Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join my colleague, Representative Jackie Walorski, as co-chairs of the Polish Caucus. This year, we commemorate the 100th anniversary of Poland's reemergence as a European nation in 1918. As grateful Polish Americans, we join together on a bipartisan basis to acknowledge this historic achievement of freedom's advance. The reality is history has been brutal to Poland. In the late 1700s, Poland was erased from the map of Europe for 123 years by three adjacent predatory empires because it passed a constitution inspired by ours, which included a separation of powers. Poland became the first nation in Europe to abolish serfdom by the Polaniec Manifesto on May 7, 1794. Then, in 1918, following World War I, with the support of President Woodrow Wilson, Poland was restored to the map of Europe and resumed its torturous climb to freedom. {time} 1030 But then, in 1939, World War II began. As Poland was invaded, first by Nazi Germany, and then 3 weeks later by Communist Russia, Poland suffered an unimaginable loss of 20 percent of its population that perished during World War II, the most of any nation in that war. Of the 14 million civilians killed by Nazi Germany and Communist Russia, over 6 million were killed in Poland; 3 million Jews and 3 million Christians, as well as Roma and Sinti, the disabled, homosexuals, and other innocents. Poland never surrendered. There never was a collaborationist Polish Government.…”