So, what makes you feel Polish? I will tell you about my life...... My dad came to Britain via a Siberian labour camp where my grandmother died. He lived, with his father and two sisters for four happy years in Uganda, thanks to the British government. His older brother lied about his age and fought for the Polish army, along with The British in Africa and finally at Monte Cassino..... he ended up in Britain.
Dad and .his family finally got to Britain and were placed in an ex army camp in Essex. Dad made a good friend, who had suffered more than my family, and eventually became my uncle. They moved to London and got a flat in Paddington. Grandad died in Essex...... Dad and my uncle progressed. Dad started his own business and bought his first house in 1955.... two years after marrying my mum.....and I was born in 1957. So, in 9 years, and at the age of 30, he was married, had his first child and owned his own house.....from having nothing..... It was quite a big house but with a small garden in NW2. Our garden had a lawn with a huge apple tree at the back and space for a shed and a chicken coop. My mum stopped keeping chickens after one unfortunate event when trying to kill one.....
When I was about 7 years old, my dad decided that he did not like the way things were going in London. Half of the kids in my class were, what we now call afro carribean, and he decided that we needed to move to the suburbs for the sake of my and my sisters education we moved to a lovely, large house with a back garden that was 120 feet long and 60 feet wide.
The first half of the garden was just a lawn, with an apple tree and a pear tree, The second half was like a typical Polish garden. We grew potatoes, carrots,peas, green beans,cabbages,tomatoes, cucumbers and many more.....
@Lyzko
Ironside asked me that question when I first joined PF. And I will answer you in the same way. That is a really difficult question, and one that my son and I have often debated. In the end, we would have to side with Polish.
Ogorki. We used to grow cucumbers in the garden and mum used to pickle them. But in brine, never in vinegar. For years I bought Polish made jars of Polish ogorki and whilst I liked them, could never understand why they did not taste as good as my mums.
Now I know...... ogorki kiszone are the business......
Our flag makes me feel Polish every time I look at it. The colours of the flag are highly symbolic:
- the white symbolizes purity, nobility and freedom - the red symbolizes bravery, fighting spirit and the blood shed for our country - the blue symbolizes all our reliable allies throughout history.
Yes to all of those. I even went to Chatechism and did confession, communion and confirmation, but I am not religious now. I could not speak English when I started school as English was never spoken at home. We used to go on a "Polish picnic" once a year, organised by a Polish boys school in Henley on Thames
So in the end, do you "feel" more Polish or more British?
Having slept on it I can further answer your question by saying that although I was born in England I have never felt English. Yes, I have a British passport and cannot deny that I am British, but never English.
I tried my best but there was always something (Unable to join the navy as an officer) or someone who would remind me that I as a guest in their country, or a white *** along with the Irish and Italians.
someone who would remind me that I as a guest in their country,
I never had that. When people discovered my family was Polish they always wanted to know more. I never felt any animosity. Mind you, there was a fair number of us, in school, out of my class of 30 there were 4 Poles and two Polish jews too.
out of my class of 30 there were 4 Poles and two Polish jews too.
I have that special detector for the sentences like this one. It would make sense if it were Polish Catholics and Polish Jews. Poles and Jews is a logical abomination or it means that Jews living in Poland were not Poles, but a separate nation within the nation. Nothing to be proud of.
That's a disclaimer. The question is why we see "Poles and Jews" in the same sentence so often.
and did not regard themselves as Polish.
I am still not able to make sense out of Polish Jews who did not regard themselves as Polish. BTW, I am not picking just on your post. I have seen this "Poles and Jews" many times before. If you google "Poles and Jews", you will get 163,000 hits.
@Novichok Because so many Jews never assimilated. My Polish Jewish friends dads fought in the Polish army. But they were not fighting for Poland. They were fighting to protect Jews. They could all speak Polish but refused to do so when they came to Britain. It is a very sad state of affairs. Of my two Polish Jewish friends at school one had a very Germanic/Yiddish surname. The other one had a very Polish one and I knew that his ancestor's must have been bakers. But because he did not understand Polish, he was unaware of that.
'Twas naiveté ultimately killed the Jews of Poland, save for all but the ultra assimilated, such as those whom I'd mentioned prior. Ah, how challenged was Christianity in her direst hour when spirituality and love were most desparately needed!
Being polish is a matter of ethnicity not feeling. Sick and tired of every single European ethnicity being reduced to some globalist meaningless identity that is simply a feeling. If you're not polish I don't care how you feel you'll never be polish. But I guess this English speaking forum is heavily slanted towards foreigners and deracinated diaspora.
Being polish is a matter of ethnicity not feeling.
Oh, come on! Don't you know that in the matriarchal matrix of madness feelings are everything and facts are hate speech? If I can be a woman tomorrow because I feel I am one, why not a Pole or Chinese for the same reason?
