By now people who know me know I have an interest in Poland and related topics. I had to laugh when a new contact sent me a web site I wasn’t familiar with, quora.com. You can sign up for various topics and news feeds. It’s not a recommendation, just a comment.
He sent me a link to a section under World History. A question was posted “Which country is the unluckiest?” At the top of the list is Poland with nearly 2400 votes. I have no idea how many total votes were cast in this very unscientific question. Countries like Haiti, Somalia, Afghanistan and even the ‘lost nations of Native Americans’ were all nominated but didn’t even garner 100 votes.
The description under Poland includes many events already mentioned in this blog – the repeated times Poland has been invaded and partitioned by other countries, the Nazi invasion, the murders in the Katyn Forest, destruction of Warsaw and subsequent years under communist rule. Tragedy struck again in 2010 when a plane carrying many top government officials crashed on its way to memorialize the Katyn massacre.
Regardless of what your favorite country is, it shows two things – public recognition of Poland’s many trials, and respect that Poland exists today.