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Posts by Barney  

Joined: 26 May 2008 / Male ♂
Warnings: 1 - O
Last Post: 3 May 2024
Threads: Total: 16 / Live: 11 / Archived: 5
Posts: Total: 1,619 / Live: 1,474 / Archived: 145

Displayed posts: 1481 / page 48 of 50
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Barney   
4 Jan 2010
History / Have Poles blood on their hands? :) [496]

enforcing german as school language, first language in the multi- ethnic state Prussia was.

That sounds good if you spoke German

Not that much different as the Poles tried with the Ukrainians

He did it so its ok?

Well, that's what Harry meant and that's what I was also trying to point out.

Sorry, I'll have to pay closer attention.
Barney   
4 Jan 2010
History / Have Poles blood on their hands? :) [496]

So only ethnic Poles "count" and not Polish citizens in general? Isn't that a bit too simple?

It seems simple but its not. Having an ethnic minority as citizens is legally correct but often those people ended up outside their state against their wishes, the vast majority will accept the new way but their hearts will be elsewhere. The majority state will refer to those minorities ironically as "the other" where all good deeds are in this case Polish and all bad deeds German, Ukrainian etc.

Where Germans treated badly in the second republic I dont know?
Did Germans treat Polish people harshly? Trying to extinguish a language is fairly harsh.
Barney   
3 Jan 2010
News / The "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign theft from Oswiecim, Poland [240]

I'm not sure exactly how credible the Sunday Mirror is, however the article is marked as exclusive

This is old news, the story first appeared in a Danish paper and was picked up by others during the week.
Barney   
30 Dec 2009
History / Have Poles blood on their hands? :) [496]

lets say NOT every jew hates poles in fact common people like everywhere don't care.

And not every Polish person hates Jewish people.

Historical events are far more complicated than a simple retelling of facts no matter how they are presented, what makes it interesting is the back story.

Lumping people together is never a good idea, I recall the anarchists expelled during the partition era lots ended up in London and continued their activities, they were Poles of all flavours. I cant speak for British people but I know they didnt lump Poles together as anarchists. Those Poles were trying to free their country (rightly or wrongly)
Barney   
30 Dec 2009
History / Have Poles blood on their hands? :) [496]

Ok, I asked why you thought Jewish people turned against Poles.
I didn't believe Iraq had Nuclear weapons.
Now would you answer my question.
Barney   
29 Dec 2009
History / Have Poles blood on their hands? :) [496]

I don't believe that It was completelly made up but the "official" version is so illogicial, It is offending for human intellect that It was commonly accepted to be true.

Kielce - we now when and who was killed but still It is wierd, expecially that local authorities were involved and later the commie government was blaming anti-Soviet circles...

Two very bad things (at least) happened only an idiot would say that all Polish are anti-semitic jew haters.
The Nazi holocaust happened to a large extent in Poland that is not the fault of Poland and I can understand why Polish people are defensive about it.

The article I posted was trying to get away from the moronic view of Poles as Jew hating knuckle draggers.
Barney   
29 Dec 2009
History / Have Poles blood on their hands? :) [496]

It would also have helped a bit If the chosen hadn't massively collaborated with NKVD.

Its always safe to use the "what about" argument, ignoring anything you may be uncomfortable with.
Barney   
29 Dec 2009
History / Have Poles blood on their hands? :) [496]

what do you mean by that ?

Read the article.
The author sets out and defeats the commonly held view that Polish people are anti-Semitic by default, he also attempts to explain what many see as a defensive attitude of Polish people with particular reference to Jews.

I chose the quote because the thread asks if there is blood on Polish hands and it agreed with the poster above who quoted "Captain Obvious".
Barney   
29 Dec 2009
History / Have Poles blood on their hands? :) [496]

I thought this article was excellent.

For here is a deeper truth: this is what human beings are capable of when they find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. (And to be a small town in eastern Poland occupied first by the Soviets, then by the Nazis, then by a Soviet-imposed Polish communist regime, is almost a definition of wrong place, wrong time.) Anyone born in a luckier place and time must say: there, but for the grace of geography, go I.

guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/23/poland-catholicism-nazis-difficult-past
Barney   
8 Dec 2009
History / Maria Wittekówna and other Polish Women in The AK [25]

Marzena Schejbal
Pictured above on the left, the woman on the right is Anna Przylipiak below is a picture of them with Wanda Gutowska another AK soldier, they were going to the 60th anniversary reunion.

telegraph.co.uk/culture/3621391/The-Warsaw-women-who-took-on-Hitler.html - This is a great wee article about them

Marzenna joined 3 Company "Wkra", Pine Group, and soon acted as messenger, nurse, stretcher-bearer, forager for medical supplies and jack-of-all-trades. On August 6, 1944, sporting a white-and-red AK armband - ubiquitous symbol of the Rising.

These couriers were very brave, pictured is one working under fire.


  • Three ladies

  • POW card and original armband

  • Very young courier

  • Courier under fire
Barney   
6 Dec 2009
Life / Polish plantlife and similar flora where you live. [81]

The orange/rust looks like Trentepohlia Algae.

The Green looks like Pleurococcus.

You are right, aspect determines the type of algae growing. The reddish could also be one of a number of types of lichen

Lichen do provide an extremely good indicator of air quality. It's possible to determine almost the exact sulphur dioxide content of the air by noting the type of lichen growing.
Barney   
1 Dec 2009
Life / Animal Rights Movements in Poland [56]

Towarzystwo Opieki nad Zwierzętami w Polsce (TOZ)

toz.pl

TOZ was founded in Warsaw in November 1864, the second such organization in Europe, the first being the British RSPCA. The Society also worked in the Austrian partition.

In 1939 there were 45,000 members of the Society. During World War II TOZ activists carried the animals to safety in the bombed cities and cared for the horses used by the military. After the war, TOZ survived until its dissolution in 1951, (revived in 1957).

Today they are active in almost every city and town in Poland.

TOZ is also affiliated to the euro group for animals along with

The Treaty of Rome did not include a reference to animal welfare. A revision resulted in the Treaty of Amsterdam which, thanks to Eurogroup campaigning, included a protocol on animal welfare. The Treaty of Amsterdam and the protocol became effective on 1 May 1999.

The Protocol on Animal Welfare
The animal welfare protocol included in the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam is significant. For the first time in European law, animals are referred to as sentient beings - able to feel pain and suffering, and experience well-being.


Polish Animal Protection Act - animallaw.info/nonus/statutes/stpoapa1997.htm
Barney   
28 Nov 2009
UK, Ireland / (Polish man murdered in Belfast) RIP Piotr Michna [53]

this guy was very popular

I cant begin to think what his family are feeling, my heart goes out to them. A tear came to my eye as I read the tributes to this man.

We said this at my Father's Funeral

May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be ever at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
And the rain fall softly on your fields
And until we meet again, May God hold
you in the hollow of his hand.

youtu.be/1se8_-fcxZs
Barney   
28 Nov 2009
History / Polish hatred towards Jews... [1290]

Seanus, question for you as humanist: tolerance is one of the greatest goods mankind knows nowadays; how would you see the way tolerant ppl should act towards intolerant ppl?

I know this wasnt addressed to me but WTH.

There are two approaches either ignore them or confront them head on.

Confronting them head on has a problem, it often lets them set the agenda, you are starting on the back foot, why argue on someone else’s terms.

By ignoring them they envelop themselves and others in a self spun web of nonsense that just becomes more ludicrous with time. The problem with this approach is because they haven’t been questioned, according to generally accepted norms, they then believe their [twisted] views have been endorsed.

If you go at them with a big bull neck, on your oun agenda, they always cry that it’s you depriving them of their rights [to be morons].

There are certain tenets of humanity that have been hard won and views that should not be tolerated or ignored.

I don’t believe it’s a lack of education or life experience that led them to those views, many racists are educated people. Under educated people tend not to be racist but some are, a point always ignored by the classic left.

Racism, anti-Semitism etc is something that ignores the traditional left/right divide and paradoxically is independent of colour, gender, social status and religion.

I don’t know where it comes from my guess is that it is a knee-jerk reaction to difference.
Barney   
17 Nov 2009
History / Polish hatred towards Jews... [1290]

MareGaea
Isn’t it sad that you have to type that.

This forum is populated by smart witty people (I'll stick to boring).
It’s only a small amount of posters who express stupid views especially towards Jews but they are loud.

Its been said before, many type cr@p because of the anonymity the Internet gives.

I like to apply the three pint rule:

If you say something in a bar after three pints that you wouldnt normally say out loud then you should look at yourself or change your friends.
Barney   
17 Nov 2009
Life / How Polish are you? [74]

Grzegorz_
I would have scored less than 9% in the first quiz if I mentioned that I was pink:)
Barney   
17 Nov 2009
History / Maria Wittekówna and other Polish Women in The AK [25]

britishpathe.com/video/polish-women-troops - Film of Polish women soldiers

Location unknown (It looks like Britain to me plus the uniforms)

PS give it time to load, may be a bit stop/go depending on your connection.
Barney   
16 Nov 2009
History / Maria Wittekówna and other Polish Women in The AK [25]

When the Warsaw Uprising ended the Germans granted over two thousand Polish women soldiers prisoner-of-war status. Women officers were sent to Oflag Molsdorf, whereas women of lower ranks were sent, among other places, to Stalag Oberlangen.

polishresistance-ak.org/12%20Article.htm

Oflag Molsdorf

Oflag IX C Molsdorf was created after the collapse of the Warsaw Rising. It was a small camp, capable of accommodating 400 people, and it was a branch of the Buchenwald concentration camp

The Polish OC was Major Wanda Gertz a.k.a. "Kazik" (Pictured above Post #22)

Conditions were harsh with temperatures dropping to minus 17 celsius The German Commander forbade the use of small cookers and prevented the supply of firewood.

"this camp looks surprisingly like a concentration camp, not like any Oflag that I have seen."Dr. H. Landolt of the Red Cross

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oflag_IX-C

sppw1944.org/powstanie/kobiety_jency_eng.html

There are some good images in the second link.

Stalag Oberlangen

Oberlangen accommodated 1.721 women from the Warsaw Rising. They were aged between 14 and 60. Many concealed their officer military ranks so as to be placed together with the women soldiers in the Stalags. Their task was to train the hundreds of young women who were not accustomed to military discipline to form a military group.

Captain Maria Irena Milska "Jaga", posing as a sergeant, was the camp's commander.

In October 0f 1944 Strafflager VI C Oberlangen was removed from the official list of the prisoner-of-war camps [by Germans] because its living conditions were beyond any acceptable standards. The International Red Cross did not realise that it was the place where the Polish women prisoners of war were transported.

Maria Irena Milska "Jaga" died in 1988 in Krakow


  • Maria Irena Milska

  • The emblem of the women society of Oberlangen
Barney   
15 Nov 2009
History / Maria Wittekówna and other Polish Women in The AK [25]

Sean
Those images are what I have been looking for (names,dates and places)

Its difficult to get stories, thats what I have been looking for. I dont know Polish so have to rely upon online translations as most sources are in polish, I will keep searching.

Thanks
Barney   
15 Nov 2009
History / Maria Wittekówna and other Polish Women in The AK [25]

1jola
That woman in the third picture of post #4 is Zofia Domańska or "Zocha"

Zofia Domańska Died in September 2009

nekrologi.wyborcza.pl/0,11,,4498,Zofia-Doma%C5%84ska-nekrolog.html
Barney   
15 Nov 2009
History / Maria Wittekówna and other Polish Women in The AK [25]

Not every Woman Soldier was decorated

Battalion "Czata 49." Had at least two women serving.

"Xenia" Louis Wyszomirska was a courrier

"Ewa"Anna Wyganowska (No Info)

Not all women soldiers fought with the AK and some were murdered out of hand. The third image is of two Jewish women/Girls on the point of execution during or just after the Ghetto rising


  • Anna Wyganowska

  • Louis Wyszomirska


Barney   
15 Nov 2009
History / Maria Wittekówna and other Polish Women in The AK [25]

Elżbieta Zawacka(19 March 1909 - 10 January 2009[/url]), known also by her war-time nom de guerre Zo, was a Polish university professor, scouting instructor, SOE agent and a freedom fighter during World War II.

She was awarded The Virtuti Militari, Order of the White Eagle and The Cross of Valor

freepress.pl/galerianaczasie.php?id=256&kat=1

Zofia Kossak-Szczucka an interesting anti-semite

I had the great pleasure of meeting the diminutive 'Marylka' Sobocinska

Good luck with the Memoirs


  • Elżbieta Zawacka

  • Elżbieta Zawacka
Barney   
13 Nov 2009
History / Maria Wittekówna and other Polish Women in The AK [25]

Such a shame she wasnt mentioned my thread

I did see that thread at the time but didnt know about her until Yedterday, I was reading a thing about Women Rebels and did a search and found this woman.

The thing that struck me was her working selling newspapers probably having to put up with all sorts.

Look at Maria Sobocinska who would have thought
Barney   
13 Nov 2009
History / Maria Wittekówna and other Polish Women in The AK [25]

Maria 'Marylka' Sobocinska

The Order Virtuti Militari (Latin for "To Military Valour") is Poland's highest military decoration for courage in the face of the enemy. It was created in 1792[1] by Poland's King Stanisław August Poniatowski and is considered as one of the oldest military decorations in the world still in use.[2]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuti_Militari


  • Marylka

  • Sobocinska

  • Virtuti militari
Barney   
13 Nov 2009
History / Maria Wittekówna and other Polish Women in The AK [25]

Who said "Women dont have Balls"?
They do, just higher up.

Danuta Siedzikowna

Shocking!, executed at 17 years of age.

I cant see the images as I'm in work will check them out later.

Silent Is The Vistula by by Irena Orska

I'll keep an eye out for it.

I intend to read the last Beevor book and some of Janusz Tazbir's stuff (as Recommended Here) over Christmas and New Year.