The BEST Guide to POLAND
Unanswered  |  Archives 
 
 
User: Guest

Posts by hague1cmaeron  

Joined: 30 Mar 2010 / Male ♂
Last Post: 7 Jul 2014
Threads: 14
Posts: 1,368
From: Adelaide
Speaks Polish?: yes
Interests: Politics, history, cricket, African mammals etc.

Displayed posts: 1382 / page 3 of 47
sort: Oldest first   Latest first   |
hague1cmaeron   
27 Apr 2010
News / 2010 Polish Presidential Election [39]

Sikorski i

Have you seen his interview on Hardtalk by the way? Unfortunately he got soundly beaton in one of the debates with Komorowski.

Putting JK in as President would only be a sympathy vote and that's never a good thing.

Yes, lets hope people's heads overcome their hearts.

The mohair beret brigade

lol.

He also knows Poland is on the verge of going to hell in a handbasket

That is total rubbish, quite the reverse is true!

German-Polish relationships will go down the drain again when JK get's voted in...

Hopefully not, Angie and her crew are more in contact with Tusk and his crew, so it should be OK. It was a pretty nice gesture from the German gov, to send the Berlin philharmonic to the funeral, in the end i am not sure if they made or not due to the ash cloud.
hague1cmaeron   
27 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

In short, your life's not changed, because you haven't experienced what it was like before it all changed.

I beg to differ.

When Brits come together as Vets, they share a beer and reminisce positively and don't point fingers.

Indeed they do, because they were greeted by their country as heroes, and rightfully so, not as criminals waiting to be captured and deported to Siberia by traveling that well worn route that previous generations who dared to stand up to tyranny traveled.

At least Poles have the consolation that for the most part throughout history, their country stood on the side of civilization.
hague1cmaeron   
27 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

What could had been worse than that what actually happened?

Well it is hard to imagine, but if it hadn't been for the the war, paradoxically it would have taken the Europeans a lot longer to form the EU I guess.
hague1cmaeron   
27 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

The EU was founded to harness german power and use it

They are certainly using it, for instance:

Greek PM: Angie,we are a little broke at the moment, could you spare us a Dime.

Angie: why not, here you go, but don't fritter it away!

10 years later, Greek PM: Angie...
hague1cmaeron   
27 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

puzzled me about the the invasion of Poland by Germany and the USSR, England declared war on Germany why not the USSR as well. I would like to know your thoughts on this.

well ideally yes, on both, but not exactly realistic though is it.
hague1cmaeron   
27 Apr 2010
News / 2010 Polish Presidential Election [39]

According to that the UK conservatives are more socially conservative than civic Platform, that is just incorrect, the conservative are in favor of civil partnerships and the PO is not.
hague1cmaeron   
27 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

I really don't know, I guess the Americans were just not really that interested, they thought they had got a good deal and probably believed Stalin, when he assured them that there would be a free and fair election in Poland and other countries. By time the rigged elections took place I think he already acquired THE BOMOB.

The Brits in turn were suspicious of the Americans and wanted the secrets to THE BOMB, which the Americans were at first reluctant to share. As for the Poles it didn't matter what they thought, they were just ignored.

They had to throw everything but the kitchen sink into rearming

I think you meant mobilizing, they certainly were rearming in as far as the economic situation allowed. Britain on the other hand was constrained by some of the cuts Churchill made when he was Chancellor in a Baldwin government, they stuck to a pretty stupid 10 year plan at the time. That was partly the result of very strong pacifist Labour opposition, that wanted more money devoted to social security (as they always do).
hague1cmaeron   
27 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

As a counterfactual:

They could have had better relations with the Czechs whose army was quite sizable as well I believe, and done everything they could to back the Czechs against German demands and attempt at persuading the British and French that they were willing to fight over Czech sovereignty. That way the French would feel more inclined to honour their agreement and fight as well, thus winning the support of the British. That way Hitler's field of

Manoeuvre would have been very constrained indeed, if not in fact impossible. However there was just to much disagreement between the two.
hague1cmaeron   
27 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

Did they not have a major run-in with the Czechs in 1938? It would have split the then Czechoslovakia as Slovakia had many Nazis in their ranks. Also, the Czech Republic was still small fry compared to the Nazi war machine. They would've been trampled on and crushed in an instant. The fact is that it would've taken nothing short of a miracle to get the French onboard and active. Czech sovereignty was not enough of a concern for them.

Indeed they did, quite a complicated history between the two. Lot of personality clashes between statesmen as well. I actually think that Czechoslovakia, being a mountainous region, could hold on to the passes for quite awhile, their army was not comparable to the German army of course, but quite formidable nonetheless. The French would struggle to desist from interfering, seeing Czech resistance in the south and Polish attack in the east they could quite plausibly join in and the Brits would naturally follow.

The Slovaks were opportunists they would have desisted until the Germans got the upper hand. Presented with such a scenario I think Hitler would definitely hesitate, there were people within his army at the time who were planning to assassinate him should Germany commence war with Czechoslovakia, but the conference prevented that from happening.
hague1cmaeron   
28 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

Stalin's position on the Polish border was supported by Poles such as General Sikorski.

Actually no, it was not. whenever the issue of borders came up he constantly refused to discuss when Russia was in a position of strength, he was desperate to maintain the integrity of Poland's easter borders.
hague1cmaeron   
28 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

The UK treated Poles so well that even Poles who had fought against the UK were given everything that they needed

would you care to elaborate? i have never heard of this before. And could you please post some links.
hague1cmaeron   
28 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

One of my old neighbours was Polish.

I certainly hope so, I was going to say....

Heard about the latest story involving Brown, funnily enough it involves eastern Europeans, it could be his breaking moment. fingers crossed. lol
hague1cmaeron   
28 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

Interesting, thanks for the facts.

Although that was strictly private, i would imagine and not the official position at the time. And party the result of necessity.
hague1cmaeron   
28 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

after the end of WWII, it's a fairly safe bet that tens of thousands of Poles who were formerly in the German armed forces settled in Britain after the war.

I see, pure speculation, i suppose you also don't take it into account that many of these supposed Germano-Poles were forcibly conscripted?

Again, could you provide a link or some evidence?
hague1cmaeron   
28 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

89,300 is the number of Poles who joined the Polish army after having first been captured while members of the German armed forces.

Surely you are smart enough to realize that these people were most probably forcibly conscripted? It happened to the grandfather of the current Polish PM.

And you have not posted your source yet.

Data released by the British government in conjunction with the Polish government-in-exile

which you haven't posted
hague1cmaeron   
28 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

Yes, but if they refused did they get a bullet in the head, or did they have their family members tortured?
hague1cmaeron   
28 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

[quote=Harry]Sure, they were all forcibly conscripted. Which is why they only started to desert in large numbers from autumn 1944 onwards (the number who deserted during the north africa campaigns and in Italy before Italian surrender was so small that it wasn't even worth keeping records of). Finding a Pole who joined the German armed forces by choice is as hard as finding an Austrian who supported the Nazi party.

[/quote
The fact remains that Poland was the only one without a Quisling gov.
hague1cmaeron   
28 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

I see, i wasn't aware of the punishments inflicted on those who refused to join.
hague1cmaeron   
28 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

no interest at all in a Polish state existing: their vision was of a future free of the Polish race.

Yes but they contemplated a country like Slovakia as a German ally, that might be partly due to the fact the Poles would have no truck with the Nazis, so that is why they wanted to liquidate them.

As for the Poles you mentioned that joined the Nazis, how many of them would have had a dual heritage?
hague1cmaeron   
28 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

It was more probably because Nazi ideology viewed Poles as untermenschen

I know that, but why the Slovaks then and the Latvians?
hague1cmaeron   
28 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

No they were not, but I go back to my earlier comment that the Poles were unwilling to cooperate whith Hitler that is why unlike the Slovaks or Latvians, they needed to be destroyed.
hague1cmaeron   
29 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

Forget it Sokrates...frankly I don't believe your statements anymore....you also tried to convince me once that russian battle tactics were superior just because they had the men to run over a minefield to clear it.

lol.

No, they needed to be destroyed because they were Poles: the Poles who wanted to co-operate would be Aryanised.

You can't have it both ways, besides you would have to admit that out of all the countries occupied the Poles were arguably the ones who cooperated least with Hitler!
hague1cmaeron   
29 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

100,000 Frenchmen joined the German armed forces?

No I don't, but about half of the country did under Vichy, so i would assume a lot of them were troops. What is more despite the great myth surrounding the French resistance, it was in fact the Poles who had the biggest underground resistance army in Europe.
hague1cmaeron   
29 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

Germanic ppl, which of course they are.

Apart from the Scottish, Welsh and Irish of course.
hague1cmaeron   
29 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

Tell that to the Yugoslavs: their partisan army was double the size of the AK and mainly armed, full-time members (unlike the AK, which had only 8,000 such members).

Tell that to Norman Davies, who seems to disagree with you, last time i checked the Serbians were huge Hitler supporters that's why Stalin treated them so kindly.

There is a difference between following the orders of one's own government and joining the army of a foreign nation.

Indeed the Poles had no gov to follow, the French did and they just happened to be Nazi supporters, which kind of makes it worse because it was officially sanctioned, making them official Nazis.
hague1cmaeron   
29 Apr 2010
History / The Polish Blame Culture! [330]

Nope. Yugoslavia had the biggest resistance army in Europe and in fact, in the world. If you don't agree with this, then answer me the following question: if the AK was the biggest in the world, why didn't it liberate PL by itself? The Yugoslavs did. The Yugoslav partizans liberated Yugoslavia without the help of any foreign army. There's also an indication of how huge Tito's army was. At least much bigger than the AK.

Nope, you are wrong: Norman Davies and wiki seems to agree with me:

"The Polish resistance movement fought against the occupation of Poland (1939–1945) during World War II. The fight against the Nazi occupation of Poland was an important part of the European anti-fascist resistance movement and had the largest partisan army in occupied Europe."

Norman Davies gets a hardon from everything Polish. He is strongly biased in some of his books and is generally regarded as not really reliable a source. It's like Simon Schama.

Regardless, I think i will stick to his opinion.

I guess it is game set and match:)
hague1cmaeron   
29 Apr 2010
News / Brown's 'Bigotgate' and the debate about Poles [63]

It is a shame that you have to go through what you are experiencing, rememberer not all of them are bigoted, some of them voice these fears because they are afraid and ignorant and just don't know any better. I am sure it will change though, after the cuts that is when the UK once again returns to higher economic growth.
hague1cmaeron   
30 Apr 2010
News / Brown's 'Bigotgate' and the debate about Poles [63]

Actually that's not true. They do cause problems, but it's different problems. And I am sure that most of the Indian and Pakistani ppl don't cause problems, are generally better educated than most of the Eastern Europeans coming in the UK, or elsewhere and don't drink themselves to oblivion on just about any occasion.

I already disproved the falsehood that you are pedaling on previous posts, they are better educated than the natives for goodness grief, when will you use your head instead of being drive by anti polish bigotry?

Nobody's gonna hurt you

It has already happened, Poles being attacked by natives because of media incitement. So I would not be so sure