poland

"Ich habe den Befehl gegeben – und ich lasse jeden füsilieren, der auch nur ein Wort der Kritik äußert – daß das Kriegsziel nicht im Erreichen von bestimmten Linien, sondern in der physischen Vernichtung des Gegners besteht. So habe ich, einstweilen nur im Osten, meine Totenkopfverbände bereitgestellt mit dem Befehl, unbarmherzig und mitleidslos Mann, Weib und Kind polnischer Abstammung und Sprache in den Tod zu schicken."

"The Polish soldier is a marcher of extraordinary endurance."

"L’exemple d’un monarque impose et se fait suivre: Lorsqu’ Auguste buvait, la Pologne était ivre."

"Who only knows Latin can go across the whole Poland from one side to the other one just like he was at his own home, just like he was born there. So great happiness! I wish a traveler in England could travel without knowing any other language than Latin!"

"The Poles... belong to a community which has acquired its modern sense of nationality in active opposition to the policies of the states in which they lived."

"There are few virtues which the Poles do not possess and there are few errors they have ever avoided."

"The soul of Poland is indestructible... she will rise again as a rock, which may for a spell be submerged by a tidal wave, but which remains a rock."

"With respect to us, Poland might be, in fact, considered as a country in the moon."

"Poland is like an island on the north European plain. At times the island has been swamped by a tide of iron or steel helmets converging from Germany and Russia. At times it has drifted suddenly with the current; if the continent of Africa had drifted relatively as much as the boundaries of Poland have drifted in the last two hundred years, then Africa would at one time have touched the north pole and at another the south pole."

"Finis [regni] Poloniæ."

"Poland has not yet perished, So long as we still live. What the foreign force has taken from us, We shall with sabre retrieve."

"Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła..."

"An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant."

"Un polonais – c'est un charmeur; deux polonais – une bagarre; trois polonais, eh bien, c'est la question polonaise."

"Через труп белой Польши лежит путь к мировому пожару."

"Nobody who comes to Poland will be in any danger because of his race. This is not our custom, as is not pointing out similar incidents in other countries, although we know they take place. In Poland, they're a rarity."

"For two centuries, Poland suffered constant and brutal attacks. But while Poland could be invaded and occupied, and its borders even erased from the map, it could never be erased from history or from your hearts. In those dark days, you have lost your land, but you never lost your pride. So it is with true admiration that I can say today, that from the farms and villages of your countryside to the cathedrals and squares of your great cities, Poland lives, Poland prospers, and Poland prevails. ** Donald Trump, Remarks in Warsaw, Poland; 6 July 2017"

"Wy jesteście na tym froncie zbrojnym ramieniem Polski, wy jesteście odpowiedzią daną Niemcom za dzień 1 września 1939 roku, wy jesteście jednym żywym dowodem, że jeszcze Polska nie zginęła i nie zginie!"

"Rodacy! Wobec całego narodu polskiego i wobec całego świata pragnę powtórzyć te nieśmiertelne słowa: Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła, póki my żyjemy."

"Obecne niepowodzenie jest chwilowe, zwycięstwo będzie po naszej stronie. I pamiętajcie: Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła, póki my żyjemy. I to, co nam obca przemoc wzięła, siłą odbierzemy."

"Let this great day of concord come, when Russians will be united with you with the same feelings and, fighting for the same cause and against a common enemy, they will have the right to intone with you your national song, this hymn of Slavic unity: Poland is not yet lost."

"Uderzenie tak sztuczne, tak było potężne, Że struny zadzwoniły jak trąby mosiężne I z trąb znana piosenka ku niebu wionęła, Marsz tryumfalny: Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła!... Marsz Dąbrowski do Polski! I wszyscy klasnęli, I wszyscy: "Marsz Dąbrowski!" chorem okrzyknęli!"

"Staś wypoczywał i polował. Znalazłszy wśród narzędzi karawany dłuta i młotki zajmował się prócz tego w chłodniejszych godzinach wykuwaniem na wielkiej gnejsowej skale napisu: "Jeszcze Polska...", albowiem chciał, żeby pozostał jakiś ślad pobytu ich w tych stronach. Anglicy, którym przetłumaczył napis, dziwili się, że chłopcu nie przyszło na myśl uwiecznić na tej afrykańskiej skale swego nazwiska. Ale on wolał wyryć to, co wyrył."

"Hej, dziesięciu! czas do dzieła, Ciemna zgliszcz drużyno! Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła, Gdy za Polskę giną!"

"Jeszcze Polska nie zginóła. Bziałoczerwóna kukarda. Mniejwa łufnoszcz w Bogu, Nam została tylko wzgarda, Bo Bóg dobry spraziedliwy Nie dopuszczy tego, Żeby Polok nieszczeszliwy Ni mniał kraju swego."

"Jeszcze Polska nie umarła, Kiedy my żyjemy Co nam obca moc wydarła, Szablą odbijemy."

"Polish national anthem reminds me primarily of victory. Surely every athlete will confirm my words."

"The Star-Spangled Banner celebrates the fact that, after a night of battle, the country's flag was still there. The Polish national anthem celebrates the fact that, after centuries of battle, the country is still there. This cautious, realistic anthem — "Poland is not yet lost"..."

"Sławna pieśń legionów polskich poczyna się od wierszy, które są godłem historii nowej: Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła, kiedy my żyjemy. Słowa te mówią, że ludzie mający w sobie to, co istotnie stanowi narodowość, zdolni są przedłużać byt swojego kraju niezależnie od warunków politycznych tego bytu, i mogą nawet dążyć do urzeczywistnienia go na nowo..."

"Pokud matička Praha, perla západního slovanského světa, se začíná ztrácet v německém moři, co asi čeká Slovensko, mou drahou vlast, pro kterou je Praha zdrojem duchovní kultury? Zatížen touto myšlenkou, vzpomněl jsem si na starou polskou píseň „Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła, póki my żyjemy“. Tato známá melodie vyvolala v mém srdci vzdorné „Hej, Slovaci, ešte naša slovenska reč žije“… Běžel jsem do svého pokoje, zapálil svíci a tužkou napsal do svého deníku tři verše. Píseň byla hotova v okamžiku."

"[E]ven though Poland had made a major contribution to the victory which put an end to the Second World War, in June 1945 a representative of our country was not allowed to put his signature to the United Nations Charter. We remember that event when Artur Rubinstein, seeing that there was no Polish delegation at the concert to mark the signing of the Charter, decided to play the "Dąbrowski Mazurka", Poland's national anthem, to demonstrate that "Poland was not lost yet", that Poland lived on. I am recalling this because I had a very touching moment a few days ago in the same San Francisco opera house, to which I was invited for the opening of the season. This time it was the orchestra that played the "Dąbrowski Mazurka", and at that moment the memories of the great Artur Rubinstein and his performance came back with full force and it was very touching indeed for me."

"We should make a large action of the liquidation of the Polish element. As the German armies withdraw, we should take advantage of this convenient moment for liquidating the entire male population in the age from 16 up to 60 years. We cannot lose this fight, and it is necessary at all costs to weaken Polish forces. Villages and settlements lying next to the massive forests, should disappear from the face of the earth."

"Maintain the purity of German blood! That applies to both men and women! Just as it is considered the greatest disgrace to become involved with a Jew, any German engaging in intimate relations with a Polish male or female is guilty of sinful behavior. Despise the bestial urges of this race! Be racially conscious and protect your children. Otherwise you will forfeit your greatest asset: your honor!"

"During the preceding eighty years the Germans had sacrificed to the Reich all their liberties; they demanded as a reward the enslavement of others. No German recognized the Czechs or Poles as equals. Therefore, every German desired the achievement which only total war could give. By no other means could the Reich be held together. It had been made by conquest and for conquest; if it ever gave up its career of conquest, it would dissolve."

"During and after the 1830-1831 insurrection many Russian writers voluntarily participated in anti-Polish propaganda. Gogol wrote Taras Bulba, an anti-Polish novel of high literary merit, to say nothing about lesser writers."

"Poland’s existence is intolerable and incompatible with the essential conditions of Germany’s life. Poland must go and will go — as a result of her own internal weaknesses and of action by Russia — with our aid. For Russia, Poland is even less tolerable than it is for us; Russia will never put up with Poland's existence. With Poland, one of the strongest pillars of the Versailles System will fall. To attain this goal must be one of the firmest aiming points of German politics, because it is attainable. Attainable only by means of, or with the help of, Russia. [...] The restoration of the border between Germany and Russia is the precondition for regaining strength of both sides. Germany and Russia within the borders of 1914 should be the basis for an agreement between us [...]."

"We must remember that anti-Semitism is a disease, just like racism and anti-Polonism. Good people should never be silent on such matters. We must speak out loud: we do not accept this!"

"I have issued the command – and I'll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad – that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formation in readiness – for the present only in the East – with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language."

"Ich habe den Befehl gegeben – und ich lasse jeden füsilieren, der auch nur ein Wort der Kritik äußert – daß das Kriegsziel nicht im Erreichen von bestimmten Linien, sondern in der physischen Vernichtung des Gegners besteht. So habe ich, einstweilen nur im Osten, meine Totenkopfverbände bereitgestellt mit dem Befehl, unbarmherzig und mitleidslos Mann, Weib und Kind polnischer Abstammung und Sprache in den Tod zu schicken."

"Koreans were only the first ethnic group to come under suspicion. Balkars, Chechens, Crimean Tatars, Germans, Greeks, Ingushi, Meskhetians, Kalmyks, Karachai, Poles and Ukrainians - all these different nationalities were subjected to persecution by Stalin at various times. The rationales for this policy subtly mixed the languages of class and race. Baltic Germans were 'kulak colonizers to the marrow of their bones'. Poles were informed: 'You are being de-kulakized not because you are a kulak, but because you are a Pole.' One internal OGPU report contained the telling phrase Raz Poliak, znachit kulak: 'If it's a Pole, then it must be a kulak.' As early as March 1930 thousands of Polish families were being deported eastwards from Byelorussia and the Ukraine, partly because of their resistance to collectivization and partly because the authorities feared they planned to emigrate westwards. There was a fresh wave of deportations in 1935, which removed more than eight thousand Polish families from the border regions of Kiev and Vinnitsya to eastern Ukraine. Two years later, an investigation into what was alleged to be 'the most powerful and probably the most important diversionist-espionage networks of Polish intelligence in the USSR' led to the arrest of no fewer than 140,000 people, nearly all of them Poles."

"Liquidate all Polish traces. Destroy all walls in the Catholic Church and other Polish prayer houses. Destroy orchards and trees in the courtyards so that there will be no trace that someone lived there... Pay attention to the fact that when something remains that is Polish, then the Poles will have pretensions to our land"."

"Villages were torched. Roman Catholic priests were axed or crucified. Churches were burned with all their parishioners. Isolated farms were attacked by gangs carrying pitchforks and kitchen knives. Throats were cut. Pregnant women were bayoneted. Children were cut in two. Men were ambushed in the field and led away. The perpetrators could not determine the province's future. But at least they could determine that it would be a future without Poles."

"The Soviet defeat by Poland in 1920 left a deep enmity. This was to help lead, first, to the persecution of the Polish minority in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, notably with the murderous ‘Polish Operation’ of 1937–8, then to Soviet alliance with Nazi Germany in partitioning Poland out of existence in 1939, and to a marked hostility toward Polish nationalism as the Germans were driven back in 1944. In the case of Poland, the Soviet animus against the post-World War One settlement found particular focus."