The key to understanding Poles

Telegraph ^ | June 10, 2010 | Daniel Hannan

[nuconvert]

Not even the most patriotic Varsovian pretends that the Polish capital is beautiful. Warsaw didn’t simply suffer during the Second World War; it was systematically destroyed. Buildings were numbered according to their cultural significance, and then dynamited by the departing Nazis. To this day, other than the replica Old Town, the city is dominated by brutal, Communist-era architecture.

But there is one sight which, alone, justifies a journey here: the Museum of the Warsaw Uprising, new since my last visit. It is a masterpiece of design and presentation, contriving to convey the magnitude of the ruin without losing the human scale.

It is impossible not to think of the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem, that other monument to a people who have suffered more than their due. Both displays keep bringing you back to the personal, reminding you that gruesome statistics are made up of individuals, each as much the centre of his universe as you are.

[onona]

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[padre35]

Eh, one of the tragedies of WWII is the post war, Communist Govt installation was perceived as mainly headed by Communist Jews, that led to massive problems in Poland between Jews and Catholics.

[billorites]

Wow.

History appears more nuanced than I could have imagined.

How inconvenient.

[dfwgator]

Eh, one of the tragedies of WWII is the post war, Communist Govt installation was perceived as mainly headed by Communist Jews, that led to massive problems in Poland between Jews and Catholics.

It was Gomulka and his Commie stooges who kicked out the Jews in 1968.

[Malesherbes]

I visited the Museum of the Uprising shortly after it opened, and it is truly a moving experience. I’ve been visiting Warsaw for over a dozen years and have grown comfortable in this resilient city with its indomitable people.

In so many ways, it remains a very European city, more so than cities in those countries which are abandoning their history and traditions. The Poles have never abandoned theirs.

[rmlew]

And 10 years later, the communists decided to blame Jews for the problems inherent with communism.
My father left in 1954, some of my cousins on the other side in the 1960's. My father remembers being beaten for being Jewish and having the indignity of having to teach a sememster of communist theory to prove his loyalty so that he could get into medical school, since my grandfather had fought the communist invasion of Poland in 1919. Of course, given the first opportunity, they left.

[padre35]

Exactly, there was a handful of fully secular Jews who were communists, then at convenience the Central Govt then blamed the remaining Jews as a whole for the problems inherent in Communism.

Glad to hear your family made it out of Communist Poland though rmlew.

[Verdelet]

Did you know that Warsaw's Old City which was totally destroyed during WWII has been rebuild according to the paintings made by Canaletto a.k.a. Bernardo Bellotto.

In 1980 it was put on World Heritage List.

Too bad that after WWII people responsible for rebuilding our Capital were hard core commies. Instead of saving monuments they could restore, they prefered to destroy them!!!
Especially those connected with times of glory of "The Brightest Republic" - Rzeczpospolitą Obojga Narodów, and the power of Polish Kingdom.


On the other hand there were people like Stanisław Lorentz who made everything he could to restore Royal Castle.