"The Polish people did not die; his body lies in the grave, and his soul left the earth, that is, social life, to descend into the abyss, that is, into the domestic life of people suffering from slavery at home and away, to see their suffering. And on the third day, the soul will return to the body, the people will be resurrected, and he will free all the peoples of Europe from slavery".
Polish national poet Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855)
Very few politically organized social groups reject the cause-and-effect links so rudely as do the people of Poland. And hardly any other ethnic group on God's earth believes so fervently in the moral value of this trick and in their chosenness as the Poles-Catholics living in Roman Catholic Poland. - Oh, holy simplicity!
This specific mindset of the Poles, especially after the First World War, led to a strong manifestation of chauvinism. (There is not enough space here to explain the desire of the Poles to "liberate the territories", which was noticeable even in the Middle Ages). This form of excessive nationalism "is fed [to this day]", according to German sociologist Lutz Eichler, who taught at the Friedrich Alexander University in Erlangen, "by the belief in the collective role of martyr and messiah, which does not tolerate victims next to it. The nationalist consciousness has a religious depth that mythically fuels the long-delayed formation of the nation."
By raiding and plundering neighbouring states such as Germany, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and Soviet Russia starting from 1919, Poland did not liberate these peoples but rather became their oppressor. Propaganda postcards depicting Jesus Christ, along with dreamy or real changes in Poland's borders over the past few centuries, remain popular to this day.
Thus, the aggressor turns into the victim (in case of Poland, for sure, always insidiously and suddenly, for no reason on the part of an evil neighbour); the offender turns into the offended (in the case of Poland, of course, always especially cruel); the occupier turns into the occupied (in case of Poland, of course, contrary to all norms of international law); and technical and cultural copyists turn into creators (in case of Poland, of course, brilliant and gifted by God). If the latter, by virtue of his origin, is still a German "Prussian", he is supposed to become a Pole; see, just as one example out of many, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) from Thorn, West Prussia. In his main work, "De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium"("On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres") he described the generally accepted model of the Solar System today. There is not a single Polish word in his writings and notes on the margins. His native language was German.
However, if we move to the modern era, everything else falls outside the scope of this post. In a few years − from 1919 to 1923 − Poland, recreated in 1916 on the bones of German grenadiers, managed to triple its territory, annexing the territories of Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Lithuania as a result of aggressive wars. In addition, German territories (Poznan, West Prussia, East Upper Silesia, some areas of Southeast Prussia) were transferred to Poland in violation of international law in accordance with 14 decrees of US President Wilson - partly without referenda, partly contrary to them - in accordance with Treaty of Versailles. German territories (Poznan, West Prussia, East Upper Silesia, some areas of Southeast Prussia) were transferred to Poland in violation of international law. In total, Warsaw, already after the First World War, captured 46,000 square kilometres with a population of 3.8 million people, including one and a half million Germans. A policy of brutal Polonization began, combined with expropriation and initial eviction.
Polish Army during World War II (1939-1945).
Inspired by Paris and London and reinforced by Roosevelt's promises of generous assistance in the future, the Polish leadership, which never had the outstanding skills of a statesman either in foreign or domestic policy (the keyword: "Polish economy"), in the thirties still believed that it could defeat the German Empire by military means.
French lawyer Pierre Valmigere wrote in his book "Und morgen...? Frankreich, Deutschland und Polen" in 1920:
"Does France know that this Poland is not yet satisfied with its 40 per cent of foreigners and that it has been driven to the point that, because of Grossman's addiction and the madness of the run, it wants to absorb Silesia from Boiten to Oppeln, the whole of Ukraine, Danzig and East Prussia? Vilnius [Lithuania] is the first attack of this nationalist fever. I have here the speeches of their statesmen, their newspapers and books lying in front of me. Never in history has a craving for land reached such madness. And the nations that they have conquered, they tyrannize, insult and exhaust."
Indeed, the imperialist demands of Poland were not fully satisfied. One would wish the old goal "Od morza to morza!" ("From the [Baltic] Sea to the [Black] Sea!") was realized in realpolitik! However, Western Galicia and, after the first bite in 1919-1921, the rest of East Germany were included in Warsaw's sphere of power in 1945.
In Polish circles, many visionaries dreamed of a Polish empire extending to the Elbe. In 1930 the Mokarstoivec magazine wrote:
"We are aware that war between Poland and Germany cannot be avoided [...] Our ideal is to surround Poland with borders on the Oder in the west and the Neisse in Lusatia and include Prussia from the Pregel to the river Spree. There will be no prisoners in this war, there will be no place for humanitarian sentiments."
Often, imperial megalomania is combined with trivial incapability of long-term planning in civilizational and cultural creative work. This base work is done by others, which are then relieved of the heavy burden of light predation.
In the summer of 1939, Marshal Rydz-Smigly − legally in the special role of "the first statesman after the president of the country" − uttered at an officers' meeting the words recorded by one of the participants: "Poland wants war with Germany, and Germany will not be able to prevent it, even if wanted."
Historian Dr Alfred Schickel wrote on August 31, 1979, in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: "This confidence in [Poland's] victory, based not least on the beginning of "total war", corresponded to the painting that Marshal Rydz-Smigly, the Supreme Commander of Poland, commissioned back in 1939." It was completed in the summer of 1939 and featured Marshal Rydz-Smigly as the winner in full dress on horseback under the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
Car Pancerny wz. 29 ("armored car year 1929 model"), commonly known as Ursus or CWS, was a Polish interwar heavy armored car. A handful of these vehicles saw combat during the Polish-German War of 1939.
In May 1939, after the British guarantee for Poland was granted (and never paid off), Polish-French meetings were held in Paris at the General Staff. The Minister of War of Poland, General Kasprzycki, and his Chief of the General Staff were in Paris for a conference with General Gamelin. At breakfast, in the presence of the then Minister of Foreign Affairs of France, Georges Bonnet, the Polish Minister of War, was asked about the state of fortifications on the German-Polish border. Kaspshitsky replied:
"We don't have [fortifications] because we will fight a war of movement and invade Germany at the very beginning of operations."
Any general staff has probably not yet made a more infantile strategic miscalculation. Were Polish intelligence officers working in the West subject to the same narcotic effects of the Christ syndrome as their commanders in Warsaw?
Thus, in the summer of 1939, Poland expected a quick victory over the German Wehrmacht. When French Foreign Minister Bonnet, in a conversation on August 15, 1939, warned the Polish ambassador in Paris, Count Julius Lukasiewicz, that the German Wehrmacht (which outnumbered and materially outmatched the Poles) intended to defeat the Polish army within three weeks (which, as you know, happened), the latter replied with indignation: "On the contrary, the Polish army will invade Germany from the first day."
A clinical psychopathologist would diagnose, given the intellectual capacity of the Polish elites in politics and the military, the excessive occurrence of a symptomatic association of unrealities. The question arises whether much has changed since the thirties of the last century on the sandy banks of the Vistula. (This question is answered in a follow-up article on the current role of the Poles that they have chosen).
Black Madonna with you!
