Poles in German Forces
Around 500,000 people who were citizens of Poland before 1939 were drafted into the German armed forces during the war. These were mostly people who were considered by the Nazi authorities to be ethnically German (Volksdeutsche). The degree of loyalty of these soldiers to the Nazi cause varied; tens of thousands of them volunteered to join Polish formations after being taken prisoner by the Allies (15,000 joined in 1944 alone during fighting in Western Europe).
Read more about this topic: Polish Contribution To World War II
Famous quotes containing the words poles, german and/or forces:
“I see you boys of summer in your ruin.
Man in his maggot’s barren.
And boys are full and foreign in the pouch.
I am the man your father was.
We are the sons of flint and pitch.
O see the poles are kissing as they cross.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“Everything ponderous, viscous, and solemnly clumsy, all long- winded and boring types of style are developed in profuse variety among Germans—forgive me the fact that even Goethe’s prose, in its mixture of stiffness and elegance, is no exception, being a reflection of the “good old time” to which it belongs, and a reflection of German taste at a time when there still was a “German taste”Ma rococo taste in moribus et artibus.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“There is no longer beauty except in the struggle. No more masterpieces without an aggressive character. Poetry must be a violent assault against the unknown forces in order to overcome them and prostrate them before men.”
—Tommaso Marinetti (1876–1944)