85th Years Ago

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   gmwilliamsposted 9 years ago

   
   On this date 85 years ago(Sept. 1, 1939), the Germans invaded Poland from the west while Russia, formerly the Soviet Union, invaded Poland from the east sixteen days later.  The German invasion of Poland was the start of World War II in the European theatre.  It was also the start of one of the most egregious of genocidal acts, the Jewish Holocaust.   This egregious act against the Jews included ghettoization and ultimately extermination.  Out of the prewar population of 3.5 million Jews, over 95% of the Jewish population was murdered by the war's end. 
   
   Polish Jewry consisted of one of the largest Jewish populations in Europe. Polish Jewish culture was a 1,000 thousand year old flourishing one which was almost decimated in World War II.  The Germans were not the only ones guilty of committing horrific and vile crimes against the population. 
   
   The Russians under Stalin also committed egregious crimes in Poland, many Poles and Jews were shipped off to Siberia to its labor camps.   Both Germans and Russians had and exercised an agenda against the Polish educated and intelligentsia classes.  Let us remember the Polish and Jewish dead resultant of this invasion.   However, war and genocide continue to this day and century, will we learn the folly of imperialism and war with its devastating results and consequences?
   

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   1. 84

      bethperryposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      We can only pray and hope, Grace. And thank you for posting this reminder.

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      1. 85

         gmwilliamsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         You're quite welcome indeed.

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   2. 68

      joanveronicaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      A great idea to post this on the forum! But sorry, your dates are wrong, it was 75 years ago, not 85. I particularly know this (besides the Math), because I was born about 5 days before the invasion, and I've just celebrated my 75 birthday. Thank you for keeping these terrible events fresh in our minds.

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      1. 85

         gmwilliamsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you for correcting me.  I was half asleep when posting this thread.  I was thinking about my oldest aunt's impending 85th birthday which will be on October 31st, 1929!  This is so greatly appreciated!  A major faux pas I committed, oh dear, I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER!  Was up without sleep for 18 hours straight, time for bedtime and some needed rest!

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         1. 85

            gmwilliamsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            75 years ago today was one of the darkest times in history, particularly for Poland.  When the Germans invaded Poland, it was the beginning of hell on earth.  They started the beginning of genocide on the Jews and acted in barbaric ways towards the Poles whom they considered to be untermenschen.  In fact, the Germans a/k/a Nazis believed that both Jews and Poles were unworthy of existing in their particular version of the New Order.   Jews in Poland were to be separated from the non-Jewish Polish population, if not already, then ghettoized and ultimately sent to the concentration and/or extermination camps.  Poles were also sent to concentration and/or extermination camps.   Many Poles were displaced from their lands to be replaced by ethnic Germans indigenous to Poland.  There was to be horror of epic proportions.  Only Russia suffered more than Poland in World War II.   Poland was the litmus test of true German a/k/a Nazi barbarity.

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