History of Poland

Few nations on earth have endured what Poland has; and fewer still have survived it. Situated at the crossroads of Europe, Poland has been invaded, partitioned, and erased from the map entirely, yet has refused, time and again, to disappear. In 1795, after over a century of being carved up by its powerful neighbours; Russia, Prussia, and Austria; Poland ceased to exist as a sovereign state for 123 years. Not a decade, not a generation, but over a century. And yet the Polish people kept their language, their culture, their fierce sense of identity alive through sheer collective will, passing it quietly from parent to child like a flame cupped against the wind. When Poland re-emerged on the world map in 1918, it was not a resurrection; it was a reckoning.

The twentieth century brought horrors almost beyond comprehension. Poland was the first country invaded in World War II; struck from the west by Nazi Germany on September 1, 1939, and then stabbed in the back from the east by the Soviet Union just seventeen days later. Warsaw was systematically razed to rubble. Six million Polish citizens perished. And yet, from those ashes, Poland rebuilt; again. The story of Poland is not simply one of suffering, but of something far more defiant: a people who have been knocked down more times than most nations have stood up, and who have met every attempt at erasure with an unbreakable insistence on existing. That spirit is not history. It lives in every Polish community around the world, including here.

Animated History of Poland – Action based – No voiceover – 1300 years in 8 minutes

Animated histrory of Poland – More detailed (25min)

History of Poland – If you are looking for more detail (1h)