beorna

(sorry mosquito)

The map above seems to me to be very pro-polish. so perhaps the two beneath are more adequate
map is from 1880


and for those who mistrust german maps:
(The map includes Masurian and Kaschubian as Polish. Linguistically is this widely agreeable, ethnic were kaschubians and Masurian no Poles. The Kaschubians were kaschubians, the masurians saw themselves as germans of Masurian language)
map is from 1900


for the Germanness of masuria, see here:
plebiscites in 1921

serhi

is Slavic, Latest people of the Slavic Pomeranian

beorna

yes, the former Pomorani

beorna

i saw you spoke about the galician SS. Did you know, that lots of those men were allowed to immigrate into the USA after the war, because as members of a "Galician" unit, they were considered as Poles?

serhi

Before the war they had Polish citizenship, so the West had good arguments to not extradite them to the Soviet Union.

Osviux

Does the Polish Commonwealth is supposed to mean the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth or there is no such term or is it something else? Why Polish Commonwealth isnt the correct term for the Polish Lithuanian union?

Osviux

Oh i see it now. The official name of the union did include Lithuania and everything else and the Polish Commonwealth is supposed to be Commonwealth of Poland, but it was officialy used since 1791 and not in the XVII century.

Edward

[quote]
Just to clarify this issue:
The soldiers of 14th Waffen SS division were predominantly ethnic Ukrainian with same Slovak, Czech and Dutch volunteers.
Ukrainian soldiers were in big part conscript pressed into service by Germans and Ukrainian Ultranationalist Organizations. That was a main reason that soldiers of this division were not declared “war criminals’. They should not have been as their service in SS was mostly involuntary.
At the end of the war the Ukrainian soldiers were saved from certain death by Polish Army operating in Italy. Despite record of 14th Waffen SS division involvement in actions against Polish home Army units in Central Poland, the commanding officer of Polish Army on the West Gen. Anders refused to repatriate former Ukrainian SS soldiers to USSR thus certainly saved them from certain death.
See quotes below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_Waffen_Grenadier_Division_of_the_SS_(1st_Ukra inian)
14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS
“The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Ukrainian) (German: 14. Waffen Grenadier Division der SS (ukrainshe Nr.1), prior to 1944 titled the 14th SS-Volunteer Division "Galician" (German: 14. SS-Freiwilligen Division "Galizien")was a World War II German military formation initially made up of volunteers from the region of Galicia with a Ukrainian ethnic background but later also incorporated Slovaks, Czechs and Dutch volunteers and officers. Formed in 1943, it was largely destroyed in the battle of Brody, reformed, and saw action in Slovakia, Yugoslavia and Austria before being renamed the first division of the Ukrainian National Army and surrendering to the Western Allies by 10 May 1945.”


“The Ukrainian soldiers were interned in Rimini, Italy, in the area controlled by Polish II Corps forces. The UNA commander Pavlo Shandruk requested for a meeting with Polish general Władysław Anders in London, and asked him to protect the army against the deportation to Soviet Union. Despite the Soviet pressure, Anders managed to protect Ukrainian soldiers, as the former citizens of the Second Republic of Poland. This, together with the intervention of the Vatican saved its members from deportation to the USSR. Bishop Buchko of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church had appealed to Pope Pius XII to intervene on behalf of the division, whom he described as "good Catholics and fervent anti-Communists". Due to Vatican intervention, the British authorities changed the status of Division members from POW to surrendered enemy personneland the Polish II Corps declined their deportation to Soviet Union. 176 soldiers of the division joined Władysław Anders's Polish army. In 1947, former soldiers of SS "Galizien" were allowed to emigrate to Canada and to the United Kingdom. The names of about 7,100 former soldiers of SS "Galizien" admitted to the UK have been stored in the so called "Rimini List".”
TE]

serhi

Thank you, Edward. I didn't know.

Edward

You are welcome, serhi