Poland has suffered a turbulent history but recent history began in 1919 and turbulence continues. The author has provided a sympathetic review of recent Polish history that has not been covered in this way before in an English language publication – Very Highly Recommended
NAME: Poland's Struggle, Before, During and After The Second World War FILE: R2974 AUTHOR: Andrew Rawson PUBLISHER: Pen and Sword BINDING: hard back PAGES: 212 PRICE: £19.99 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: 1919, Versailles Treaty, Poland, East Prussia, Danzig Corridor, German Invasion, WWII, World War II, World War 2, Second World War, German-Russian partition, Warsaw Uprising, Soviet Occupation, puppet government, Cold War, Glasnost, Polish liberation, EU interference, NATO, Enigma, code-breaking
ISBN: 1-52674-392-2
IMAGE: B2974.jpg BUYNOW: tinyurl.com/y2lcxzfl LINKS: DESCRIPTION: Poland has suffered a turbulent history but recent history began in 1919 and turbulence continues. The author has provided a sympathetic review of recent Polish history that has not been covered in this way before in an English language publication – Very Highly Recommended The history of the area now referred to as Poland has long been turbulent. As part of the Duchy of Lithuania, it was part of a State that reached to the Black Sea. As Germany began to reorganize, Poland was surrounded by German States that were slowly coming together to form a German National State and Poles were never treated well. In 1919, it seemed like a natural action to recognize Poland as a nation but, like much of the Versailles Treaty it was good intentions, mixed with vengeance, badly executed. The Treaty sowed the seeds of WWII and placed Poland at the height of German dissatisfaction. The boundaries of the new Polish nation were artificial, leaving ethnic Germans inside the boundaries and some Poles outside. The focus of German irritation was the Danzig Corridor that divided Prussia into two blocks, but the new Polish State needed a way of reaching the Baltic at Danzig and the Corridor was the only logical way of providing this. Hitler simply wanted to expand the Nazi State East, using Poland and Russia as new living space, to be colonized by Germans, but he needed the support of the Soviet Union initially and this meant agreeing a partition of Poland. Exactly why Britain and France chose Poland as the point where German expansion must be resisted is not entirely clear. They encouraged Poland, but were incapable of providing any direct assistance against German aggression. That lack of practical support guaranteed that Stalin would support Germany. Once Poland was occupied by Germany and the Soviet Union, atrocities were perpetrated on the Poles by both occupiers. This was conducted on an industrial scale, decimating the population and replacing part of it with ethnic Germans from the Baltic States. This continued to the end of WWII, with Stalin deliberately holding back until the Germans had liquidated the Warsaw Uprising. Potential opposition having been conveniently removed by the Germans, the Red Army resumed its advance on Berlin and Stalin quickly began occupying Eastern and Central Europe as vassal States. Poland therefore suffered through the Cold War as a Soviet puppet state. Glasnost provided the relief that saw Poland becoming independent as a sovereign state, only to make the mistake of joining the EU and finding itself locked inside a bureaucracy every bit as totalitarian as the USSR had been. The author has followed the joy and sadness of recent Polish history and given Poles the credit they deserved in acquiring German Enigma machines, breaking the codes and passing this on to the British code breakers at Bletchley Park who were able to shorten WWII and, arguably, win it, or at least avoid defeat, by building on the work of Polish code breakers. Poles will now have to decide if they are to break free from the dictation of Brussels, or slip back into submission.