Free Republic

https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%20384/volume-384-I-5518-English.pdf

A. The Government of the Polish People's Republic, hereinafter referred to as the Government of Poland, agrees to pay, and the Government of the United States agrees to accept, the sum of $40,000,000.00 United States currency in full settlement and discharge of all claims of nationals of the United States, whether natural or juridical persons, against the Government of Poland on account of the nationalization and other taking by Poland of property and of rights and interests in and with respect to property, which occurred on or before the entry into force of this Agreement.

B. Payment of the sum of $40,000,000.00 by the Government of Poland shall be made to the Secretary of State of the United States in twenty annual installments of $2,000,000.00 United States currency, each installment to be paid on the tenth day of January, commencing on the tenth day of January 1961.

Imagine for a moment that you are polish farmer during WW2. One day you notice escaping Jew on your land. Punishment for helping him is death of your whole family, including kids and infants. Now you have the choices:
a) you can ignore him, but if german patrol or some volksdeutsch sees him on your land they may find you guilty of helping him. There will be no court, they will just shot your whole family or burn them alive together with your house.
b) you can help him escape or hide him, less chance that someone finds him on your land. But if Germans find about that your whole family will be killed for sure.
c) you can chase him of your land, your family should be relatively safe.
d) you can notify Germans. It means that Jew is as good as dead, but it's safest choice for your family.

So, what would you choose ?

The book "Ordinary Men" is based on thousands of pages of transcripts from a war crimes investigation in Hamburg in the early '60s, where almost a whole reserve police unit made up mostly of mainly men from Hamburg who survived the war and went back to Hamburg were interviewed and the interviews cross-referenced.

This book seems interesting, so I googled some reviews... One of the first hits was summary written by some student from Kenya, which may serve as a good explanation why Polish Government is sensitive about such things. Few quotes:
"The mass atrocities leading to these deaths were mainly carried out in Nazi Poland. "
"This was the group that carried out the atrocious killing and mass evacuations of Jews in some parts of Polland.They were, according to him, ordinary men. They were men who were drawn from ordinary citizens. They were probably before the holocaust working class individuals in Poland. According to Browning the members of this battalion were mainly from Hamburg area. "

The sad truth is that most of the people now nothing about history, and when they see wordings like "polish death camps" they draw the wrong conclusions...

It means that Soviet activity in Europe was according to treaties, in which US and Britain were participants.

It only means that countries like Poland had nothing to say about their own future after a war.

So what? United States has troops in many countries and it is not to suppress locals. Would you argue presence of local commies in Poland? You literally make no sense this way.

Tens of thousands of polish officers were murdered by Soviets, millions of poles died during war, another tens of thousands couldn't return after fighting on west front. There weren't much people left in poland who could oppose red army and their puppets. But despite of all that, many Poles were fighting against commies many years after the war. It were not so easy to oppose communism, when you could be imprisoned or killed without any sentence by commies backed by hundreds thousands of soviet guns, and yet poles managed to destroy this system.

If anyone is interested in objective look at this (well.. as objective as Englishman can be) , I really recommend "God's Playground" by Norman Davies, there is very interesting part about second war and communism in Poland.

There is a kind of butt-hurt for them to realize that Norway, Finland, Austria were liberated by the Soviets and were later left alone as far as the Soviets understood that said societies are actively uninterested in communism and being a part of East block particularly.

You definitely should read about Yalta, Tehran and Potsdam.

Modern Poles opted to ignore how utterly leftist their grandparents were at the end of WWII, enabling communist takeover.

Yeah, they were so utterly leftist that Soviets had to keep hundreds thousands of their soldiers in Poland all that time...

Let me clarify few things. As I understand from polish press, diplomats are angry not just because this guy was sent back, but because how was it done. Man without any documents, unable to communicate, identified only by his friends in US (probably other homeless guys) was just shipped to another country. Don’t you think that polish government should be informed in such situation, and at least confirm that guy is even from Poland ? What is funny they don’t know yet how he passed border control in such state, I suppose hospital had to make some documents for him...

Site about Polish Tatra Shepherd:
http://www.podhalan.pl/Podhalany/owczarek-ang.html

Something about Pulaski, American Pilots and Battle of Warsaw:

"On October 9, 1779, probing for a weak point in the British lines at Savannah, Georgia, Casimir Pulaski was mortally wounded by grapeshot. He was carried from the field of battle by several comrades, including Colonel John C. Cooper. Following the American Revolution, Colonel Cooper gave an intergenerational mandate to his descendants that they try and repay the debt of honor owed to Pulaski and his fellow Polish volunteers who fought “for your freedom and for ours” in the War of American Independence. In response to this mandate, Cooper’s great-great-grandson, Merian C. Cooper, organized in August of 1919 the Kosciuszko Squadron, the beginning of the Polish Air Force, with eight American aviators. In the Polish-Soviet War of 1920, Cooper’s men used their tiny air force successfully to break up attacks by the Konarmiya of General Semyon Budyonnyi (whose chief political commissar was Joseph Stalin). It was this use of air power which prevented the linkup of the armies of Tukachevsky and Budyonnyi and thus made possible the “Miracle on the Vistula” battle which started on August 15, 1920. The Konarmiya was the last example in warfare of a cavalry unit of corps/army size."

Site with english translation about Kalwaria Zebrzydowska:
http://www.kalwaria.ofm.pl/index.php?action=language,ENG

"I'm looking forward to being in Poland. I've just heard so many stories about the pickpockets, etc. that it is a little frightening to even think about it."

I live in highland village so i have no problem with pickpockets, but in cities those things sometimes happens. However this is no reason to be afraid, just keep eye on your bags :)

"I believe we will be safe, but I have definitely taken to being more alert to everything around me. (and not getting distracted!)"

This is always good idea.

"Were you able to see Pope Benedcit XVI when he visited Poland?"

No, i was working these days :/ I only watched tv relations.

"This will be the first time I have ever been out of the United States. Please pray for me!"

Don't be worry, we are almost civilized ;)
I hope you will enjoy your trip to our part of world.

"But couldn't that be used as a tactic to gain entry into NATO and/or the EU?"

Poland and Lithuania are in NATO and EU

"I don't think Jews with stars and horns on their heads were there"

Roman legionists on these pictures look like a caricature of firemans, but this is not a problem for fire-fighters nor Italians (i hope). I think some peoples are too testy...