Poland

The Red Army Offensive in the spring of 1944 reached Warsaw by the late summer. Poland had suffered for five years under Nazi occupation, and the Government-in-Exile in London kept the focus of the Polish cause.

The Thirties were marked by confrontation and violence. The Western diplomats practicing Appeasement believed it would prevent another global war, but were woefully unaware of what they were dealing with. Most of the confrontation was between the ideologies of Nazism and Communism; they became mortal enemies in the thirties, which made their non-aggression pact and the dismemberment of Poland all the more shocking.

Anti-Semitism had been around in Europe for hundreds of years. Pogroms, attacks on Jewish communities, took place long before the Nazis took power.