I've been to Poland twice - had some great times. I visited Cracow, and we teamed up with some Polish students there whom we had contacted over the internets. They had organised a great lecture on Polish history for us, by their professor at their university. In the middle of the old town, right next to a statue of their most famous lecturer, Copernicus. It was bliss.
Indeed, they have another version of history. Very interesting. It was not they who were ignorant. It was us who received a much needed eye-opener. New, overlooked perspectives. History is different if you've just spend two centuries between Germany and Russia. When WWII was fought right at your doorstep, at a crossroads of German, Jewish and Polish culture, 10 kilometers from Auschwitz. Much of it showed the shortcomings of the history we were accustomed to. And some of it was a bit peculiar, yes. But no, there was no anti-Semitic revisionism in it.
Or so at least they told me later that night, for Louis spend most of the lecture struggling with hangovers from the hot Polish nights - great people, great beers, great prices.
Norman Davies is an English scholar who has written a great history of Europe from a more Central-European perspective. In fact, he has studied in Cracow. He must be the best English language source for a Polish perspective.
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