Genealogy / Russian POW Camp records [71]


Well... likely if you lost just to us, instead of the Germans, then the war would largely happen on your territory instead of Ukraine's.

We would have recruited millions more Poles than we actually recruited, and they would have died in large numbers. Disproportionately more than our own soldiers.

We would use your men to breach lines, and break fortresses.

So maybe you would end up in the same place you ended up in, and nothing would have mattered.

Hard to be a Pole.

Genealogy / Russian POW Camp records [71]

@Paulina

Noted.

News / The Iran war and Poland [826]


To understand your statement, I should take a length of rebar - 5 feet long - and hit myself on the head with it for 45 minutes.

Genealogy / Russian POW Camp records [71]


This shocks me - that you say this.

I also read this in Polish archives. Polish leadership preferred a "hot war" with Germany, to occupation by the Soviet Union.

They thought if they could hold off the Germans long enough, the French would come to help. But if they ended up in Russian slavery again, then no one could save them.

This was a huge mistake.

As you know - they ended up in Russian slavery anyway, but minus 5 million people.

The correct choice was not to ally with Germany, but to come to the Kremlin on your knees, and beg forgiveness from Stalin.

Genealogy / Russian POW Camp records [71]

@Novichok

I forgot to mention a couple other very important reasons. But I suspect Iron is aware of those.

A big one - misplaced faith in France and Britain. The same way Poles today worship America, thinking it will protect them.

Next - total and complete intelligence failure. The Soviet secret services had managed to weed out nearly every single Polish agent. Even after the USSR attacked, for some hours the Polish leadership thought it was only a "tactical" move, and not a prelude to the total destruction of Poland.

--//--

To recap:

1) Poland refused to align with the USSR,
2) overestimated Western guarantees
3) underestimated the risk of German-Soviet cooperation.

The result was a strategic catastrophe: a two-front war that no mid-sized power could survive.

Their doctrine assumed they'd be fighting one giant, not two together. In geopolitics, isolation plus hubris is fatal.

News / The Iran war and Poland [826]


lol. Do you ever read what you write?

Were Christians doing better when they were thrown to the lions in the Colosseum?

Were Christians doing better, when there was just a few thousand of them - living along the edges of the desert - rather than the billion plus Christians we have today?

Were Christians doing better, when their crusader kingdoms in the Middle East were permanently destroyed by the Caliphate's armies?

Were Christian's doing better - when Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot were doing their best to exterminate Christianity?

You live in a nutcase world of NewsMax talking points, that could only ever make sense to a person such as yourself.

If you need to feel like you are "under attack like never before" to get a hardon, that's your problem.

Genealogy / Russian POW Camp records [71]


From my understanding of what happened:

1) Poland refused any kind of cooperation with the USSR pre-war. When Britain and France tried to include the USSR in a mutual defense pact against Germany, Poland flatly refused. It would not allow movement of Soviet troops through Polish territory, even in the case of a hypothetical German invasion. Stalin interpreted this not as a Polish veto, but more foot dragging and scheming from the Brits. This pushed him into the embrace of Hitler.

2) Poland's expert community judged the USSR as "too weak" to mount an invasion, especially in the aftermath of Stalin's purges. The general expectation was that the USSR would not be able to reconstitute its forces well into the 1940s.

3) Poland saw the Nazis and Bolsheviks as ideological enemies. Even though they were aware of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (though not its secret sections), they calculated that mutual hostility between Germany and Russia would make any such alliance unstable and temporary. Certainly not durable enough to pull off a joint military operation.

4) Poland tried to pursue its age old policy of "Equal Distance", trying to balance between Germany and Russia, and deterring them through diplomatic rigidity. In reality it left Poland friendless and exposed. What it had to do - was make the difficult decision of choosing between the lesser of two evils.

Off-Topic / Is Islam a threat to western society? [215]

Some thoughts about Islamization...

In my opinion - it is not a serious threat to Europe. Why? Because you actually have few people (relatively), who are culturally/historically prone to Islamize.

In Russia, and around its periphery, the problem is much more acute.

We have Tatars, we have Chechens, we have Dagestanis, and we have millions upon millions of Central Asian migrants.

Formerly fully secular people, with completely modern outlook and values, are:

1) Growing long beards
2) Wearing funny clothes
3) Going to mosque for 4-5 hours every Friday
4) Treating women like property
5) ... and most importantly for me - completely switching their brains off. Ceasing to be intellectually curious about the world, and instead watching hours of YouTube videos every day recorded by some pedophile sheikh in his basement.

Now this is a huge problem. And this is in Russia. In neighboring Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, etc - the situation is much much worse.

Secularism and liberalism is losing to medieval grade Islamism. The legacy of 80 years of Socialist rule is being erased, faster than one would think imaginable.

I blame all this on the Turks and on the Saudis. They invest ungodly amounts of money in building religious schools in Russia, mosques, paying for trips for our mullahs to train in Egyptian and Saudi medreses, etc. They have been doing so from 1991, non stop.

Russia's Muslims were always peaceful and open minded, but they are now being infected by poison exported by Wahhabi and Salafi retards from the Hejaz.

They've already completely f*cked their own countries with their caveman's interpretation of Islam, and now they wanna ruin every other place that has moderate Islam.

If I were president of Russia, I would do what Islam Karimov does in Uzbekistan. See a guy on the street with a long beard and wearing sandals? Take him to the nearest police department for a "prophylactic" conversation.

UK, Ireland / BBC launches new Polish language news service [87]


What is dead may never die, but rises again, stronger and harder.

Life / Why there is always around a horrible smell of sweat in Poland [220]


Why not?

Life / Why there is always around a horrible smell of sweat in Poland [220]

@WarSore

Miloslaw is a proud British Pole. He would never step foot in Poland. Hence, his question.

Genealogy / Russian POW Camp records [71]


Who are you referring to?

UK, Ireland / BBC launches new Polish language news service [87]


Ukrainian Salo is the mother of all bacons.

How you British can call that paper-thin, half-crisp, limp excuse for a meat strip "bacon" is beyond me. In Ukraine, they use your bacon to wrap real food in, before throwing it to the dog.

British bacon... pathetic slices of apologetic pork, trembling under a drizzle of brown sauce. A breakfast item. A snack. Something your aunt packs in Tupperware for a train ride to Brighton.

Salo - on the other hand - is a slab of honor. A currency. A spiritual compass, or even... a potential weapon.

Come to think of it, I would rank Italian prosciutto and French poitrine also above the British variety of pork fat.

Bottom line - Ukrainians are gods of pig fat.

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Genealogy / Russian POW Camp records [71]


Have you tried the Bundesarchiv or Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt)?

There could have been a transfer as a forced laborer, or reassignment via the General Government postal service.

If he was mobilized as a POW laborer, there may be Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt) records.


I mean everything seems right, what is there left to find?

On September 3rd, two days after Germany invaded, your grandfather enlisted. The location of his enlistment was Zegrze, a known Polish military garrison and communications base north of Warsaw.

Him being a part of the 1 Pułk Łączności, makes sense, because it aligns with Zegrze's role as a center for signal troops in the interwar Polish Army.

Then, based on your description, it seems his unit undertook a rapid eastward retreat or redeployment across central and eastern Poland as the German invasion progressed from the west.

It seems that they were retreating virtually non stop. Because your grandpa served in a communications unit (signals regiment), he would've been involved in maintaining radio, telephone, or courier links between command - and this would been crucial during fast-moving retreats. So then it is likely that he moved in the vanguard of the retreating army, arriving first - before other formations.

It looks like he never spent more than a day in any given location, before he had to move again.

That final date is significant - September 17 is the day the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Because this path ends near Czortków, it's plausible that he was actually captured by the Soviets - as your relative claims.

After his capture, he was likely immediately deported into German controlled territory, as an ethnic German.

He must have appeared strange to the Russians. A 40 year old German corporal - somehow lost in a sea of Poles.

UK, Ireland / Polish YouTuber weirdos trash-talking the UK [200]


Yes, it must be pretty annoying.

But being a Russian in America is also no pleasure cruise.

If we get depicted at all, it's usually in caricaturish form - as wearing an Adidas tracksuit, while trying to penetrate a bear inappropriately with a bottle of vodka.

UK, Ireland / Polish YouTuber weirdos trash-talking the UK [200]


I'm throwing Russians under the bus here... but it's actually quite a popular genre on Russian YouTube too. And in general in Russian comedy.

We had a guy throughout the 90s and early 2000s, Mikhail Zadornov, that built a whole career around "American" jokes. All his jokes boiled down to, "Geez, are these Americans stupid or what?"

After Zadornov died, a whole army of Russian YouTubers decided to carry on his legacy. The usual premise is: Russian YouTuber on the street in Times Square or Venice Beach, asking the "locals" a series of questions.

The questions are inevitably Russian-focused. Like, "Can you name the first man in space?" or "What's the name of the largest lake on Planet Earth?". When the Americans answer "Lance Armstrong" and "Lake Superior", laughter ensues.

Another favorite rubric is "America is a decaying sh*t hole". For these, the Russian YouTubers descend on the projects, and film close up reels of every fentanyl junkie.

Finally - there is the classic - "Let's humiliate service industry workers". This involves displaying towering Russian intellect versus check out clerks at Walmart or Burger King.

I hate this sh*t, because I feel like it feeds people exactly the type of fuel they need to maintain their sense of superiority.

You could do the same "blitz interviews" in the Russian street, and form the same opinion that Russia is a country of retards. But for some reason, this is the content people adore and always beg for more of.

UK, Ireland / Polish YouTuber weirdos trash-talking the UK [200]

@Paulina

There's like three cakes in Russia.

Medovik (honey cake). Napoleon (kilogram of cream squished between wafers). Bird's Milk (soufflé cake made from mysterious substance called bird's milk).

UK, Ireland / Polish YouTuber weirdos trash-talking the UK [200]


I laughed out loud at this! A 100% accurate description of my childhood Easters.

One could see, on the television, what American children were eating for Easter. Marshmallow ducks, chocolate eggs, gummy bunnies, and what have you.

My eggs, dyed in different shades of brown using boiled onion skins, were quite underwhelming in comparison. Actually not all were brown. The green ones had fate notes of dill, and the red ones of beets. Sometimes they smelled of kerosene. But all were... in the end, undeniably egg.

It wasn't just hard boiled eggs, however. We also got to eat a tall cylindrical cake called a kulich, which was so dry it absorbed atmospheric moisture. It contained about as much sugar as an eggplant.

Anyways, eating candy on Easter is for Imperialist Americans. In Russia, sugar is for funerals. Easter is for protein.


Hahaha!

I spat out my coffee!

Off-Topic / PF members MEETUPS.....everyone welcome! [122]


Same, and then I got convinced by my coach at the local Dynamo range to enroll in some tournaments.

Climbing, because my friend and business partner introduced me to it. I'm nowhere near his level, but I can climb some 20-30 meter cliff outside the city (top rope, with all anchors already placed).

But diving, yeah, I love diving - no equivocations here. I don't need to dive something interesting. I don't need reefs, wrecks, or fancy fish. You can put me in a 45 meter deep former quarry - that got flooded - and I will happily dive there for a year.

I just like being underwater.

Off-Topic / PF members MEETUPS.....everyone welcome! [122]


I created the only scuba thread on PF. This is my true love. I went pass recreational certificates into industrial and navigational ones just for fun.

Like Johnny, I love fish. I love being underwater - where there are no laptops, no cell phones, and most importantly no one talking.

Off-Topic / PF members MEETUPS.....everyone welcome! [122]


I do, sir.

I climb. I dive. I used to shoot competitively (skeet shooting).

I barbecue. I marinate.

I am your dream of Russia - embodied in flesh.

Ready to love - or ready to kill - at a moment's notice.

Off-Topic / PF members MEETUPS.....everyone welcome! [122]

@Torq

Think about how unusual it is, that we found ourselves on this obscure forum - with a vanishingly small membership - and we still split almost perfectly down the middle in our views. In everything.

This is something for scientists to study.

People want to argue. They want to talk.

Off-Topic / PF members MEETUPS.....everyone welcome! [122]


It always makes me laugh, how many competing alliances we have within this tiny microcosm.

Homo Sapiens are incurable.

News / The Iran war and Poland [826]


Moving HEU is not as easy as it sounds, based on what I've read from papers in recent days.

It's not as highly radioactive compared to other nuclear materials, but still poses a high risk.

It can literally explode like an ersatz nuclear bomb, in what's known as a "criticality" accident. That will kill anyone that is near, and contaminate the area.

Maybe it's possible to move it on 24 hours notice, but it seems like it's hard.

UK, Ireland / BBC launches new Polish language news service [87]


My favorite form of drinking.

Am enjoying some fine bourbon, right this very moment, from AntV's home state. In utter solitude.

It's not about sadness, or drama. It's about ownership. You pour exactly what you want, exactly how you want it. No one judges your ice-to-whiskey ratio (zero). No one steals your olives. No one tries to turn the music up "just a little."

You can toast to absolutely nothing. Or everything.

You can sit in your kitchen in your underwear and listen to some obscure jazz or Soviet wartime marches or German industrial metal - whatever you, in that moment, feel like. You're not performing. You're not managing anyone else's vibe. It's just you and the glass, having a delightful conversation.

Po polsku / Tylko dla Polaków [16]

Faszyści.

Off-Topic / USA News and Poland - part 16 [1071]


He's the 5th, that I did not mention.

Did not mention him, because he was not a mayor, a governor, a senator, or a congressman.

Anyway - these days he hates to be associated with New York. He's a Florida man now.

News / The Iran war and Poland [826]


To use an astronomical analogy - I think we are like a binary asteroid.

Two bodies that orbit each other closely, when all other conditions are stable, but then suddenly have very volatile and collision-liable trajectories as soon as they pass a third body - which had exerted a momentary gravitational pull.


Fine, have it your way.

News / The Iran war and Poland [826]


The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

Oh... sooo complicated. Sooo complex. So arcane and Byzantine in its internal structures... that we shouldn't even bother.

Come on AntV...

Occupation is occupation. Forced resettlement is forced resettlement. Expropriation is expropriation. Murder is murder. Theft is theft.

Nuance is important, and impartiality, but here I feel you are trying to make something that is pretty straightforward into something more complex than it is.

Po polsku / Koniec Tuska [17]


Dlaczego nie chcesz omawiać takich tematów po angielsku? Myślę, że inni czytelnicy również byliby zainteresowani tym, jak ewoluowały poglądy Torqa.