[agere_contra]

Is he not right? Didn’t the Nazis kill millions of Poles? Or did I miss something?

You are correct. Approximately 1 in 5 Poles died, or something extraordinary like that. Some FReeper no doubt can supply the correct figures.

[dfwgator]

You are correct. Approximately 1 in 5 Poles died, or something extraordinary like that. Some FReeper no doubt can supply the correct figures.

The Polish intelligentsia and business classes were targeted for extermination by the Nazis. And the ones the Nazis didn't get, the Soviets did. Those who did manage to escape the country were not welcomed back by the Soviet puppets who ran Poland after the war.

[Riodacat]

You are correct. Approximately 1 in 5 Poles died, or something extraordinary like that. Some FReeper no doubt can supply the correct figures.

Approx 6 million Poles were killed in WW2 - 50% of those were Jews.
Note that a portion of those were killed by the Ruskies when they took over part of Poland as part of a deal with the Germans and also later near the end of the war when the Ruskies aided in the elimination of Polish nationlists in order to engineer the establishement of a commie state.
Personally, I think the Poles are unwise in whinning about WW2. They took over a large portion of eastern Germany at the end of WW2 as part of a settlement and if they push things too far, they could be in for another ass kicking.

[JasonC]

The pre-war population of Poland was 35 million. The post war population of Poland was 24 million - some territorial change (Russians kept a slice of the east - now part of Belorus and Ukraine - and added a slice in the west at Germany's expense in partial compensation), some refugees, at least half outright deaths. Poland's population did not reach pre-war levels until the 1970s and is only 38 million today.