News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

As usual??
The Germans physically started the whole mess and they were the ones to finish it, cold as it sounds.

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

Up until '45, present-day Polish cities such as "Wroclaw", "Szczecin" or "Gdansk" bore German names!
Surely no living German in his or her right mind would dare to petition somehow reclaiming these and aim to rename them in their original nomenclature, would they?

It's too ludicrous even to imagine! Germany lost the war, period.

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

It's certainly a way, but hardly the "only" possible way!

History / What do Poles owe to Hungarians? [233]

However, I wonder whether much older folks in Poland still complain about it as do many Hungarians I know, who continue to nourish the dream that one day while they're still alive, they can "reclaim" Transylvania from the Romanians!

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

It's all connected, Cojestdocholery.

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

@Cojestdocholery,
We learned from the Nueremberg Trials that culpability is not always
an easy matter!

No German at the time wanted to admit their guilt.
It was only after the Auschwitz Trials in '67 or thereabouts and of course the publication of Mitscherlich's "The Inability To Mourn" in '69, that ordinary Germans began to have substantive discussions with their parents about their role in the recent past.

In the documentary "Night and Fog" by Alain Resnais, the film ends with the eternal question: If the kapos, the commandants, the German people were not responsible...WHO then was responsible?

A more uncomfortable question remains whether Poland itself bore even the slightest complicity in the murder of Jews during the Holocaust.

Certainly neither of us can honestly answer this question.

History / Unforgettable quotes about Poland and Poles from Polish and world`s history and culture [99]

Translation:

"UNCLE JOE WANTS YOU!"
Eh, Pawku? LOL

Study / Various education and school issues in Poland. Opinions, stories, controversies. [940]

In total agreement there.
Foreign language depts. in the US used to require stringent standards for their staff, particularly their adjunct faculty.

While full professors needn't all have been native-born speakers, for sheer advertising purposes, anybody other than a tenured professor, that is, an "instructor" typically had to be from and ideally educated in the country of the language they were teaching,

I know of only one instance of a French preceptor at an Ivy who was a native bilingual from right here in the States and he was a notable exception.

However, this was easily thirty or so years ago:-)

History / What do Poles owe to Hungarians? [233]

Well, the Trianon fiasco of 1918 was a pretty rough slap in the face, you must admit!

Imagine how you in Poland would feel if you lost almost more of half of your homeland to a neighboring power, much less, who denied it ever happened.

Genealogy / How to Find Birth Records in Poland? [16]

An important question is whether or not this person is a blood relative or only by marriage! If they were adopted, this might complicate matters without a certified family tree.

As already noted, data protection laws might prohibit the release of such information.

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

Thank you, Pawku.
At least one decent thinking member left on PF!

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

I assume you have strong feelings on this subject, B.B.
Just sent a private mail as I couldn't quite make out what precisely you meant. Or were you being your usual sarky self?

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

The first part of your statement is true.
The question though of reclaiming formerly "German" territory seized by Hitler and then "returned" legally to Poland remains at issue and is likely to remain so inspite of what appears black/white.

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

What you say is typically from the Allies' point of view, Rich!
Germany operated from a different logic during the War, most of which was brought out at the Nuremberg Trials.
Considered "illegal" after '45, against the Geneva Convention etc. was deemed legal, right, and justified from '33-'45 as part of German law under Adolf Hitler. Technically, the Nazis weren't "breaking the law", since theirs WAS the sole existing law while Hitler remained in power.

The Nazis annexed conquered territories right and left. Determining what belonged to whom following the collapse of the Third Reich took years of wrangling.

And as you can plainly see, the fight is not over yet.

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

Easier said than done!
Germany has had claims of her own, you know:-)

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

I rather agree with that last statement, actually.
However, Poland has been making such claims for nigh unto almost seventy years and I suppose the present German administration is getting just a little tired of it!

The entire question anyway as to what constitutes "lost" property remains open to debate, according to legal scholars.

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

My point precisely!
As you and others here are doubtless aware, way back in '52, not long after the War and during the throws of the rebuilding of West Germany at the time of the Economic Miracle, the then West German gov't. rejected Poland's first proposal for restitution under Adenauer.

I see little to any reason why under Scholz the answer would be any different.

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

@Cojestdochlery,
It's not a question of "folding" or not folding!
Do you understand what you posted?? "To fold" means either to go out of business, go under, or to submit to.

"You're not naive, aren't you." You meant,
"You ARE naive.......",. Now the sentence makes some sense.

I'm not naive, rather curious as to what Poland intends to do after being rebuked so sharply by Baerbock.

News / Poland to officially demand $1.32 trillion WW2 reparations from Germany [457]

Merged:

Apparently Germany's foreign minister rejects Poland's trillion euro claim demands!

Curious as to how people are reacting to this news.....and if most Poles or Germans even care any longer.

Study / Upper age limit masters in Poland? [6]

Curious as to whether those who teach courses in English are native English speakers or foreigners who studied English in their country, e.g. India or Pakistan, but who do not speak it as a mother tongue.

In the US, many non-native university professors of any number of subjects at top schools are foreign born and often teach with heavy accents, although usually decent to near perfect grammar.

News / Famous Poles die - your memories [101]

@Cojestdochlery,
It is possible to be of Polish birth and nationality, yet Jewish by religion:-)

Ask any assimilated Jew! Were you to ask Roman Polanski, Julian Tuwim or even half-Jews such as Jan Brzechwa (author of the best-known tongue twister in the Polish language), they would all declare themselves proud Poles of Jewish heritage.

Study / Upper age limit masters in Poland? [6]

Curious as to why necessarily Poland, Srkpoli. According to your PF profile, you don't even speak Polish and so I'm not certain what your plan of action is exactly!

Language / The meaning of some Polish Diminutives [23]

Thanks. However, I wasn't referring to that former PF-poster. Anyway, Jolly is German, not Polish:-)

Language / The meaning of some Polish Diminutives [23]

Polish diminutives are also essential in cementing friendships with Poles, at least with Polish males!

I have a friend named Roman, whose buddies in Poland all know him as "Romek". A Polish cultural point is that once becoming friends with someone, calling them by their formal given name, might signal a rift between the two or might seem to one that the other is acting aloof or "uppity" towards that person.

Similarly in the States, if someone is introduced as "Thomas", normally they'll respond to "Tom" in friendly parlance and wonder why the other' person insists on being formal.

Love / What do Polish woman think about Latinos (dating, relationship) [19]

Assumptions are often based on prior knowledge acquired from relationships, both romantic as well as professional:-)

Naturally, one cannot speak for each individual Pole or Brazilian!
My comments are not meant to be patronizing, merely to observe that our exchanges here are a two-way street, that's all.

You're entitled to be wrong too, you know!

Latins in general are known to be hot-tempered and impulsive, owing as much to their diet as to the weather. Their history too was defined for numerous decades by grinding poverty. Certainly this will leave its stamp on a nation's character, won't it?

Love / What do Polish woman think about Latinos (dating, relationship) [19]

Often opposites attract! Take Pole and Latinos, the bland vs. the spicy:-)
Don't you agree?

Language / Helping Non Polish Student studying in Public School [32]

Right on.

Language / Helping Non Polish Student studying in Public School [32]

If Poland wishes for students from abroad to have the freedom to study, thereafter to work, in their country (or to return home), this ought to be THEIR choice, not ours.

After all, the US has sponsored uncounted numbers of foreign student to study and work, with full knowledge that the US-taxpayer will eventually have to foot the bill, right?

When I studied for a semester in Germany, I was being sponsored by Columbia University in cooperation with the West German government at the time. Having completed my matriculating coursework, I returned to the States.

I don't see a problem with Poland or any country sponsoring foreign student or pupils, so long as they eventually learn to speak the target language.

News / Should we think about joining part of Ukraine to Poland? [34]

Poland in fact was at one time adjoined to the present Ukraine,
witness "Lwow" became "L'viv", "Kharkov" < "Kharkiv" etc..
The name changes are not reversable!

Language / Helping Non Polish Student studying in Public School [32]

AMEN, cms neuf!!