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Ceremonies in Poland Mark Start of WWII


Beerball

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Civilian losses due to German invasion of Poland:

The Polish September Campaign was an instance of total war. Consequently, civilian casualties were high during and after combat. From the start, the Luftwaffe attacked civilian targets and columns of refugees along the roads to wreak havoc, disrupt communications and target Polish morale. Apart from the victims of the battles, the German forces (both SS and the regular Wehrmacht) are credited with the mass murder of several thousands of Polish POWs and civilians. Also, during Operation Tannenberg, nearly 20,000 Poles were shot at 760 mass execution sites by special units, the Einsatzgruppen, in addition to regular Wehrmacht, SS and Selbstschutz.

 

Altogether, the civilian losses of Polish population amounted to about 150,000–200,000 while German civilian losses amounted to roughly 3,250 (including 2,000 who died fighting Polish troops as members of a fifth column).

 

 

real funny........

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Deep breaths...

 

sorry,

but when my grandparents with my 2yr old father and his 4 yr old brother had to flee poland due to german and soviet invasions/control to avoid possible death, there's nothing funny about it- at least to me.

 

what i posted was just a bit of edu-ma-cation for everyone....

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sorry,

but when my grandparents with my 2yr old father and his 4 yr old brother had to flee poland due to german and soviet invasions/control to avoid possible death, there's nothing funny about it- at least to me.

 

what i posted was just a bit of edu-ma-cation for everyone....

No apologies ... you're right, there's nothing funny about it.

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The Great Patriotic War, as the Russians called it. I spent a lot of time in Eastern Europe lately and you really get a sense of how that war affected the people in the most horrific way. We are lucky to have been spared the full weight and horror of that war.

 

 

Soldier wore 3 uniforms during WWII

Cliff Radel, Cincinati Enquirer Sept. 1, 2009

 

Old soldiers never die. They just fade into memories.

 

"At age 92, Mieczyslaw "Mietek" Wnuk is an old, old soldier. Before the years took their toll, he held vivid memories of what happened on this day 70 years ago.

 

"Early in the morning of Sept. 1, I was awakened by the sound of a plane flying over our house."

 

The plane brandished a Nazi German swastika. September had just begun. And, so had World War II."...

 

 

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2009083...wore+3+uniforms

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Soldier wore 3 uniforms during WWII

Cliff Radel, Cincinati Enquirer Sept. 1, 2009

 

Old soldiers never die. They just fade into memories.

 

"At age 92, Mieczyslaw "Mietek" Wnuk is an old, old soldier. Before the years took their toll, he held vivid memories of what happened on this day 70 years ago.

 

"Early in the morning of Sept. 1, I was awakened by the sound of a plane flying over our house."

 

The plane brandished a Nazi German swastika. September had just begun. And, so had World War II."...

 

 

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2009083...wore+3+uniforms

 

good article

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The Ukrainian jews in Kyiv rushed the Dnipro river to welcome the Nazis as they thought they would be treated better than the Russians treated them (see the Holodor) Babi Yar was a precursor to Auschwitz. The Ukrainians had an army fighting with the Germans, an army fighting with the Russians and a Partisan army. To this day there is a tremendous split in Ukraine among the Ukrainiains who fought on every possible side. Belarus was completely destroyed, and Minsk was Stalin's effort to recreate a great city after the war. Its architecture is so soviet (massive and concrete based) as to be intimidating. The greatest sports story of all time is the Death match (soccer) between the Kyiv dynamo soccer team and the German Luftwaffe.

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My Grandfather was a university student in Poland when the Krauts invaded. Because he was an American citizen, he spent 5 years in a nazi prison camp. The invasion of Poland was no joke. Suffer under Hitler, or end up in the Soviet gulag. Some choice.

Amazingly, some Poles thought they might fare better under Hitler than Joe Stalin - whose atrocities were every bit as barbaric as Hitler's, if not as well-documented. Stalin, who made a secret pact with Hitler to divide Poland 'down the middle' , invaded from the east 17 days after Hitler attacked from the west. My father was 13 he joined the Polish Underground - his accounts of sickening, wanton depravity by both the Germans and the Communists are too disgusting to think about. He never saw any of his family again - when he returned to the village of his childhood, it was completely gone, burned to the ground. When offered the choice of returning to Poland or coming to the US, he chose to come here for fear the Russians would kill him in retaliation for his activities during the war. Even decades later, he was afraid to visit his homeland for fear the communist regime would seek him out for reprisal. One can just imagine how brutal the Communists must have been to instill a fear that lasted so long after the war ended.

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