Can someone offer a historical perspective of the relations/fear of the Bolshevik party & Poland. I have come across some opinions & wanted to back track them.
Historically, I think the implacable animosity that Poland had toward the Muscovites/Bolsheviks (and vice versa) can be traced back to Poland's image of itself as the Bulwark of Christendom, and the notion that the Muscovites were a Eurasian horde seeking to take over Western Europe, and Poland.
Whilst neighbours, the two countries were, historically, completely different in terms of their attitudes toward government and civil liberty, amongst other things. These differences were irreconcilable. The reincarnation of Russia as the paragon of Bolshevism was merely another link in the chain of Russia's further descent to despotism and Poland's struggle to re-establish itself as a modern, democratic society. I do not think it was Bolshevism per se, but rather the fact that it was still the same old Russia but under a different political guise. Poland's victory over the Muscovites in 1920, and her subsequent failure to capitalise on same, is redolent of Poland's greatest attribute, and failing.
During the war, the Jews took the side of the Bolsheviks (Communists) and were more than happy to join the Soviet Red Army troops that were invading Poland in the East in 1939 while Germany was invading from the West.
I would caution against gross generalisations of what the Polish Jews may or may not have done during WW2 as against Catholic Poles. There were a far greater majority of Polish Jews who served their country without fear and without regard to the fact that they were of a different faith to their fellow Poles. Let's focus on that. To focus on the minority is to afford them the attention that they do not deserve. Silent scorn is the response more richly deserved.
Children ran to the parks, picked the autumn flowers, and showered the soldiers with them. ...
Children are just that - children. They shouldn't be included in any type of negative argument regarding the purported actions of their parents. Anyone who cites the actions of children in support of a negative argument against the group to which the children belong needs to look inside themselves and realise just how disgusting that type of argument is.
I'm not being critical of you here Marcin, but I simply can't stand hearing these things about children as though they have some sort of blameworthiness here.
heard stories, from my mother and grandfather among others,
I regret to hear that they experienced these things and hope they survived the war and flourished after it. It's always been my view that whilst it may be therapeutic to talk about these things, the best things that Poles (and those of Polish descent like myself) can do is do the best you can in your life, be honourable, be wise and just, excel professionally and remain true to those traditional virtues of the szlachta. To be the best you can be, and to be 'better' than those around you, is the truest symbol that the biological substance of Poland, no matter how far flung around the world, has survived and flourished, and the sacrifices made by our descendants have not been in vain.