Poland

Poland was a nation in Eastern Europe. Historically it was prevented from becoming a regional power because it shared borders with far stronger nations, Germany and Russia.

Poland in World War
Poland was established as a nation at the end of World War I from territory stripped from Germany and the Soviet Union, both of which bitterly resented its existence. In 1939, Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin agreed to invade Poland and divide its territory between their two countries, thus beginning World War II. In June of 1941 German forces drove Soviet forces from their half of Poland as part of their invasion of Russia and overran all of Poland.

Over the next year, German rule in Poland was draconian and oppressive, especially toward the Jews, who were forced to live in ghettoes such as those in the cities of Warsaw and Lodz. By May 1942 the Germans had already begun to send Jews to concentration camps, where they were murdered en masse.

When the Race invaded Earth, they quickly drove the Germans from Poland and began administering it themselves. Both Poles and Jews were divided in their loyalties: One option was to support the Race in its war against the rest of the humanity; the other was to support their old enemies, the Germans and the Russians.

At the Cairo peace conference, the Race convinced both Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop to allow it to colonize Poland. Though the two nations these diplomats represented probably could have prevented the Race from doing so had they cooperated in opposing this colonization, they decided not to, not least of all because neither trusted the other and both were fearful that Poland run by a human government, any human government, could provide a flashpoint for another Russo-German war.

Both the Poles and the Jews became comfortable under the Race's rule, though ethnic tensions between the two persisted and the Poles in particular resented the Race for denying them their own nation. Both factions maintained their own independent militia forces, and the leaders of both militias agreed to support the Race against either the Germans or the Soviets should another round of fighting break out.

In 1965, Germany invaded Poland in an ill-advised attempt at conquest. True to their word, both the Jewish and Polish militias offered their services to the Conquest Fleet. They provided the majority of the Race's infantry forces on the Polish front.

Poland in Southern Victory
In 1916, Germany established a client Kingdom of Poland on historically Polish territory conquered from Russia. However, Germany was also a traditional enemy of Poland, and also occupied historically Polish territory. For this reason, the Polish people never fully supported the German-backed royal government. When war broke out between Germany and Russia in 1941, Poles were divided in their loyalties. The Jews were overwhelmingly loyal to the German-backed king because the Russians were committing genocide against Jews within their own territory.