Tell your father that the Nazis were a dead end for everybody (hindsight).
It was a "damned if you do/damned if you don't" situation more or less (hindsight of course).
Man, I tell him all this... he insists that together, our two countries could have conquered the world... without the Enigma thing and the resistance and the British suck and all that.
I suppose it's quite fair to say I get my stubbornness from him. =/
Also, he's quite the germanophile/russophobe...
Okay....but I rarely see a honest debate about the not-so-cool points in polish history (or if than not without much white washing).
I try. Except when it comes to the thing with 'Germany couldn't have trashed Poland by herself' thing; then, I just be obnoxious enough to turn nearby Germans/psuedo-Germans (lots of those in the States; call themselves German, but never been, and don't speak the language, dine on the cuisine, etc.) from smug to angry.
Whereas nearly no week goes by without some thread about WWII and how saintly Poland was betrayed by everybody and his grandmom..
I'm actually no happier about that than you are. I came here for the modern-day politics, not the ancient history. I figure I already know about as much about the history as I'll ever feel a need to.
Not "they managed to pay them back not quite three years ago": "which it was agreed that they would pay back over a 50-year period which ended in 2005". Although at least your latest version is an improvement on your first version....
Both are correct.
No they didn't.
Yes they did. When they invaded and took Cieszyn some time back. If we're going to bring forth such an effort to point out the darker side of Polish history, we can at least hold everyone else to the same standards. The Czechs are no victims here, and they certainly were not betrayed. One can only betray an ally.