How is your first association when you think about Poland?

Solidarity sister :¬) Oh & the fact that they knocked England out of the 1974 World Cup in the qualifying round :¬(

Oh god – unfortunately, the first thing I think of is “Springs.”

I’m such an American sometimes. ;-)

Pretty women. Polish women are some of the most gorgeous sexy women I have ever met. Woof!

Well hung guys.

You asked.

dated a few

Cold and the holocaust. And then there’s that whole American sterotype of the Polish being…well…not so smart.

Oh, a giant, blond women.

What a shitty location for a country. Germany to one side, Russia to the other. You know your ass is going to get kicked growing up.

Classical music, particularly Frédéric Chopin, was the first thing that came to mind.

That and what @psychocandy mentioned: cold and the holocaust.

Polack jokes, screwed over in the world wars, greesy delicious food, Lech Walesa and Solidarity. That is about it.

I’m beyond impressed that Poland has managed to keep a national identity, in spite of having no natural defenses which has allowed numerous aggressive invasions during its history. This indicates to me a people of great national pride and integrity. And some great food that a Polish friend of mine has shared.

@JilltheTooth That is pretty impressive that they have survived so much. And their sausage is pretty good too.

Cold, nice people, good sense of humor, Pope John Paul II, lost a lot of Jews during the Holocaust.

During the H1N1 scare I saw a video of the health minister, or not sure of her title, but the person in the Polish government responsible for the health of the citizens in Poland, and I thought she was much more rational than what was going on in the US.

Amber jewelry.

The first thing that pops into my mind? The accordion lesson I took when I was 8.
I can’t help it. That’s what come to mind first.

An image of a cloudy sky, at the horizon a forest covered in snow, a valley in between me and the trees with a small run down village with poor but content people thriving there.

Lech Walesa, the electrician that was the head of Solidarity and perogies.

That’s probably why I have a weight problem, mixing food and politics.

A Polish “character” I had as a software engineering professor in college.

My 1st association is an old ( now dead ) family friend who was a concentration camp victim back during WWll.

Her father and brother were killed and her mother and herself were forced to work in a Nazi factory.

She told stories of hiding to eat a scrap of bread. So sad.

She married a Latvian man and they moved to a farm in New Mexico after the war to raise a family.

They had a basement full of canned foods she raised and canned herself.

I loved that basement, all dark and full of shelves and shelves of food.

Boy did she cook some good food too, and as a child I remember these little donut things she made. Pastry dough in a figure ‘8’ shape and rolled in powder sugar.

I loved visiting her!

I see a set of numbers and a letter tattooed into the forearm of an elderly Polish Christian woman I knew years ago. I met her when I was a young woman cleaning houses in Florida 30 years ago. She had survived Auschwitz. She shared stories with me when I would go to her house once a week to clean as I paid my way through college.

She and her husband were musicians and lovers of all things beautiful including their only child-a daughter. They were so proud to be Americans and proud that their only child was educated, compassionate and had married a doctor who adored her. Their daughter also had terminal cancer. They realized the irony of it all and still remained faithful to life and God. I feel very privileged and blessed to have known them.

cold inefficient industrialism in a totalitarian society.

That may be far from reality but it was what came into my mind first.

The great suffering of Poles during WWII and its aftermath. Stuck between Germany and Russia, ravaged by both, and aided by no one. I believe you must be very strong to be a Pole.

Here I was thinking about pierogies. My brother’s college girlfriend was Polish and she used to make these wonderful pierogies. She went on a trip to Poland with her dad and brought back some beautiful carved plates.

After that, I think of the terrible atrocities that were wreaked upon the Poles during WWII.

Then I think of polka music, which I love.

My stepmother’s family and the food they make!

Strong people, good food, polka music, my brother-in-law.

Plumbers. England was full of them a few years back.

Polish Pete, an old fishing buddy who taught us how to pickle baby mullet.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and the fact that those Jews involved in it had a higher rate of survival than those who went along with the Nazis.

The first thing I think about when I hear about Poland is the fact that they have been fucked over by pretty much every country since during and after World War Two.

Germany invaded them, they suffered heavily, and after the war, the Allies turned them over to the Soviets where they got fucked even harder for the next however many years even after we ran with the pretense that we were going to let them stay free.

It sucks :-/

Also, Polish women are gorgeous.

Cold Weather, interesting food.

Chess

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Given that the Soviets liberated Poland from the Nazis (albeit liberated to another form of tyranny), in what way exactly did the Allies turn them over to the Soviets?

@meiosis if I remember correctly, the Allies made a big deal out of being sure that Poland was given priority in being liberated and that they would remain free after the war. We basically let the Soviets have their way with them after the war.

I think the Soviets are to blame for what happened to Poland, not the Allies. We were in no position to do anything about the fact that their liberators weren’t going to set them free. The USSR had absorbed 20,000,000 million casualties in defeating the Nazis, they weren’t about to just roll over and let us take territorial gains from them.

Bittersweet. I dated a boy from Poland when I was in high school. We broke up and then ran into each other a few years later at university. We became friends but he had problems I didn’t know about and ended up committing suicide.

I’ve always wanted to visit Poland because of the things he told me about the place. I am especially looking forward to the food.

Lech Walesa

Victims of both Soviets and Nazi Germany.

Courageous people who started the movement that would eventually terminate the Iron Curtain.

The birthplace of my father.

THANK YOU for all answers! all of them are valuable and now I am very proud of being Polish :)

but remember: in Poland is not as cold as You think hehehe :)

@majapl 90% of my friends in Michigan are Polish-American, they are second and third generation American. They are some of my favorite people. Up there they have a lot of Polish food. They post on facebook pigging out on paczki’s during the holidays.