Changes

The Second World War marks an enormous disjuncture in European history and this is particularly true in the case of Poland. The Polish state recreated after World War II was in many ways totally different from the one which preceded it. <i>'''In contrast to its forbear, the new Poland was ethnically homogenous: it had no Jews, no Ukrainians, no Belarusians, and no Germans. It had lost its aristocracy, its political elite, and a good part of its intelligentsia. When I was growing up a dreary, gray and different world; a colorful and exotic world, full of different peoples, ideas, perspectives, and possibilities. This early interest in the antebellum period has stayed with me until now.'''</i>