They've all passed on now, but I had quite a few in laws who lived in Poland during the German occupation during WW2. There was definitely no love lost between the Poles and the Germans before, during, or after the war. But in all of the accounts my old in laws related to me, there was never any mention of the Germans going out of their way to mistreat the Poles during the occupation.
My Polish father in law was taken captive and was a POW under the Germans. At first he was in a typical POW camp and it was hard times just because the POW's got fed last. Eventually, he was transferred to a German work farm which was owned by a civilian farm couple but managed by the German government. He was trimmed down from lack of proper food the day he arrived at the work farm and the farm wife took one look at him and said, "er ist krank!",...then sat him down at the table and fed him a good meal. He remained at the work farm for the entirety of the war and never had anything to say about how he was mistreated. I'm sure it wasn't a pic-nik, but essentially, he got up in the morning, went to work, was fed, clothed, and basically treated like a human being.
His sister remained in Poland during the occupation and once told me about how she would ride her bicycle around the countryside looking for food to supplement what they were rationed. The Germans had posted a check point at the entry to the town where she lived,...easy duty, obviously.
She said she was riding her bicycle back into town one day and the Germans at the checkpoint stopped her and asked her if she was smuggling anything into town.
She said, "Yes I am,...I've got a ham here (patted one side of her butt) and I have a ham here (patted the other side of her butt) and honey up here" (patted her crotch).
She said the Germans had a good laugh and waved her through.
I only tell about this because there's been a lot of talk about how the Germans considered the Slavik race to be inferior and planned to exterminate it.
I have a *lot* of doubt about that. I sat and listened to a lot of accounts about the German occupation of Poland and I never heard anything about the Germans raping and pillaging the population or of any behavior that would indicate that the Germans had plans to exterminate them.
Obviously,...Poles are Slavik, but from the first hand accounts I've heard, it doesn't sound like the Germans had any intention of practicing genocide against the Slavik race.
Also,...my Polish In Laws made it clear during many conversations that they didn't like the Germans *or* the Jews. From the way they talked, it was simply understood why and nobody questioned the matter.
Oought oh................you are outside the narrative.
Nice post Bristoe. I have heard similar stories and opposing ones. Makes one wonder.
Anti-German war propaganda simply got absorbed into the history books after the war, as history, in order to justify the carrying out of the Morgenthau Plan.
Once again, kookery trumps reality. While there is no doubt, Bristoe's anecdote rings true and to support this, it is a historical fact most Slavs welcomed the Germans as liberators, it was the Nazis through the SS (not Waffen) and Gestapo's brutality that turned them from supporters to rabid partisans. Then of course there are historical facts, like the obliteration of Warsaw (and again repeated in Rotterdam) AFTER the Germans had secured victory .
A good principle to guide me through life: “This is all I have come to expect, standard lackluster performance. Trust nothing, believe no one and realize it will only get worse…”
