Sorry to deviate from your statement totally, Poland (or its leader) was definitely partially at fault for its invasion. After Hitler took power in 1933, Polands president wrote Neville Chamberlain in England and to France that they must immediately re-invade Germany and take Hitler down. Both nations denied this as they were just coming out of a depression in both lands.
England had just lost Pakistan and India to their own independance and still had large sums of debts to America from the First World War...as did France also.
France was politically unstable and had problems with corruption. On top of that, the Germans were NOT paying the reparations demanded of them from the "winning" powers in the Treaty of Versailles, which was a total of
132 Billion "goldmarks".
England and France had older industrial complexes, Germany had become new money from the Dawes plan in 1924 and the Young plan from 1929.
England and France were not ready or willing to face a new war with Germany while the Germans living in Dansk in Poland were being chased on the streets like dogs and beaten to death by Polish faschists, inspired by the faschists in Italy, and then, the The Locarno Treaty with Germany guaranteeing the borders of Chechloslovakia, Poland, France and Belgium was believed by all to keep Germany "down to a small problem"....
1936, Robert Beck again wrote England to attack Germany with France to defeat Hitler and Hitler had repeatedly told the Polish people and gov't to stop attacking Germanen in Poland...again Chamberlain and France told Poland to stay quiet and leave Hitler alone even after he had "assumed" Austria, Sudetenland and was looking into writing the
Molotow-Ribbentrop-Pakt with Russia and Stalin.
The 1st of September 1939, proved all to be wrong and we all know the rest of the story.
I am not saying and never will say the Polish people were absolutely innocent or totally at guilt, but they were and still are a very nationalistic folk. Even today, their laws are so nationalistic...if you make any advertisement for your "polish" company, use any words in this advertisement "other than polish language" you pay a fine of €50,000.
Like many nations in Europe, they are proud of their heritage, language, history and are somewhat still mad at each other for the thousand years of steady changing of borders, takeovers from other nations and mass executions of many of their military and political persons by "other nations". The 30 year war, the 100 year war, the Napoleon war, Sweden and Denmark attacking northern Europe (protestants against catholics), WW I, WWII and STILL TODAY, the war in Ukraine proves that the people here are warlike and HAVE NOT LEARNED:
Nobody WINS a war, everybody suffers, the women have to rebuild and the children are taught to HATE for the next generation of wars....LIVE FREE, Gary
No problem on the deviation. I do not mind learning new info. It is rare that no fault can ever be put on one side in any conflict. There is always an Action-Reaction that leads up to these things like dominos.
Germany over the centuries had also practiced German "settlements" in Poland but, they sent men to marry Polish women, not realizing that it would be the women who raised the children in their culture and with their religious beliefs, rather than the man's. So there is some history there as well.
Not saying that Poland didn't try the same in Prussia and Ukraine...it is a common practice. The Ukrainians didn't much care for the Polish settlers either, and would randomly kill them, just to note.
My grandmother had said of her time growing up (she was born in 1912) until WWII "Everyone was killing everyone". Germans/Austrians were killing Poles, Chech's, Hungarians and Ukrainians. Ukrainians were killing Poles, Austrians, Germans and Russians. Poles were killing Germans, Austrians, Ukrainians, and Russians. The Bolsheviks were killing anyone who they believed stood in the way of their manmade Utopia....trying to unknot that ball of yarn is hopeless. Provocation takes many forms, not just rhetoric or saber rattling.
To this day, I do know that Poland has its problems and faults (Don't we all?). I do wonder however if the world had at least stepped in to stop Hitler earlier (not necessarily attack), as suggested, if perhaps, WWII could have been avoided. Perhaps though, it might have only hastened its start.
You are correct in that they are in modern times a somewhat closed society; suspicious of other cultures, religions and nations. As you also pointed out, they have been in turmoil for many hundreds of years. With the government of Poland being in exile in London during the pre-wwii years, the chaos was exacerbated. Leading a government via telephone or snail mail correspondence, is not very accurate.
"Poland first!" was, and is kind of their motto since the fall of the wall. Whether that is the attitude of Poland, Ukraine or as we saw here in America with President Trump, that does not make them Fascists!
They will never admit it but, they are afraid. Fear has a way of making choices for you that are not always thought through.
We have a saying here with Cow folk. "Bravery, is being scared to death but, getting into the saddle anyway." We don't need bravery in our leaders, we need wisdom.
Just as we are seeing happening here and other places at the moment, before-WWII you had two choices for the direction of your government.
You are either a Communist or you are a Fascist. Both are forms of Socialism so, you only have one choice, you are simply delineating the ideology. Left road or right road. They are both going the same direction toward less individual freedom.
Yes, the European argument has been exported here and it is deviant!
Poland had, for a very long time (prior to the Deluge), been heading down a path of Republicanism. Not an American version, but, its own form. All of that went into the toilet in the chaos that followed for two hundred years.
Even when I was in old town Warsaw, there was a Fascist demonstration. All 8 of them were marching beating base drums down the street in front of the Presidential residence (which is mere feet from the street and far less "isolated" than our White House), chanting "Kill the Communists, boom, boom, boom!".
No one was paying them any heed and just walking to wherever they were going. There were no crowds cheering or any onlookers (even the tourists who had no idea what was being chanted). They were ignored despite all of the ruckus they were creating.
I personally found it somewhat heartening that they were able to exercise their free speech and the crowd was allowed to simply ignore it. The Fascists were seemingly contented with having their say and that was the end of it. No verbal conflicts, no fights...people simply acted as if they were not there! The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference.
As far as I can see, there are Fascist in Poland, just as there are everywhere (including The Ukraine), but, they have very little support in the general population. To say that it is a "problem" there, I think is a bit of a red herring. It is what happens when speech is free. You must tolerate all kinds of speech, even the kinds you don't like.
The real danger I see, is that in much of Europe your choice is either the path towards Communism or Fascism. Period. You must choose an ideology of socialism so pick one; that one path or the other eventually leads to an extreme end should not come as a surprise when the journey reaches its final destination.
This is why Socialism in any form CANNOT be allowed any foothold here in the US!
We are a Republic, not a Democracy. The highest law in the country is the oldest, most stable, Constitution in the world, not the federal bureaucracy or mob rule!