Posted on 01/19/2005 10:06:06 AM PST by knighthawk
But if Poland tries to get out, and later finds out they can't, I'm not sure we need to be entangling ourselves with them. Remember, nations don't have friends, only interests.
It worked pretty well... many years ago I was asking my father about our family name because I knew it had been modified when we came to the US. He wouldn't tell me what it was, but acknowledged that it had been changed because, as he put it, it was difficult to spell correctly in english. Then he didn't want to tell me what it was or what nationality. Finally, when I pressed him, he almost shouted, "It's Polack." I didn't know what to say. And he never told me. I finally found out by ordering a copy of my grandfather's original application for Social Security from 1936, when my father was seven, and it had the correct name on it.
"My dad says the "pollack jokes" started during WWII when the Allies freed the Germans camps in Poland (many poles were killed there, as well). Evidently the polish people feigned ignorance (so did everyone else) and it became quite the joke amongst the military posted there. Ashes from human remains raining down on the population every day, but they "didn't know" what was going on. That's what Dad says, anyway....."
I heard similar things, such as when the Germans and Soviets invaded Poland with tanks and airplanes while the Poles fought back with horse cavalry and wagons. But these stories were exaggerations, given that the Poles fought valiantly and suffered heavy combat losses during, and after, the invasions. And Polish units were well-represented in other theatres of WWII. It is true that the extermination camps were primarily in Poland, though, giving credence to the idea that they were pretty stupid not to know what was going on there. But why should they have known; the Germans themselves supposedly didn't know what Hitler was doing. No, the reason for the vehement anti-Pole rhetoric seems to go much deeper. I still think it was rooted in their persistant faith and their virtuous and stubborn fight against atheistic communism, which leftists despised around the world.
Interesting, but I don't understand... Who "didn't know" what was going on ?
The Polish population who inhabited the towns in and around the camps.
Me too...LOLOLOL
still loving Poland!
I wish they had bothered to call me.
I could have bucked the trend.
Kerry or Bush? Hmmmmm. Let me think a while...........
AS IF!
Europeans unhappy about election of Reagan
Europeans unhappy about reelection of Reagan
Europeans unhappy about election of former vice president Bush.
Europeans unhappy about election of GWBush
Europeans unhappy about reelection of GWBush
Notice a pattern?
Does the BBC even write articles about republican elections or do they just write the same story and change the names to smear the victorious.
Of course they knew it, but I still don't understand why it was the reason of jokes.
The drift was that the polish people were standing there with ashes raining down on them and horrible stench coming from the camps, some of them even worked at the camps, and still they claimed to not know what was happening in the camp i.e. the mass murder of millions of people. Thus, according to the American soldier i.e. my dad, they were so incredibly stupid it would take 10 of them to change a light bulb, one to hold the bulb and 9 to turn the ladder. K?
I have never heard that Poles, especially those, who lived around the camps, claimed to not know what was going on there.
I've heard it. Read it. My Dad witnessed it. Frankly, faced with the choices, it was better than living in one.
I love that one!
Germans said the same.
"My Dad witnessed it."
How ? Did he serve in the Red Army ?
You'll easily find interviews by witnesses regarding the denial of the Poles at the library. I have no animousity towards Poland, I'm just telling you what my father related to me and what I've read. Many of the Poles denied they had knowledge of the camps. My father said that's where Polish Jokes started. I have read several books that state the Poles denied knowledge of the camps. Whether that's where the jokes started or not is probably up for debate. But Dad usually proved to be right.
That tells me that we picked the right man for the job ...
Shocking how the Europeans seem to think exactly what their masters tell them.
Don't they have access to the internet?
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