The recreation of the Polish state was a blessing, but I could wish it had not been at the expense of eastern Germany. Europe and the world lost much when Königsberg, Breslau, Allenstein, Stettin, Bromberg et al acquired other names and residents. But I wish also that Poland (that is, Congress Poland plus what it acquired from the Russian Empire upon independence), could have retained what it lost by the Hitler-Stalin pact.

That said, there is no way of undoing any of that now that could ever be remotely worth it. Hopefully the era of European border changes by war has at last ended.

Ditto Brunopolski.
I lived in Poland for two years and travelled extensively in Silesia, I speak Polish and studied Polish history and literature. I know there were Polish roots in Silesia and western Poland in the Middle Ages, but this was all before the nation-state. Poles and the Polish language were virtually unknown in Silesia west of the Oder for centuries. I hold no brief for Polish or German nationalism…I am Carpatho-Russian and Italian. The annexation and ethnic cleansing of Silesia and other recovered lands was all a Communist project with a view to punishing Germany and aquiring an industrial base to contribute to the formation of a proletariat to further Communist designs. Compensation for losing the eastern territories to the U.S.S.R. was part of it too. A massive, oppresive migration of peoples followed, such that some of the largest concentration of Eastern Catholic and Orthodox faithful live in western Poland (they willing owned Polish ethnicity to avoid being placed in the Soviet Union). Railroad traffic on All Souls Day is madness in Poland one’s sides ancestral territory is on the other side of the country and vice versa. I continually ran into older Germans travelling by train to return to visit their birthplaces in Poland…a lot were bilingual and would only speak Polish while on Polish territory and German while in Germany. Read “Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City” by Norman Davies and Roger Moorehouse…it’s about the Wroclaw area and is a good read. As for me, I am comfortable with the nation state borders as they are now…no need to muddy the waters further.

Nobody was asked, there were not ‘plebiscyt-Plebiszit’. To state clearly, in modern Europe there is no place for any ‘claims’-we should cooperate to create culture with awarness of the history: both in Western Poland an in Western Ukraine, Litva and Belarussia , like in the rest of Europe. The history is not so simple …

Please reread the original post. the clear implication is that the Morgenthau plan was a relatively minor matter that was disposed of as “soon as its impracticality became obvious.” But that moment when the impracticality “became obvious” only only came 2-3 years after the war ended during the most critical period of US – soviet realtions.

To be fair, this plan, while influential was never literally implemented. If it had been, genocide by starvation in Germany and the collapse of the entire European economy would have been the result. This plan was a very serious matter.

I am sure Mr.JPM does not apply the same historical criteria to Polish claims in the eastward direction…..

Polish claims to the land: a thousand years ago.

Watching a Hyphenated-American FREAK OUT when his ethnic chauvinism is challenged and he encounters traditional Catholic culture: priceless

YEAH! The Six Counties part of Britain?!?!?!? That’s like saying HAWAII is part of the United States!!!

But… the Six Counties are part of Britain.

(Or “the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland” to be precise).