of Poland that are in such desperate need of English teachers that they'd take one without any training at all.


Nail right on the head there!


But at least you can get a decent pint when you're in London....

Russia should return back complete Germany to Poland

Well, I may take you up on this someday Harry and Delph. I would love to volunteer at any of those places. I'm a mixed breed (Polish and German descent) third-generation American and I never claim to be Polish or German. But I do love Poland. You can have a fondness for a country, even though you know you belong to another one.

I've been to Poland three times and each time my heart swells with love for the people and the land. I have been tempted to retire there. Not sure how it work out being that I am not an EU citizen. Or how my small social security from the States would work out, if there was a way for an American to stay there. I suppose there is some basis that I could get either German or Polish citizenship based on my ancestry, but then I would be a "traiter" to the country of my birth, if I were to listen to your reasoning. And it would be hard for me to leave my grand kids behind in the USA. Their lives are here.

And this last time in Poland, I did help. It was not a tourist trip, but a trip to all the places where my family once lived and I contributed to the upkeep of the local cemetery, and the church. Not much, but I am a grandmother with two grand kids to support. But to have Poland in my heart, why should I have to brag about something that I did for Poland? It is enough to have an interest in, and good wishes for Poland, IMO.

I also believe isthatu2 has a good point, that here in the States those further removed from their roots can be the most vocal and yet the most uninformed about current things in the old country. It's an understandable thing though. It seems that a lot of these threads degenerate into who loves Poland more. I would love to see it more that anyone who has an interest is welcome here. Granted there are those whose "love" of Poland is a rant about other countries, and they seem racist. There is nothing that says we have to like them as individuals, but why make all people feel that they have to pass some kind of test to be interested in Poland.

What nationality are you? Got any special skills you can offer? What interests you? Can you make a financial contribution to volunteering (if you want support/back-up and don't have specialist skills to offer, you're normally expected to make a contribution).

This site: sciint.org/workcamp_search.phtml usually has a few programs in Poland to choose from.

I am a citizen of the USA. I have good people skills, moderate computer skills, and currently work at a hotel. I am interested in history.

I'll check out the website...thanks! :-)

SCI is one of the better organisations.

You have to be careful with some organisations: they charge huge fees for basically very little. There's one called Worldteach which charges $4,000 for a two-month summer program!!!

That's good to know, although I do not have $4K to begin with, so I guess I'd be protected. lol

Crumbs,I shall have to post more during the day,Mr angry tends to come out more at night :)


Aye lad,but has tha seen t'prices, tha cud buy thee sel' a barn full 'finest racin' pidgins this side uv ilkely moor....


Thanks,though I claim no first hand experience of the States ( but NYC and,Cajun country are on my destination wish list :) ) but its an impresion I get.

Im Scottish born and proud of it,Im also half irish but in this part of England thats hardly an exception,the same as if Id been part Polish,it just wouldnt mark me out,and didnt so beyond getting a bit rowdy watching Braveheart or an England v Scotland Soccer/Rugby game Im about as "Scots" as Bernie Mac and as "Irish" as Barak O'bama...and would never dream of wearing a Kilt except at a wedding where as Ive seen first hand the north american families walking round edinburgh decked out in full "clan tarten" and talking about "english sasenachs" :)

Its understandable and quite sweet when its innocent affection or even afectation,its only when someone adopts a nationality or "roots" who already has the addition of a rather hatefull personality that problems come up.

re the returning stuff. There has to be a cut off point or where will t all end?
Do I get back a strip of land stolen from one set of ancestors during the aftermath of the 45 and the highland clearances? Maybe another ancestors home in calcuta,sure he was there as part of the emerging empire but he bought the land fair and square so....? Should Dennmark maybe pay reperations for the Vikinger raids? Or the city of Gdansk pay a levy to the descendents of the Hanseatic league? John Paul Jones Bombarded the Yorkshire coast, can I have a tenner in damages please Uncle Sam or does one of his descendents owe me the money? If so,thats handy,I'll ask my Aunt for it next time I visit :)

That really cracked me up! I needed a good laugh, too! :-D

I would not be surprised if some of the people on here claiming to be Polish are really not and are just insecure trolls.

See, I think people like you are admirable - you like Poland, you visited the place several times and you're willing to one day consider the idea of volunteering here. Yet you aren't saying "I'm POLISH" - you recognise where your forefathers came from, but you don't claim to be from there, too.

As for taking me up on this - if you can fund your own way here and can afford to pay your own expenses, you really won't have any problems whatsoever in finding somewhere to volunteer - orphanages are always screaming for volunteers (and not toys), for instance.


The American ones are American, that much is certain.

Yes but the paperwork/test that need to be done before one can actually get near a kid in an orphanage takes at least one month and more realistically three months, which pretty much puts it put of the picture for somebody who wants to do less than a year of volunteering.


The link I gave above has a range of programs which offer basic accommodation and meals in exchange for work (but of course one needs to pay to get to the program).