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Have you seen “Ida” ? About the life of a young nun. It’s the first Polish film to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Film (2015) Poland has a very promising filmmaking scene.

Thank you for the description. I will be sure to watch it as it is sure to strike a chord with me - after living in Russia, where a whole new generation is struggling to forge a proper identity and make sense of the Soviet past also. Public discussion of Soviet atrocities has been largely muted (or edited/censored) under Vladimir Putin. For every monument erected even to Russian victims, dozens of portraits and busts of Stalin, Lenin, and Dzehrzinsky are in increasing public view.

I experienced “Victory Day” two years in a row while there and the desperation to claim the “hero” mantle in the World War II narrative (while also embracing Stalin’s role and Soviet glory) is palpable.

Here is an article about how the Russian officials responded to the Polish govt’s intentions to decommunize further and remove Soviet statues:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-poland-sanctions-idUSKBN1A41VB

Thanks for the Reuters article line. I had no idea any Soviet era statues were still up in Poland, much less that Russian is planning retaliation against Poland for removing them! Good for Poland for passing amendments to a law banning the promotion of communism and ordering the removal within a year of Soviet statues. If only we could do that here.

"Russia says the Polish move spits in the faces of the more than 600,000 Soviet troops who lost their lives liberating Poland from the Nazis." -- that's rich! The Germans and Soviets partitioned Poland before the non-aggression pact collapsed and Germany invaded Poland. Not to mention the decades of occupation of Poland by the Soviets.

I have a personal interest because my Dad came from Danzig (now Gdansk). My German grandfather had left in 1927 to start a new life in the US, but his parents stayed behind. They lived only a couple of miles from where WW II started in Danzig. In 1945, the Soviets forced them out with a few hours notice and they had to walk to Cologne, Germany. They were in their 60s at the time. Their factories, house, and all assets were all confiscated by the Soviets. They died in poverty six years after the war ended. In the 60s, my father and grandfather tried to press claims against the Soviets and Poles for the lost assets but that went nowhere.

You might enjoy The Katyn Controversy: Stalin's Killing Field by Benjamin B. Fischer who is on the History Staff of CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence. It discusses monuments to Katyn in Poland.

The "Katyn" movie features a young woman who lost her brother at the massacre. She has a gravestone monument made that she hopes to put at the church and then at the cemetery. The Soviets arrest her because she refuses to sign a statement saying the Germans killed her brother and she is thrown into prison. Very chilling.

I haven't seen "Ida." Thanks for the tip. I just put it at #1 in my Netflix DVD queue.

Have you seen "The Lives of Others"? It's the 2006 film about the Stasi in East Germany. Also highly recommended.