Poland

Poland is parliamentary republic in Central Europe. Historically, it has been prevented from becoming a regional power because it shared borders with far stronger nations Germany and Russia. At various points in its history, Poland has been partitioned entirely off the map, most notably in 1795, when it was divided up by Austria, Prussia and Russia. Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic in 1918, after World War I. It became a casus belli for World War II when it was occupied by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939. It emerged several years later as the socialist People's Republic of Poland within the Eastern Bloc, under strong Soviet influence.

During the Revolutions of 1989, communist rule was overthrown and Poland became what is constitutionally known as the "Third Polish Republic".

Poland in In the Presence of Mine Enemies
Poland was part of the Greater German Reich in 2010. During the Second World War, the Reich exterminated the ethnic Polish and Jewish population due to their Slavic ancestry and their animosity to Germany. Following the war, Poland was "formally" annexed into Greater Germany and colonized by German settlers.

The remaining handful of Poles were enslaved by the Reich and were used along Russian, Ukrainian, Serb and Arab slave laborers by German industry for "dirty" or dangerous work.

Poland in "In This Season"
Puck, Poland, was part of the territory ruled by Germany in 1939. During Chanukah, the three Jewish families of Puck were rescued from through the aid of a mysterious Biblical creature called a golem. Before rescuing them, however, the golem showed the adult members of the families of the terrible genocide that would occur in Poland.

Poland in "Shtetl Days"
During the War of Retribution, the Greater German Reich annexed Poland and rebuilt it to Nazi specifications. It also enslaved and gradually eradicated the population.

In the mid-21st Century, the Commissariat for the Strengthening of the German Populace established the tourist village of Wawolnice, and hired German actors to play the parts of the Jews and Poles that had resided there over a century prior. In so doing, the Reich inadvertantly "resurrected" the Jews and Poles that they'd sought to exterminate.

Poland in Southern Victory
In 1916, Germany established a client Kingdom of Poland on historically Polish territory that Germany had 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.

During the Second Great War, Poland was a target of Russian invasion, but was ultimately forced back by the Germans. The war saw the Poles divided in their loyalties. Some supported and fought for the Russian invaders while the large Polish Jew minority fought for the German side, fearing the anti-Jewish pogroms the Russians had in their own territory. However, like said above, the Germans pushed the invaders with help of nationalistic Poles and the Jews.

Poland in The Gladiator
The People's Republic of Poland was a keystone of the Soviet Union's domination in Europe. Like most Socialist countries, Poland had a strong Soviet, i.e. Russian, influence.

Poland in The Man With the Iron Heart
Poland was "liberated" from Nazi Germany by the Soviet Red Army at the end of World War II. The Soviet Union quickly began finding sympathetic communists to administer the country. Polish officials also took additional steps of expelling and relocating the ethnic Germans that lived within Poland's newly created borders.

Thus, the German Freedom Front was quite active in areas like Wroclaw, which had been a firmly German city until 1945.

Poland in The Two Georges
Poland was a long-defunct state, its territory having been partitioned between Russia, Prussia and Austria.

Poland in The War That Came Early
Fearing Soviet designs against its territorial integrity, The Second Polish Republic, under the loosely defined rule of Marshal Edward Rydz-Smigly, indirectly assisted Germany in its war against the USSR and Czechoslovakia, another traditional enemy of the country. As German forces were driving through Czechoslovakia, Polish forces crossed the border and annexed the Czech region of Zaolzie, which they maintained had always been theirs by right, but which the Czechs had taken themselves at an earlier date. (For their part, the Czechs maintained that the land had always been Czech but had been stolen by the Poles.)

Though not openly allied with Germany, Poland saw the importance of maintaining good relations with the Germans. Among other things, this led them to accept war refugees from Czechoslovakia, but to consider them "displaced persons" and keep them detained indefinitely. In the winter of 1938, fearing that holding the DPs would anger the Germans, Poland sent them to France, where a Czech government-in-exile had formed, by way of neutral Romania.

Many Poles also shared the Nazis' anti-Semitism and believed asinine theories about Jews being responsible for the destruction of world culture.

By December, 1938, however, the Soviet Union had forced the issue, blaming Poland's unofficial "semi-facist" leader Edward Rydz-Smigly for hobbling its efforts to fight Germany. The Soviet Union also accused Poland of persecuting the Byelorussians within its borders, and seeking to avenge the Polish-Soviet War, declared war in in the last days of the year. In response, Poland formally allied herself with Germany on December 31st, and allowed German troops to enter Polish territory.

Overall, the Polish Army was quite behind in terms of weapons, tactics, and technological advancement. Although the Polish Army had tanks (pancers), they had a comparatively small number. Their cavalry still rode on horseback. What the Poles lacked in resources, they attempted to make up for in bravery. Stories arose throughout 1939 of cavalry charges against Soviet tanks. Both the Germans and the Soviets grudgingly admitted that the Poles were indeed courageous and able soldiers.

Throughout the summer of 1939, the Polish-German alliance kept the Red Army out of Warsaw. However, a purge of military leaders overseen by Joseph Stalin in the last months of 1939 brought new blood to the Red Army, and December saw a successful breakthrough.

Poland in Worldwar
Poland was re-established as a nation at the end of World War I from territory stripped from Germany and Russia, both of which bitterly resented its existence. In 1939, Adolf Hitler and Joseph 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 ghettos 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.

During negotiations of the Peace of Cairo, the Race pressed both Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop to allow it to colonize Poland. Molotov agreed, 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. Ribbentrop, under strict orders from Hitler himself, belligerently refused anything less than Poland's return to Germany. However, after a German plot to reignite hostilties by detonating an explosive-metal bomb in Lodz was thwarted, Ribbentrop sheepishly accepted the proposal. Poland became, along with Spain and Portugal, one of the Race's few European colonies.

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, touching off the Race-German War of 1965. 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.