UK, Ireland / SMART MOVE! Thousands of Poles are leaving the UK because 'life is a piece of s*** here now'. [26]


Britain offers a high tax-free amount, generous social benefits, the 5th highest minimum wage in the EU (three times the Polish amount, but that doesn't take into account the tax-free amounts, which are over 50,000PLN in the UK vs 3000PLN in Poland) and many more things that make life better.

Milo, the guy is Canadian with an obsessive hatred of the UK. Pay no attention to him, because he's got an agenda in that he wants to portray the UK as bad - when we know fine well that it's one of the best places to live in the world.

UK, Ireland / SMART MOVE! Thousands of Poles are leaving the UK because 'life is a piece of s*** here now'. [26]


Poor guy is obsessed.

The Daily Mail whipped up plenty of anti-Polish hysteria in the past, so all this is doing is playing to their readers who will cheer the alleged exodus of Poles. Those in the UK know that there's no real movement of Poles back to Poland, because if you moved abroad to earn better, you're not going to return to a place where the minimum wage is still considerably lower than the UK, without even mentioning the tax free limits.

Polonia / Don't Poles know they don't get welfare when going Germany to look for work? [22]


No, but Poland sort of jumped that phase - by the time Poland joined the EU, they could take advantage of EU treaties and so they didn't really need to join the CoE treaty in question here as Poles could continue to claim welfare payments in Germany after moving there to find work anyway.

Polonia / Don't Poles know they don't get welfare when going Germany to look for work? [22]


It's not an EU treaty, but rather a treaty under the Council of Europe which has nothing to do with the EU. Turkey is a full member of the CoE, hence why they were able to become a signatory to the treaty.

Anyway, the convention dates back to 1953, and Poland obviously didn't take part at that point. By the time 1990 rolled round, Poland was too poor to really consider joining it, and the situation wasn't much better when Poland joined the EU and hence was able to take advantage of freedom of movement anyway. Poles don't have less rights than the Turks, it's just that the rights are granted differently.


Nothing to do with the EU. Don't mix up the CoE with the EU.

History / If Poles were antisemitic, would they ...? [240]


Money talks indeed, and most high school students have no problems with earning easy cash.

Such a pleasure when you know how the world works, especially when the American taxpayer pays.

History / If Poles were antisemitic, would they ...? [240]


Which is logical, as they will have had more hours of English than Hebrew by the time they take part in such an exchange. English is taught from kindergarten in Poland, Hebrew isn't.

History / If Poles were antisemitic, would they ...? [240]


The ID card in my wallet also attests to that ;)

Strange though, I organise plenty of exchange rips between the UK/Ireland/USA and Poland, and no-one has ever accused me of being paid by some shadowy group.

History / If Poles were antisemitic, would they ...? [240]

If anything, it's a good thing to use English, as it's the international language of communication.

History / If Poles were antisemitic, would they ...? [240]

There's actually a former poster here (who now shills for TVP, thus proving our point) who made an entire career out of writing about bad Jews for the Polonia. Most of it wasn't true, but it was in line with the narrative being pushed after 1968 here.

Feedback / Will this forum be available in Europe if Article 13 passes? [30]

For once, I absolutely agree with the protests about this. It's a total mess, and it appears to be the result of some very awful consensus decision making.


You mean they provide legal advice designed to further their agenda. They certainly won't help you if you want to ensure that people can access services that they're legally entitled to.

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]

There's an interesting study in there somewhere about the attitudes of church goers in some areas vs others. I've noticed that in Western Poland in general, people seem to treat the church as some sort of obligation more than anything else. I remember being at one service in a small town near Kalisz, and the glum/disinterested faces made it clear that they were going only because...well, because.

History / If Poles were antisemitic, would they ...? [240]


It's always, always worth remembering that these posters are in North America and have zero real connection to Poland. These aren't the words of Poles, but rather people claiming to be Polish. Those of us in Poland are well aware that Poland's good name often gets used to further certain agendas, after all.

I remembered just now about reading this in Rzepa a while ago - rp.pl/Biznes/180619153-Izrael-ma-pomoc--polskim-startupom.html -


Certainly if Poles were anti-semitic, they wouldn't be embracing Polish-Israeli cooperation as they are.

History / If Poles were antisemitic, would they ...? [240]


Unfortunately for you Bieganski, you don't run the forum, nor do you make the rules. Pawian can post what he likes, and he most certainly doesn't have to defend himself to a fat Canadian teenager that can't even get out of his parents basement.

Interesting article here - jpost.com/Israel-News/Holocaust-education-improved-for-future-generation-of-Polish-students-488651


Good, good. That's what we like to hear.

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]


I've always found the disconnect between different parts of Poland to be interesting. Someone doing that in Western Poland would be laughed at and ignored, yet the priest in other places (like that) has a huge amount of sway over locals.

History / If Poles were antisemitic, would they ...? [240]

Nah, nothing against them - West Germany's success was built on the right wing CDU/CSU, and Gaullism was arguably right wing too.

The Polish government between 1925 and 1939 was just rubbish, nothing more than that.

History / If Poles were antisemitic, would they ...? [240]


Well...we're on Polishforums, aren't we? I mean, I can also talk about "utterly idiotic war-related events in Yugoslavia and former Yugoslavia 1918-1999" but this isn't yugoforums.com.

(my angle - I hate what the political/military leadership did to Poland between 1925-1939)

History / If Poles were antisemitic, would they ...? [240]


Nothing pragmatic about the top military leader abandoning his forces long before they were defeated. Warsaw wasn't even lost when he ran away!

Polish forces were brave, but the political and military leadership was awful.

History / If Poles were antisemitic, would they ...? [240]


A truthful statement. Poland lost in WW2 in 5 weeks.

Let me define the word "capitulation" for you.


Of course, Poles saw action elsewhere, but in terms of Poland - it effectively ceased to exist after 5 weeks. The AK (or ZWZ, as it was in the beginning) didn't get going until later in the war, and at least until what, December? 1939, Poland was without any real resistance movement.


Individual Polish units, yes, but Rydz-Śmigły fled like a rat and was gone within two and a half weeks. Not exactly heroic.

History / If Poles were antisemitic, would they ...? [240]


Or four: fight until the end and go down like a man. What Rydz-Śmigły did was a sign of a man who didn't match up to the propaganda.

History / Why are Jews pestering Poland for "proper" WW2 monetary restitution/reparations? [750]


They might have voted for him, but it was the Catholic Centre Party that passed the Enabling Act. If it wasn't for them, they would never have legitimately taken power.

Not to mention the role of Catholics in the Nazi leadership and the behaviour of Nazi-allied parties, such as the horrific Ustasha in Croatia.

History / If Poles were antisemitic, would they ...? [240]

Your father - no, unless he was one of the political leadership.

Anders - no, he was captured. Sikorski didn't have a political or military role during the invasion, so he can't be accused of cowardice.

When I say "fled like rats", I mean the idiots in the Polish government and their supporters as of the 1st September 1939 who fled.

History / Poland and Israel getting back on the right foot...maybe [132]

He's accused of being a Polish apologist by right wing American Jews, just for the record.

History / If Poles were antisemitic, would they ...? [240]


Poland very much capitulated. The leadership abandoned Polish territory and ran like rats, in particular, that coward Rydz-Śmigły who was the subject of all sorts of incredible propaganda before the war.

There's no shame in it - the German war machine was very capable and Poland didn't have much of a chance. Even in an alternative what-if scenario, I can't see any situation in which Poland defends all the territory held in 1939. Even if Poland allies with Germany, it's certain that the German price would be a loss of territory in the north and probably in the south.

History / Why are Jews pestering Poland for "proper" WW2 monetary restitution/reparations? [750]


Written by a website where anyone can publish stuff. Not exactly credible, not least because it's full of "in my opinion" and so on.

Needless to say, it's just more propaganda.

History / Why are Jews pestering Poland for "proper" WW2 monetary restitution/reparations? [750]


Did they or didn't they?

As for the rest of your claim, isn't it strange how you're repeating PiS propaganda word for word? For someone who claims to be a nationalist, you seem rather quick to repeat government propaganda.

History / Why are Jews pestering Poland for "proper" WW2 monetary restitution/reparations? [750]


I agree with you, Dolno. It's not going to end well if everyone shouts about what they think they're owed based on historical grievances.

PiS don't realise it, but if the AfD start demanding compensation for post-war German losses, what happens then?

History / If Poles were antisemitic, would they ...? [240]

We needed you and Torq here, Pawian :)

Language / Ukrainian language similar to Polish? [236]

Only slightly? Russian to me is incomprehensible, but Ukrainian (as spoken in Lviv) to be much easier. I had an entertaining situation in a coffee shop where I told the woman working there that I could understand her, but I couldn't read the names of the products. No problem at all :)

History / If Poles were antisemitic, would they ...? [240]


Damnit. Much respect, Pawian.

Language / Ukrainian language similar to Polish? [236]

How do you find Slovak, Torq? The Eastern Slovak dialect seems to be hilariously similar to Polish to my ears - I could communicate there easily and without problems.