This group heard from Napoleon, who was already in Berlin, that " have to deserve independence " and, when asked whether he would create a Polish State, Napoleon answered: " I will see whether the Poles are worthy of being a nation ".

The Kosiński family survived the Holocaust thanks to local villagers who offered assistance to Jewish Poles, often at great personal risk ( the penalty in Nazi-occupied Poland being death ).

Two months after his death, the Poles offered to do homage to either Mary or Hedwig, on condition that the queen and her husband agree to live in Poland.

:"... 27 January 2005, the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Nazi Germany's death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where a combined total of up to 1. 5 million Jews, Roma, Poles, Russians and prisoners of various other nationalities, and homosexuals, were murdered, is not only a major occasion for European citizens to remember and condemn the enormous horror and tragedy of the Holocaust, but also for addressing the disturbing rise in anti-Semitism, and especially anti-Semitic incidents, in Europe, and for learning anew the wider lessons about the dangers of victimising people on the basis of race, ethnic origin, religion, social classification, politics or sexual orientation ...."

Irving claimed that there were no gas chambers at the death camp, stating that the existing remains were " mock-ups built by the Poles ".

Various plans regarding the future of the original population were drawn, with one calling for deportation of about 20 million Poles to Western Siberia, and Germanisation of 4 to 5 million ; although deportation in reality meant many Poles were to be put to death, a small number would be " re-Germanized ," and young Poles of desirable qualities would be kidnapped and raised in Germany.

There were however many cases of Poles risking death to hide Jewish families and in other ways assist the Jews.

In fact, no term more than " Polish death camps " mischaracterizes the role of Poles in World War II.

More specific estimates indicate that some 100, 000 of those who meet Yad Vashem ’ s criteria, to 300, 000 Poles were directly engaged in rescuing Jews even though the threat of death did act as a deterrent.

; 1939, September and October: A number of local German occupational commanders ordered in their areas Jewish Poles to wear an identifying mark under the threat of death.

For Bulgarians and Poles born in the early 1970s to early 1980s, " Verano Azul " introduced certain serious teen themes that had never been seen on TV under the socialist system, such as the hippie lifestyle, parental divorce, and the death of close friends, among others.

This change in tactic, combined with better Polish self-defence and a demographic balance more favorable to Poles, resulted in a significantly lower death toll among Poles in Galicia than in Volhynia.

In March 1943, OUN ( B ) ( specifically Mykola Lebed ) imposed a collective death sentence of all Poles living in the former eastern part of the Second Polish Republic and a few months later local units of the UPA were instructed to complete the operation with haste.

The state itself was led by German nationalism and Bismarck viewed Poles as one of the chief threat to German power ; as he declared The Polish question is to us a question of life and death and wanted Polish nation to disappear in private going as far as expressing his wish to exterminate Poles As a result the Polish population faced economic, religious and political discrimination the Germanisation of their territories was promoted and in places where Poles and Germans lived a virtual apartheid existed.

The World War II death toll in Zaolzie is estimated at about 6, 000 people: about 2, 500 Jews, 2, 000 other citizens ( 80 % of them being Poles ) and more than 1, 000 locals who died in the Wehrmacht ( those who took the Volksliste ).

The explosion that followed caused the roof to collapse, killing all the people inside, who preferred death to being taken prisoner by the Poles.

A 1980 study by the Historical Department at the Auschwitz State Museum ( later approved by the Polish government ), led by the Department chair, Franciszek Piper, revised very dramatically their ( widely held as grossly inflated ) figure of four million ( including a large number of non-Jewish Poles ) into one million ( mostly Jewish )— Hilberg's own original estimate for the death toll in Auschwitz ( though, Piper noted, this estimate fails to account for those not appearing in the records, especially those murdered immediately upon arrival ).

Christopher M. Clark says that John Casimir of Poland was on the one hand " eager to separate Brandenburg from Sweden and to neutralize it as a military threat " when Poland-Lithuania was threatened by the Tsardom of Russia, and on the other hand was ready to accept the Hohenzollerns ' demands due to pressure by the House of Habsburg, who after the emperor's incidental death earlier that year needed to secure the elector's vote, and whose " urgings [...] carried a considerable weight, since the Poles were counting on Austrian assistance in the event of a renewed Swedish or Russian attack.

According to archives of the NKVD: 111, 091 Poles and people accused of ties with Poland, were sentenced to death, and 28, 744 were sentenced to labor camps (' dry guillotine ' of slow death by exposure, malnutrition, and overwork ); 139, 835 victims in total.

For a few illustrative examples: German speakers use " Wasserstoff " ( water substance ) for " hydrogen ", " Sauerstoff " ( acid substance ) for " oxygen " and " Stickstoff " ( smothering substance ) for " nitrogen ", while English and some romance languages use " sodium " for " natrium " and " potassium " for " kalium ", and the French, Italians, Greeks, Portuguese and Poles prefer " azote / azot / azoto " ( from roots meaning " no life ") for " nitrogen ".

In 1226 Duke Konrad I of Masovia summoned the Teutonic Knights for assistance ; by 1230 they had secured Chełmno ( Culm ) and begun claiming conquered territories for themselves under the authority of the Holy Roman Empire, although these claims were rejected by the Poles, whose ambition had been to conquer Prussia all along.

Hitler and the Nazi regime had similar plans for the Poles ; intellectuals were to be killed, and most other Poles were to be only given a fourth-grade education.

The partnership brought vast Lithuania-controlled Rus ' areas into Poland's sphere of influence and proved beneficial for the Poles and Lithuanians, who coexisted and cooperated in one of the largest political entities in Europe for the next four centuries.

Aleksander Wielopolski, the conservative leader of the Kingdom's government, in order to cripple the manpower potential of the Reds, arranged for a partial selective conscription of young Poles for the Russian army, which hastened the outbreak of the hostilities.

Although many Poles sympathized with France and Britain, they found it hard to fight for their ally, Russia.

The large Polish daily newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported that during BdV meetings in 2003, publications using hate-language to describe Poles butchering Germans were available for sale, as were recordings of Waffen SS marches on compact disks, including those glorifying the Invasion of Poland.

When it was finally printed, thousands of Poles in Warsaw lined up for as long as eight hours to purchase copies of the work autographed by Kosiński.

On 26 March, in an extremely stormy meeting with the Polish Ambassador Józef Lipski, Ribbentrop accused the Poles of attempting to bully Germany by their partial mobilization and violently attacked them for only offering consideration of the German demand about the " extra-territorial " roads.

Since Poland was regarded as the East European state with the most powerful army, it became imperative to tie Poland to Britain as the best way of ensuring Polish support for Romania, since it was the obvious quid pro quo that Britain would have to do something for Polish security if the Poles were to be induced to do something for Romanian security.

It was Ribbentrop's fear that if German-Polish talks did take place, there was the danger that the Poles might back down and agree to the German demands as the Czechoslovaks had done in 1938 under Anglo-French pressure, and thereby deprive the Germans of their excuse for aggression.

" As intended by Ribbentrop, the narrow time limit for acceptance of the " final offer " made it impossible for the British government to contact the Polish government in time about the German offer, let alone for the Poles to arrange for a Polish plenipotentiary envoy to arrive in Berlin that night, thereby allowing Ribbentrop to claim that the Poles had rejected the German " final offer ".

Stephen the Great ruled between 1457 and 1504, a period of nearly 50 years during which he won 32 battles defending his country against virtually all his neighbours ( mainly the Ottomans and the Tatars, but also the Hungarians and the Poles ), while losing only two.

While defending the borders was more risky, the Poles were counting on the British and French counteroffensive ( which never came ).

Believing devoutly as they did in Anglo-Saxon institutions, it was important to both Roosevelt and Churchill that the Poles should have them.

The result was an agreement that the Lublin Government should be `` reorganized on a broader democratic basis with the inclusion of democratic leaders from Poland itself and from the Poles abroad '', and pledged to hold `` free and unfettered elections as soon as possible on the basis of universal suffrage and secret ballot ''.

However, the plans resulted in an outcry from the German minority population of Opolskie, who feared that should their region be abolished, they would lose all hope of regional representation ( in the proposed Silesian Region, they would have formed a very small minority amongst a great number of ethnic Poles ).

To the surprise of many of the ethnic Germans in Opole however, the local Polish Silesian population and groups of ethnic Poles also rose to oppose the planned reforms ; this came about as a result of an overwhelming feel of attachment to the voivodeships that were planned to be ‘ redrawn ’ as well as a fear of ‘ alienation ’ should one find themselves residing in a new, unfamiliar region.

* A Provisional Government of National Unity recognized by all three powers should be created ( known as the Lublin Poles ).

* Poles who were serving in the British Army should be free to return to Poland, with no security upon their return to the communist country guaranteed.

#: There should be a Provisional Government of National Unity recognised by all three powers, and that those Poles who were serving in British Army formations should be free to return to Poland.

Some scholars maintain that the definition of the Holocaust should also include the Nazis ' systematic murder of millions of people in other groups, including ethnic Poles, the Romani, Soviet civilians, Soviet prisoners of war, people with disabilities, gay men, and political and religious opponents.

The deeply-rooted belief common in the German aristocracy was that the Eastern territories, populated predominantly by Poles and partly absorbed by Prussia in partitions of Poland, but taken from the German Empire after World War I, should be colonized as the Teutonic Knights had done in the Middle Ages.

It should be noted that in the course of their 700 year history, Baltic German families often had not only ethnic German roots, but also mixed with peoples of non-German origin, such as native Estonians, Livonians and Latvians, as well as with Danes, Swedes, English, Scots, Poles, Dutch, Hungarians.

The final agreement stipulated that " the Provisional Government which is now functioning in Poland should therefore be reorganized on a broader democratic basis with the inclusion of democratic leaders from Poland and from Poles abroad.

One of the few messages to get out of Arnhem warned the Poles that DZ ' K ' was not secure and to land instead on the polder east of Driel where they should secure the Heveadorp ferry on the south bank of the Rhine.

It was arranged that six rubber boats should be supplied on the northern bank to enable the Poles to cross the river and come into the Oosterbeek perimeter.

Hitler stated that " When these two weak points have been strengthened, it should be possible to slowly drive back the Poles ".

The contemporary German chronicler Thietmar, who was generally ill disposed towards Poles, commented on the peace with the words " non ut decuit sed sicut fieri potuit ", meaning " not as it should have been but as was possible in the circumstances ".

Bismarck himself said that the Poles who find themselves without land should " move to Morocco ".

His new family convinced him that he should be a mediator between the Poles living under the Third Partition after the failed Kościuszko Uprising and the Prussian authorities in Berlin.

Concerning the spread of the German language it is most important to get a clear understanding of the aims, whether it should be the aim to promote the understanding of German among Polish-speaking subjects or whether it should be the aim to gradually and slowly Germanise the Poles.

Stalin insisted that the territories annexed by the Soviets in 1939, which had millions of Poles in addition to Ukrainian and Belarusian populations, should remain in Soviet hands, and that Poland should be compensated with lands to be annexed from Germany.

Bonnet argued that Britain should take the lead in persuading the Poles to come to Romania's aid and suggested that if Poland were involved, then perhaps the Romanians might be persuaded to accept Soviet aid as well.