History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

Raze it to the ground!: 1944

There is one city in Poland that suffered proportionally more than Warsaw in WW2. Yesterday was the 80th anniversary of the razing of Jasło. It wasn't destroyed by war but as an act of blatant war crime. German authorities gave inhabitants three days to leave their homes and began total destruction: the city was almost totally razed and looted; 97% (!) of buildings were destroyed and 1020* railway wagons of loot were transported to Germany (mostly Dusseldorf).

* - some historians estimate that if railway wagons with the works or art, machines, cars and other loot stolen in entire Poland by Germans during WW2 were put in one railway track, the last wagon would be still in Warszawa Zachodnia whilst the locomotive would be at Berlin Hauptbahnhof!

News / European News and Poland Thread - part 4 [530]


Or was it Deutschland schafft sich ab? *scratches head*

I wish Germany all the best. Hopefully common sense prevail in the end.

History / Should Poland organize March of the Living in Volhynia and Eastern Lesser Poland? [65]


Oh, you devil! :)


The legal background is definitely visible in your posts but you add warmth and humanism to it too. If you weren't so infatuated with the truth, you would make a great (and dangerous) propagandist.

As for Volhynia, sowing discord, marching, apologising etc. ... *sighs*... maybe our grandchildren will figure out a way out of this mess.

History / Should Poland organize March of the Living in Volhynia and Eastern Lesser Poland? [65]


Bobko uses American spelling (analyze, apologize, colonization etc.).


Nonsense. Bobi writes a bit like American George Orwell most of the time - elegant but simple; skillfully but without unnecessary ornaments. Yes, sometimes there's a hint of something more intricate, let's say early to mid 20th century British literature there (think Evelyn Waugh, maybe Aldous Huxley to a lesser extent) but certainly not Victorian.


And he was quite right! Unless you would have preferred Nazi Germany in his place. You depress me, Pawian.

History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]


Hilarious. They were trolling before it became fashionable. :)

History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

Jarocin: late 1980s

Choose life.
Choose a job.
Choose a career.
Choose a family,

Choose a f*cking big Soviet 'Rubin' TV,
Choose Polish Fiat 126p
Choose meat and sugar ration cards...
Choose life.

Young people found many ways of dealing with the overwhelming hopelessness and bleakness of late PRL. Apart from kompot, a homemade drug called "Polish heroine", they found refuge in music. One of the best known music festivals for youth back then was Festiwal w Jarocinie. The festival was sometimes visited by MO (Citizens' Militia) but they law enforcement officers weren't welcomed very warmly by the youngsters.

History / Should Poland organize March of the Living in Volhynia and Eastern Lesser Poland? [65]


I'll take my meds, you will lay off alcohol for a while, and everything will be right in the universe. :)

History / Should Poland organize March of the Living in Volhynia and Eastern Lesser Poland? [65]


Indeed.

I only wish you would refrain from your scandalous Ukrainophobia in those other threads. Have some decency. :-/

History / Should Poland organize March of the Living in Volhynia and Eastern Lesser Poland? [65]


You have repeatedly insulted our Ukrainian friends, neighbours and allies by claiming that they are immature and unable to admit their crimes. You have also displayed gross anti-Ukrainian bigotry by denying them their Kievan Rus heritage and refusing to recognize it as the first independent Ukrainian country.

This blatant anti-Ukrainism (at a time like this!) fills me with righteous indignation which makes it impossible for me to discuss anything with you any further in this thread. Reflect upon your bigot ways, cease with your Ukrainophobic hate-speech and then maybe (just maybe) I will talk to you like one would with a civilised person. But first, your horrible bigotry of low expectations towards the noble and wise Ukrainian nation must stop.


When a person agrees to murder a child in its mother's womb, he stops being a centrist and becomes a neo-marxist maniac.

History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

Graj, piękny Cyganie: 2015

Gypsy keyboard maestro is playing for the newlyweds as they exit the bride's house in Rakowo, a small village near Gniezno.

History / Should Poland organize March of the Living in Volhynia and Eastern Lesser Poland? [65]


So you deny the Ukrainian claim that Kievan Rus was the first Ukrainian state? Your bigotry and anti-Ukrainism knows no bounds.


Perfect centrism means perfect decency, so obviously I oppose murdering children. Perfectly centrist attitude. :)

History / Should Poland organize March of the Living in Volhynia and Eastern Lesser Poland? [65]


You see, Pawian, even Konstytucja 3 Maja was a Ukrainian constutution, and you treat them like some immature idiots! :)

History / Should Poland organize March of the Living in Volhynia and Eastern Lesser Poland? [65]


But they draw their roots all the way back to Kievan Rus!

Ironside and Amiga have a very good point: you denigrate and belittle our Ukrainian neighbours by treating them like retarded children. I think I speak not only for myself but also for every decent member of PF when I say that this kind of bigotry should be frowned upon on any discussion board and you should be ashamed of yourself, Pawian.

Work / 9000 gross salary in Warsaw? [18]


:)

Work / 9000 gross salary in Warsaw? [18]

I think telling people what you earn is gross.

*I'll get my coat*

History / 70th anniversary of 1943 Wołyń/Volhynia and Eastern Galicia Massacre - controvercies [454]


Surely not! Ukrainians? Lying about what happened? Impossible.

*profoundly shocked*


I'm very concerned about Ukrainian credibility.

History / 70th anniversary of 1943 Wołyń/Volhynia and Eastern Galicia Massacre - controvercies [454]

@Alien

Isn't it obvious? People in Donbass are living close to the frontline, under constant bombardment from both sides, suffering casualties from the very beginning of this war. It's been their reality for over two years now.


Well, at least we're useful whilst you're just an idiot without any adjective. :)

History / 70th anniversary of 1943 Wołyń/Volhynia and Eastern Galicia Massacre - controvercies [454]


Tragic event. However, nowhere near the horrors experienced by people of Donbass every day.

In any case, the railways leading from Rzeszów to Ukraine have been under a lot of strain with all those gigatons of cargo rolling constantly on them. I think it's time to start repairs. Profound and thorough repairs; and lengthy ones too (at least as long as the time needed to allow the exhumations of genocide victims in Volhynia).

Not my idea but Sławomir Mentzen's - I begin to like this guy. :)

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


"What are you, Mars or something?". :D

Brilliant.

Off-Topic / Music Thread - part 2 [855]

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Off-Topic / Music Thread - part 2 [855]

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Off-Topic / What's your connection with Poland? Penpals. [574]


Oh, and by the way - Mikołaj Rej, Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski and Stefan Czerniecki were Calvinists. They were quite Polish, weren't they? :)

Such narrow-mindedness, tsk tsk.


Guilty as charged. They have a missing part of our soul - woe to us if we never regain it.

OK, to end with something nice...

Off-Topic / What's your connection with Poland? Penpals. [574]


You have to be careful with open-mindedness. Some people are so open-minded that their brains fall out, as G.K. Chesterton used to say. ;)


Worry not, Paulina - school year has already started, academic year begins in October. You will be bored much less often by me soon. :)

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]


Not at all.


Rarely recognised as such by my contemporaries. :(


Because you started war against the entire world! This time it's only about some immigrants. Surely you can do it. Sie schaffen das doch lässig!

History / Poles should apologise to Ukrainians first [395]


I certainly will. As soon as hell freezes and pigs start to fly.


More importantly, what might happen is that the self-image of Ukrainians as a noble, never aggressive, only-defending-themselves, peaceful nation would burst like a baloon. After all, it wasn't only OUN-UPA to be blamed, it was also ordinary Ukrainians - neighbours of the murdered Poles - who commited the atrocities.

History / Poles should apologise to Ukrainians first [395]


You keep forgetting what I told you before: I no longer expect any apology from Ukrainians and, frankly, I don't give a sh*t about their apology either.

All I want is for murdered victims to be exhumated and given proper burial. A bare minimum that should be asked of any civilised country. Unfortunately, if the exhumations were allowed, the scale of atrocities would come to light and the horrible way in which the victims died would become evident for everyone to see. That's why I don't expect the barbarians to ever allow full exhumations.

News / Will PiS be happy if AfD wins elections in Germany? [1303]

@BB, @Tacitus

I have a good solution for Germany, guys:

1. Elect AfD to rule your country,
2. deport all the immigrants (including Alien),
3. in next elections elect mainstream party and say that you are good cuddly fluffy Germans again,
and that electing AfD was a mistake bound to happen in democracy every now and then,
4. say that you don't accept any immigrants because it might bring AfD to power back again.

Don't thank me.

Off-Topic / What's your connection with Poland? Penpals. [574]


False modesty is not much better. :)


Women are complicated - they say one thing, they think something exactly opposite.

History / Poles should apologise to Ukrainians first [395]


OK, the churches were destroyed first. So what?


What Polish nation? Polish peasants oppressed Ukrainian peasants? Because overwhelming majority of victims in Kresy were ordinary Poles, farmers and their families, slaughtered by their Ukrainian neighbours in the 20th century because of what? Wiśniowiecki and Chmielnicki?


You can't oppress something that doesn't exist. Ukrainians as a nation in modern sense are a 20th (OK, maybe 19th) century invention.


... and commited genocide that they deny. That's the difference, you see - Poles know about the destruction of orthodox churches and Piłsudski's betrayal of Petlura, nobody denies that. Ukrainians, on the other hand, refuse to acknowledge not only genocide but even the ethnic cleansing, and they do exactly what you do - justify horrible murderous atrocities with those vague "centuries of oppression".

Ireland was oppressed by England for 800 years - would it be OK for the Irish to mass murder English women and children in the middle of the 20th century for that? Finland was under Swedish occupation for 700 years, but somehow Finnish peasants didn't go on a rampage slaughtering their Swedish neighbours.


What for? Ukrainians are not going to apologise for something they even refuse to acknowledge anyway. That's why your whole Let's-Apologise-First crusade is nonsensical.


Unfortunately, it looks like he is. Justifying Ukrainians commiting genocide on their neighbours with whom they lived and worked by something that Polish ruling authorities did.

Off-Topic / What's your connection with Poland? Penpals. [574]


As I mentioned before, my misadventure with the calvinist heresy was a very brief one and I am now fully back into the fold of the One-and-Only, Holy and Apostolic Roman Catholic Church. It was a short period of weakness one might say... miserere mei Domine quoniam infirmus sum, and all that.

You wouldn't like those calvinists either - they want 10% of your wages! Scandalous! ha ha :)

But let's not drag this thread off-topic - we were advising our new friend, John, whom to address when he has a question regarding Poland. I think we can all agree that I am the best person to provide a new member with a truly Polish point of view.