You haven’t a clur about how a conquered people feel about their conquerors.
The Germans also suffered mightily from the war, but they —most of them—know that they brought misery upon themselves. Those in the west also “enjoyed” an occupation by a benign conqueror who protected them from those who had overrun Poland and were able through much hard world to restore their economy to a high level by 1970. The Poles, on the other hand, were overrun by the Germans and by the Russians, suffered a horrendous loss of life, and from 1945 to the 198os suffered from Communist rule and a lack of any real self-government. Only now are they beginning to get on their feet and now they are being ordered to adopt the social democratic, slow-growth system in place in Germany and France. What for? So they can’t compete?
Au contraire, perfido.
The Roman Empire? Imperial Poland? Nazi Germany? An American civilization consumed by liberal values contrary to the national interest, political posturing to gain short-term advantage, a corrupt and hopelessly biased press, and perpetual readiness to surrender to terrorists abroad and illegal immigrants at home?
Take 17th Century Poland as an example. Polonians had conquered nearby tribes: Lenczanians, Mazurs, Kuyavtans, Jadzwings, Chrobatians (Post #81). Now, proud, feudal, independent, so suspicious of central authority that only two of The Crown’s kings were native Poles: one a discarded lover of a Russian empress and the other John Sobieski, the national hero who held off the Turks at the gates of Vienna. Polish and Lithuanian landed aristocracy controlled White Russian and Ukrainian peasants. Corruption, bribery and palace intrigue produced a power vacuum in which the Poles had few friends and plenty of ambitious neighbors eager to protect their blood brothers. Though some Polish noblemen were accomplished and widely traveled, perhaps owing to a dearth of literature in the Polish language with the arts centered on folk productions, many became impoverished, ill-educated and unruly... or, in other words, ripe for partition. Meanwhile, Germans inhabited East Prussia, Pomerania and the larger towns and resisted assimilation.
Fast forward to the 1919-1920 Peace Conferences of WWI, where the seeds of resentment were planted in the German populace. Germany lost all African and Pacific Ocean colonies, but more significantly, European territories to France (Alsace-Lorraine—87% German, Saar Basin temporarily—nearly 100% German), Denmark (by League of Nations plebiscite), Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Lithuania and by far the largest chunk—17,806 square miles to Poland that contained 12% of her population. That caused many Germans to be willing to listen to whoever promised relief--probably not unlike the U.S. populace if an international “peace” conference gave the American Southwest back to Mexico, presuming we still had some fight left. Part of the area seized was the Polish Corridor including Danzig--97% German and 3% Polish. (It was not by coincidence that WWII opened with a symbolic German attack on the Danzig post office. Many Poles even welcomed a Bolshevik defeat.) After WWI, Poles used abandoned ordinance to begin new expansions into Ukrainian, Lithuanian and German territories. Thus, we see Poles never missed an opportunity to try to subjugate others. (Polish News June’07 http://www.polishnews.com/text/polish_studies_newsletter/june_2007.html)
We can conclude that the Poles suffered mightily from the war, but most of them know that they brought misery upon themselves, as evidenced by past wrongs perpetrated. For instance, Auschwitz could not have operated efficiently without substantial Polish collaboration in promoting the Holocaust--and we’re not just talking about kids flashing death signs to captives on trains. Poles do not care to criticize their Soviet conquerors because there is no advantage to be gained—in votes or reparations money. In sum, as others have argued above, perceptions of justice and injustice depend on where the history clock is started. If we insist on continuing to fight the last war, the fight will never end as each side rages on. I'm impressed that your contribution to that rage has been considerable.
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