Being part French,Polish,German,Catholic,Protestant and Jewish I have had my fair share of abuse growing up. One needs to understand the education of the Poles in the 20's-thru the 60's, communism, poverty,ww2 all took it's toll on them, my father was taken to a German labor camp at the age of 13 so schooling was limited for him.When they immigrated to the US they did a lot of the manual labor, mining etc. My father learned how to weld in a French shipyard and ended up working for PAN AM, because of his lack of English skills he literally memorized the power plant,hydraulics,electrical manuals so that he could pass the test. He passed all except the electrical which he got on his second try. He was one of the most sought after mechanics at hanger 14 at JFK and finished his career in the test cell. So yeah I know about dumb polacks, but you want to talk about hard working people, the Poles are a prime example. I was very happy to see the reception Trump got and thought his speech was right on.

quote:

Originally posted by Dbltap:
Growing up I had all the Polish, Italian and Irish jokes covered. Fell short on the Jewish jokes but don't hold that against me.

Around the hill country, we never heard what buffoons all those groups were. We told Aggie jokes!

Poland has survived and suffered countless centuries being the little guy between Russia and Germany, and their predecessors, and its never been easy.

Remember it was the Polish shipyard workers, Lech Walesa and that bunch, that started sticking their fingers in the Soviet eye, and the Polish Pope, that contributed significantly to the downfall of the USSR, a very dangerous businesss.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: JALLEN,

I think the Poles and the Czechs to an extent are on the right path. They're kind of the ignored stepchildren of the EU, but I think that helps them.

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Originally posted by Leemur:
Don't forget that even though their military was still stuck in WW1 hardware wise they still took to the field to fight the German invasion. Maybe a bit crazy to charge tanks on horseback but it takes a set that clanks when you walk to do something like that.

You should do some reading on that to confirm that it never happened.

The Polish calvary did their job in that battle and beat the hell out of a German infantry unit. Later a few German armored cars caught the calvary out in the open and machine gunned them.

The calvary's job in that battle was to slow the advance and cause disarray in the German lines. They did a remarkable job with that and ultimately paid a heavy price.

If you want to read about calvary charging tanks go read about the Russians doing it against the Germans early in the German invasion. They died in great numbers...

I'm 100% Polish and have always been proud of that. Especially back when Lech Walensa and the shipyard workers, stood up to the Russians.

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
Around the hill country, we never heard what buffoons all those groups were. We told Aggie jokes!

And like the Poles in Europe, people soon find out Aggies are the very smart, intellectuals of Texas. Much more so than those from that little burnt orange school in Austin. And also like the Poles, certainly more conservative.

Tales of the Polish Air Force flying the Hurricane during the Battle of Britain are legendary.

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Originally posted by mark_a:
You should do some reading on that to confirm that it never happened.

Thanks for the clarification.

quote:

Originally posted by Tailhook 84:

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
Around the hill country, we never heard what buffoons all those groups were. We told Aggie jokes!

And like the Poles in Europe, people soon find out Aggies are the very smart, intellectuals of Texas. Much more so than those from that little burnt orange school in Austin. And also like the Poles, certainly more conservative.

In my day, the Aggies were all Animal Husbandry majors, but then somebody caught 'em and made 'em quit it.

It's ok. The Eyes of Texas are upon them, too.

My grandmothers family was threated by the invading germans in ww2. Threatened to poke thier childrens eyes out if they didnt take their picture.

Always enjoyed the poles and being quarter polish.

I am 50% Polish and proud of it .
My maternal grandparents emigrated here in the early 1900s.
They worked dawn to dusk in their own bakery and were moderately sucessful.
While proud of their heritage, they were most proud to be Americans.

2+2=4 - I too am impressed with Poland, especially after kicking the commies out. Your post got me thinking just where the Polish jokes originated from... so FWIW


The Origin of the “Polish Joke”

Polish “jokes” came from Nazi German propaganda that was then pushed ironically by Soviet communist sympathizers in Hollywood.

The racist stereotype that Poles are intellectually inferior or have subhuman intelligence, originated from Nazi German propaganda and Soviet propaganda.

For example, the myth that Polish horses were used to attack German tanks in World War II was total Nazi German propaganda that the Nazi Germans repeated over and over until it took a life of its own using the “Big Lie” technique. (Click on link for more on the Nazi propaganda on Polish Calvary attacks). The Big Lie is defined as "the intentional distortion of the truth, especially for political or official purposes." This tactic of trying to deceive a country's citizens was written about by Adolph Hitler. ["The great mass of people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one." Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), Mein Kampf, Vol. 1, Chapter 10, 1925].

The Soviet Communists saw the value of this myth and the racist notion that Polish people have subhuman intelligence, so they had their Left-Wing sympathizers in Hollywood push it to the American public using Anti-Polish Television and Movie imagery.

The image of Polish people having subhuman intelligence was useful to the Soviet Communists too, since then, people would not mind too much if Poland is occupied by the Soviet Union if Poles are portrayed as having a Slavic culture that is inferior and less then human.

Nazi German Hatred of Polish People

As for the German Nazis (and even the Soviets) they killed off the educated class of Poland first to make their racist stereotype of “Poland having inferior intelligence” a reality. The Nazi Germans also felt “Poles only had the intelligence for Nazi slave labor”.

Polish "jokes" were in Hitler's two speeches after he invaded Poland.

Hitler ridiculed Poles in his Sept. 19, 1939 speech in Danzig (today called Gdansk) and in his Berlin speech in Oct. 6, 1939 with these hate-through-humor anti-Polish “jokes” and references.

Nazi Anti-Polish propaganda/Polish “jokes” in Nazi Death Camps

Michael Preisler who was a Polish-Catholic survivor of the German Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz (Auschwitz prisoner #22213), has stated on many occasions how the Nazis ridiculed the Polish people as having less then human intelligence. Polish jokes were quite popular among Nazi guards in the parts of the Nazi death camps where there were Polish Catholic prisoners being tortured and killed.

Ironically, Left-wing Hollywood and the TV Networks (like NBC-TV) pushed these racist Polish “jokes” even though Hollywood claimed to hate Nazis. Hollywood and NBC-TV evidently hate Nazi propaganda but not when its applied to Poles. Hollywood and Network-TV (NBC) have a deep hatred for Anti-communist, Pro-American, Pro-Catholic Poland. The Polish American Guardian Society has documented NBC-TV’s attacks on Poland with racist Polish “jokes”.

The recent movie “Katyn” shows the German Nazis and Soviets killing the educated Polish class in Poland in order to make Poland “intellectually inferior” and easier to rule. This was during the time Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia were Allies, and were collaborating with each other to destroy Poland as per their Molotov-Ribbentrop pact to destroy Poland together.

Although there were degrading jokes about all ethnic groups in the United States due to assimilation problems when they arrived, the jokes that portray Poles as having subhuman intelligence, did not predate the 20th Century in America, since it was introduced by left-wing bigots in Hollywood and TV networks like NBC-TV in the late 1960s and 1970s.

Many Polish Americans who lived before this time have reported that they never heard these racist subhuman intelligence jokes about Poles, until after they were introduced by Left-Wing networks like NBC-TV in conjunction with Hollywood. NBC-TV launched Polish-bashing shows such as “Laugh In” which ridiculed Polish people constantly. Polish Americans felt the producer of “Laugh In,” George Schlatter, was an Anti-Polish bigot. In addition late night bigots were encouraged to bash Poles with “jokes” that portrayed the Polish people as having subhuman intelligence. Therefore the power of Television and motion pictures was used to demean and dehumanize Polish people with repetitive Big Lie type propaganda.

Anti-Polish movies such as “The End” were some of the earliest movies meant to degrade Poles with racist humor. In addition other anti-Polish shows such as “All in the Family” were used to degrade the Polish people even though the left-wing producer claimed the ruse that the show was suppose to be “against bigotry”. “All in the family” was filled with racist anti-Polish sound bites such as “Dumb Polak” in an attempt to influence its viewers to have the same anti-Polish prejudice, that the Left-wing producer of the show (Norman Lear) had.

So basically, Polish “jokes” were part of a Hollywood/TV media hate campaign against Polish people.

A lot more at the link.

http://www.polamjournal.com/Li...the_polish_joke.html

It's not just Poland. The Czech Republic is moving to make the right to bear arms part of their constitution. The Czech Republic and Slovakia have also objected to taking "their share" of the "guests" invited into Europe by Angela Merkel; and consequently have had no terrorist incidents.

BTW I noted that President Trump mentioned the massacre (of the Polish Officer Corps) in the Katyn Forest as one of the cataclysms suffered by Poland. He was right to do to; the USSR denied for years they had done it, but they had. They basically murdered the cream of the Polish Army. With other sites found after the fall of the USSR, Stalin's execution orders were carried out on about 25,000 Poles. Link

Back when Dad was working, one of his coworkers was a Polish guy who escaped Poland during the late 70s or early 80s. He was politically active in Poland and knew Lech Wałęsa. Two of the memorable things about Dad's former coworker (small, family business so I knew Dad's coworkers):

He said that the secret police pursued him in the US as a single man, but left him alone once he married an American.

Dad used to complain about how bad communicator he was due to his preference to keep everything secret. Dad understood that it was natural from growing up in an oppressive regime and being part of the underground resistance, but it's pretty hard to have a secretive peer.

I work with a Polish gal, and she used to model part-time in college and even while working for my employer. Blond hair, blue eyes, extremely nice, and smoking hot.

Based on these two, I've never understood the Polish jokes.

Additionally, the Navy SEAL books I've read about the GWOT universally praise Polish special forces, and they're one of the few NATO members who pay their fair share. Poland is definitely a beacon of hope in Europe.

---

Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

My grandfather came to this country from Poland by himself when he was a young teen. His family sent him here to avoid his getting involved in WWI. He was not from a wealthy family there but, when he got here he worked hard all his life to provide for his family both here and in the "old country". He was a pillar of the community in which he lived and worked.

I loved that man so much.

I am extremely proud of my Polish heritage and have traced my lineage back to the 1500's there.

As a side note, when he died, he left my mother a five million dollar estate. Dumb 'ole Polock!

We have a large Polish population here in Wallington, NJ. If you want good soup and kielbasa that's where you go. Most of them are very hard workers and a lot are business owners in the various trades.
Real nice people and very quick to offer up some alcohol even when you've just met.
From what I here that had a lot of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to help us out.

And Polish weddings are lots of fun.

Now y'all have made my hungry.

There is a good Polish restaurant nearby, in Longwood.

The only problem I have when I go there, is controlling myself. So many good dishes on that menu.

The man who helped defeat the USSR and did so without a single battalion.

Karol Józef Wojtyła of Wadowice, Republic of Poland.

quote:

Originally posted by ElKabong:
Read about the Jewish community in Poland before WWII, pretty much the best place to be Jewish in Europe.

My wife's last boss left there during the 60's as a political dissident, he's pretty conservative to say the least. There are a lot of freedom loving, anti-communist folks over there still yet.

My daughter visited Poland as part of an Israel pilgrimage. Her impression was that there are intact synagogues still standing, but no Jews left in Poland that use them.

General Thaddeus Kosciuszko (1746 - 1817)

http://www.polishamericancenter.org/Kosciuszko.htm

General Casimir Pulaski (1745-1779)

http://www.polishamericancenter.org/Pulaski.htm