News / "POLISH death camps" term used by "Parade Magazine" Anti-Polish Bigots [249]

But that's the point!
It's unclear English.

News / "POLISH death camps" term used by "Parade Magazine" Anti-Polish Bigots [249]

Not to split hairs here, but by saying/stating "POLISH" Death camps vs. "NAZI/GERMAN DEATH CAMPS IN POLAND", the clear implication, even for me as a bilingual native English speaker, is that those institutions were therefore owned and operated by Poles as opposed to anybody else.

Since this is historically false, I can understand why many Poles would have a problem with it being that it misrepresents the truth!

News / "POLISH death camps" term used by "Parade Magazine" Anti-Polish Bigots [249]

Hmm, have to explain that one, jon.
Are you honestly saying then that the whole furor over the article is linguistic rather than political??

News / "POLISH death camps" term used by "Parade Magazine" Anti-Polish Bigots [249]

"Polish Death Camps" though remains a factual misnomer, insulting
to the memory of the Polish Resistance, not to mention to those Polish
gentiles who bravely hid Jews at considerable risk both to themselves and
their families!

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

Yesterday's news, paw!
But thanks for the visuals.

Language / When do I use certain characters? [33]

Appreciate the post, Maf.
Yeah, makes sense....sortaLOL

Yet, for example "stol" is masculine inanimate (as opposed to virile animate, e.g. "gosc"), but nonetheless takes "u" in the genitive singular "do stolU"!

Still think it must have something to do with phonemes and with what vowel the noun ends in:-)

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]

Hear, hear Milo! What possible geopolitical or even militarily strategic importance could such a move serve ?

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]

What you say is true only to a certain extent, Ironside.
Had you posted what you did prior to 1989 and the collapse of the Wall, people would have dubbed you crazy, at best, uninformed.

The game changer of course was the Reunification, at which point Germans did indeed question whether or not it was really worth the expense of remaining America's dutiful puppet state in Europe! The collapse of Communism had for sure emboldened her.

At present, the Scholz rightly or wrongly finally feels empowered and independent enough to question America's decisions and not feel as though they have to eternally kowtow to US policy.

As Marlene Dietrich once observed in the film "Witness for the Prosecution" upon asked about her loyalties to England for taking her in after the War, "Gratitude can get awfully tiring."

Language / When do I use certain characters? [33]

Maf, you're probably right on the former.
Even drunken Poles seem to my ears to pronounce certain sounds clearyLOL

As far as my doubts on final genitive sing. endings, there appears little rhyme or reason for "komputerA" not "komputeru" vs. "krajU" and not "kraja" etc....... Undoubtedly, it has to do with the final letter of the noun in question, "komputeR" and the like end in an "r", or something like that.

Even my first native Polish teacher never explained it!!

Language / When do I use certain characters? [33]

Right, Lenka!
So, so much in Polish over which I still must deliberate before committing pen to paper, so to speak.

The final letter, "a" vs. "u" in the Genitive continues to dog me when I need to produce a written text on the spur of the moment. Speaking isn't the problem really, as one can always slur or try to gloss over certain final vowels as schwa sound:-)

Some texts actually provide rules or examples, but off the top of my head, I confess to making mistakes unless I think about it for several minutes at least.

History / Did Poles living in Germany support Hitler's rise to power before World War II? [161]

Most assuredly!
My background info. was faulty.

History / Did Poles living in Germany support Hitler's rise to power before World War II? [161]

Well, B.B., on the right side was Polish writing alongside the original German name of the port city of present-day Gdansk,

Language / When do I use certain characters? [33]

@Maf, thanks just the same, but I do berate myself for on occasion glitching on stuff I learned at least thirty-five years ago in my beginner Polish classLOL

It's analogous with my students of German who still after years of study often don't grasp when a verb is transitive and Dative. I have to wrap my brain around the concept of needing in Polish as one which requires the possessive rather than the Accusative case:-)

Probably just a typo.

History / This anti-Ukrainian propaganda for no valid reasons must stop [70]

Ukraine never invaded Poland, rather Hitler gave the ok to send his troops into Poland in '39 by merrily marching into Gleiwitz aka Gliwice!

While Russia had her own plans following Stalingrad, were the winter not what it was (remember Napoleon, after all), chances are that the Nazis might well have scored a victory over Zhukov and claimed conquest.

Naturally, this didn't happen, as the Germans foolishly tried to fight a two-front war.
George Santayana, are you out there?

Bobko, reading and assimilating information aren't the same thing.
Much of Michael2's post looks rather rambling to me.

History / This anti-Ukrainian propaganda for no valid reasons must stop [70]

@Bobko, I take it then you are skeptical of Michael2's credentials on this topic:-)

History / This anti-Ukrainian propaganda for no valid reasons must stop [70]

Seems to me that the Russians aka Moscow is/are clearly the aggressors here and the Ukrainians clearly the victims, pawns if you will, in Putin's ugly bullying tactics to "restore" Mother Russia to her former "glory".

Minus the biological ideology of an all out race war, it sounds a great deal like Hitler if one substitutes Fatherland with Motherland.

History / Did Poles living in Germany support Hitler's rise to power before World War II? [161]

Correct here, Bobko!
Ck. out old Polish stamps from the '30's and above "Danzig", proudly shows a profile of Hitler.

History / Did Poles living in Germany support Hitler's rise to power before World War II? [161]

@B.B. in "Triumph of the Will", you will have no doubt noticed the clear presence of certain select Black Africans from former Namibia included in his Conventions (Reichsparteitage).

Was he thus a friend of the Black man??

Attending Pilsudki's burial was a political act as well, as there was no love lost between Hitler and the Polish people, above all, Poland's Jewish population.

@Ironside,
Your intentional twisting of words in order to humiliate is quite irritating and unprofessional. I've tried to give you a chance to improve but you fight my efforts at every turn.

Personally, I think your English is in truth better than it looks. I mean no one can be that ignorant!

History / Did Poles living in Germany support Hitler's rise to power before World War II? [161]

As Hitler considered the Poles along with other Slavs "Untermenschen" or subhuman, the answer is also unequivocally no.

Dmowski and Moscicki were indeed nationalists, but scarcely Hitler supporters and the latter surely wouldn't have regarded their sentiments anyhow, albeit in close agreement.

Language / When do I use certain characters? [33]

Sorry folks, I meant "torebkI" on account of "potrzebuje"!
No, in fact I was buying a Rzeczpospolita and two Warta Mocna:-)

Language / When do I use certain characters? [33]

Reallty, Korvinus?
When last in Greenpoint, the storekeeper asked me
"Czy potrzebuje pan torebke?"

History / 1920 Germany Lands in exchange for the Eastern Lands? [31]

We all need the practice:-)

All I was trying to say is that this question of what actually belongs to whom in the end is pointless gum flapping, since the matter has long been settled to the satisfaction, both of the Hague as well as the United Nations.

Language / When do I use certain characters? [33]

@Atch,
Not to nitpick, but "bag" in the sense of a "shopping bag", is actually "torebka".
Your example though is obviously correct:-)

Sorry I jumped the gun too soon and couldn't delete this messageLOL

History / 1920 Germany Lands in exchange for the Eastern Lands? [31]

I quite agree, Ironside!
Until today, many Poles claim the right to sue the government of the BRD for lands stolen and the appropriated by the post-War German government.

As late as the mid-'80's, certain German fringe groups such as the Gottscheer actually petitioned their Parliament for formerly "German" territories, lost after the War to the Allies, among them parts of the erstwhile Sudetenland, and demanded back with full restitution, including the former Prussia, if you can believe it.

Add the that the still smoldering question of Jewish compensation for properties purloined by the Nazis, and you've got some witches' brew on your hands.

Life / Poetry and Poets of Poland [58]

@Alien,
"Purple cow" has no more significance in English than "Blaue Blume" does in German
(an allusion to the mysterious in Novalis).

While perhaps not chosen entirely at random, the element of the absurd with Nash
is what's of significance here, not the color itself:-)

Mickiewicz, Tuwim, and Herbert though are certainly great poets, yet entirely different
from Iwaszkiewicz.

History / 1920 Germany Lands in exchange for the Eastern Lands? [31]

Questions of repatriation have been asked and answered on this forum.
Why keep flogging a dead horse?

Life / Poetry and Poets of Poland [58]

Ah yes, Ogden Nash!

"I never saw a purple cow,
I never hope to see one.
But I can tell you this right now,
I'd rather see than be one."

:-))) Delightful stuff, isn't it.

Life / Specific Military to join? [13]

True, Bobko! Except in present day Russia, I'm told by Russians fighting in the Ukraine War.

Life / Poetry and Poets of Poland [58]

Can't recall of course the entire verse, but one of them begins "Przez caly, bialy dzionek czekam, az stanie wieczor wiencu gwiazd..."
Have an old CD of Andzej Lapicki reading it in his wonderful rumbling baritone:-)

Life / Poetry and Poets of Poland [58]

@Rich, you're typically confusing the output of oevre with the man who
created it!
Many of history's most creative beings were indeed either homo- and or bisexual,
but who cares in the long run?

Quite a number of the modern world's most significant contributors, to the arts at least,
were Nazi-leaning, to be sure openly bigoted, such Richard Wagner, D.W. Griffith, Leni Riefenstahl and the
French poet Ferdinand Celine among others, yet few go into paroxisms of rage as they would if they discovered
that someone's gay or lesbian.

Now THAT'S a double standard.