Warsaw – Polish authorities said this week they plan to boost tourism at Nazi German dictator Adolf Hitler’s “Wolfsschanze” (Wolf’s Lair), which ended up on their territory after post-war border changes.

Artur Kurek, a senior official of the Polish forestry office, said it would invite tenders to run the 250-hectaresite of Hitler’s former command headquarters near Ketzryn in northern Poland.

“The new contract will include clauses obliging the management to draw children, as much as history buffs,” said Kurek, whose office is in charge of the tendering terms.

“We don’t want tourists to be coming just for a couple of hours,” he added.

Lying overgrown in a forest, the ruined concrete bunkers offer a chilling reminder of World War II, when Hitler turned his darkest dreams into reality.

The Wolfsschanze served as his command complex for much of the war, and is best known as the site of the failed July 1944 bomb plot against him by members of the German military.

It was located in East Prussia, a region awarded to Poland under the border changes that followed the Nazis’ crushing 1945 defeat.

The Polish state opened it to the public as a testimony to the Nazis’ crimes. In 1993, four years after the fall of Warsaw’s communist regime, the authorities devolved the management to Polish investors.

The site currently draws between 180 000 and 200 000 visitors a year, but officials estimate that a seven-million-zloty ($2.0-million) upgrade could raise the number by 20 percent.

The Wolfsschanze was the largest of 10 command bases used by Hitler across Germany and occupied Europe after World War II began with the Nazi and Soviet carve up of Poland in September 1939.

It was from here that he steered the brutal Nazi assault on the Soviet Union after turning on his erstwhile ally.

He arrived at the site on June 24, 1941, two days after the attack began. He left only on November 20, 1944, as the Soviets rolled back his forces.

In early 1945, as Soviet troops edged ever closer, German sappers used around 10 tonnes of explosives per bunker to try to destroy the site. 

In protest against the law of mass protests were held in Poland. On the campaign announced the support of local stakeholders hacker movement Anonymous, which began DDoS-attack and destroyed the site of the Polish Parliament, and soon laid and the site of the European Parliament.

Protests were held January 26 in Warsaw, Cracow, Sopot, Katowice and other Polish cities

Even many members of the Polish parliament opposed the accession of Poland to the “anti-piracy” agreement.

The opposition in the Polish parliament, protesting against the adoption of ACTA, covering masks Anonymous

Adoption of the ACTA has been going on for several years and is actively lobbying for intellectual property owners, including the recording and film corporations. Act against the social organizations and human rights activists. This so-called framework agreement, which in itself does not prescribe, but merely creates the conditions for the creation of uniform measures to rigid intellectual property protection, which will operate in all countries.

For example, ACTA allows for the possibility of research at Customs (Airport), all of your digital media to search for unlicensed content. Due to the threat of electronic fund lines recently even published a special recommendation), how you want to encrypt the data if you intend to visit the United States.

A search of digital media at the airport – one of the possible implications of the ACTA, but by no means unique. The Framework Agreement provides for a multi-level structure for intellectual property protection, including monitoring by ISPs, the closure of “pirate” sites on the Internet and so on. In this sense, the ACTA could be even worse than the recent U.S. bills pending PIPA and SOPA.

The agreement previously joined the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, New Zealand and Singapore. Now they will add another 22 EU countries: UK, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden. Five other EU countries have refrained from signing yet, but should do so soon – Germany, Estonia, Netherlands, Slovakia and Cyprus.

Final adoption of ACTA European countries will take place after voting in the European Parliament in June 2012. It is expected that by the time the protest to gain such power to MPs abandoned their plans.

Hitler knew that neither France nor Britain could seriously attack Germany without help from the Soviet Union. On September 1, 1939, German forces crashed through Poland. On September 3, Britain and France, joined by countries of the Commonwealth of Nations, declared war on Germany.

German blitzkrieg (”lightning warfare”) tactics – a combination of tanks and motor artillery with air support (bombs) – were overwhelming. The Soviet Union attacked from the east, and after one month Poland fell.

Among Hitler’s troops was a special S.S. corps. “S.S.” stood for Schutzstaffel, meaning “protection staff” or “defense corps.” The S.S. troops were first organised in the 1920s as Hitler’s personal bodyguard. But the corps had since grown to tremendous strength and was under the direction of Heinrich Himmler, Hitler’s police chief.

The S.S. corps took over and ran a country once it was conquered. In Poland, as in other countries, the S.S. deliberately set out to kill all Jews (whom Hitler blamed for Germany’s troubles) and to kill all people capable of leadership.

Thousands of Spanish Jews emigrated to Turkey, which still followed the Muslim policy of toleration. Jews were expelled from England, France, Germany and Switzerland and settled in Poland and Russia. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Jews were again welcomed in England and France. Many also sought refuge in the new colonies of North America.

But in Russia and Poland, terrible massacres (pogroms) of entire Jewish villages began. In the centuries of wandering, the Jewish people in every land retained their identity as Jews by retaining their faith. They waited for the coming of a Messiah who would again lead them to the Promised Land.

Pictures

To acquire such passport, a proper picture is needed. In most cases, 3 replicates are required and should be the confirm picture; not more than half a year. In addition to the need for a distinguishable image, gray background is usually needed.

Application Form

You will not get your Polish passport devoid of applying or filling up the application form entirely. On the application form, all relevant data like complete name, age, date and place of birth and the likes should be incorporated.

Proof of Birth Information

Just about every candidate must deliver his/her birth details along with the date and the place of birth. How you can do that? Getting your own birth certificate in the Registry Office in Poland would be the smartest actions to carry out. However for those who are not dwelling in Poland, the birth certification can be gotten from the Office of Registry in the country where the applicant dwells. In requesting for such birth certificate, using Polish transliteration is likely to make the process much easier.

Citizenship

When you are not a citizen of Poland, then put aside obtaining your Polish passport. This passport is actually authorized for the inhabitants of Poland. In case you are a naturalized person, you must present your proof of citizenship along with your passport application. For everybody’s information, individuals who are considered to be citizens of Poland are those born in Poland and parents are legalized inhabitants of Poland. However, in case a non-Polish individual has lived in Poland just for ten years, he/she is recognized as citizen. This must have a proof to get a Polish passport .

Special Requirements

As they say, in each rule, there’s an exemption. In obtaining a Polish passport, there are numerous requirements which should be completed by particular individuals. One example is for couples. They have to present their own matrimony proof just like the marriage certificate that’s been issued by the registry office of Poland. Every thing need to be converted in Polish language. This is for quick comprehension and quick process. In the event a minor would apply, parent’s authorization will be necessary.

There are various reasons as to why persons like you want to get a Polish passport. To achieve success in doing this, you have to complete every demands consequently in order to avoid troubles in the whole process.

Each individual requirement  above should really be properly realized because a single one lacking might stop you from finding what you wish. You may not prefer to wait for a very long time, right? You want your passport to be in your hands at the soonest time feasible. Follow just about every instruction and you’ll get a easy procedure.

To get any legal assistance including civil, administrative, commercial and company law in Poland, refer to CK law offices at the following link passaporte polones.

The homeless population, with dozens freezing to death in unheated apartments, fire escapes or in makeshift street shelters.

Authorities found two bodies of people in France who were likely to have frozen to death, bringing to at least 307 of cold weather related deaths across Europe, the grim winter with temperatures plunging to as low as minus 40c, and in other countries including Italy, Poland and Ukraine, where another nine deaths brought the country’s total fatalities to 131, most of them homeless people who perished on the streets since the freeze started nine days ago, Ukraine’s emergencies ministry said.

The bitter cold front has engulfed much of Europe with some 1800 people being hospitalised, and 75,000 people had sought warmth and food in over 3000 shelters across Ukraine, and even crossing the Mediterranean into North Africa, where as many as 16 people were killed on Algeria’s snow slicked roads or in other weather related accidents.

With normally mild weather in Rome, Italy the snow covered city was virtually paralysed after black ice covered the streets and the snowed in residents are warning of food shortages. As residents start to resort to sawing through fallen trees that are blocking roads, many people said they had no assistance from authorities.

Walking for up to two hours through freezing temperatures just to get to the metro, the area is full of trees that have fallen on cars but no one has come to us, residents are reporting.

Italian death toll reached 17 when three homeless people were found dead, while two men suffered heart attacks as they shovelled snow in the Abruzzio region and Campania regions.

London’s Heath-row Airport, the world’s busiest passenger air hub, cancelled half of Sunday’s 1300 flights after six centimetres of snow covered the area, heavy snow falls in other parts of Britain left motorway drivers stranded overnight.

In Poland the cold has claimed eight new victims, bringing the total to 53, Serbia has recorded nine deaths, authorities declared states of emergency in 32 municipalities in mostly the South and Southwest. Almost 70,000 people remain cut off in snowed in Serbian villages, police and military units are providing basic necessities, said a police official in charge of Serbia’s emergency services. In Romania, six new deaths brought the toll to 34.

Overnight temperatures in Finland plummeted to minus 40c, but did not deter many Helsinki voters from turning out to vote in a presidential election. Motorists were warned of more arctic winds and slick roads with poor visibility because of powdery snow.

Similar conditions led to pile ups on Friday near Helsinki, when more than 200 cars were involved, and which saw about 40 people taken to hospital.

The cold spell is forecast to last until at least the middle week.

Snow near Fremont (Photo credit: vzaliva)

Anti-ACTA motion asserts innocence

Demonstration in Warsaw citizens feel betrayed by the government

The mood is tense. And in the chill minus 20 degrees. Here and there is sporadic clashes with police. Just as in Poznan last Thursday. “About 800 protesters have marched through the streets here,” said a police spokesman. “Among them there were, unfortunately, provocateurs. They threw stones at police.”

Whether in Poznan, Wroclaw, Krakow and Warsaw: The scenarios, the spokesman said, were almost the same everywhere. The organizers of the anti-ACTA protest movement again and again that they had nothing to do with the riots. Riot would only provide for hooligans. But no matter, whether violent or peaceful: What to do with this protest the controversial copyright protection agreement still can explain the least.

What does ACTA?
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is an international agreement to combat copyright infringement and piracy production. Participating countries include the United States, di-EEU States and Japan. The ACTA negotiations were largely closed to the public. Also on the results was hardly informed. The EU Council of Ministers approved the agreement in December 2011 the EU Parliament but not yet. Critics of the agreement worry that measures to protect copyright on the Internet to a restriction of freedom of expression and a permanent monitoring of Internet content could. In many countries there is therefore protests against ACTA.

No information campaign in the run

“I can not say anything specifically about ACTA, because I have not read the agreement,” admits one protester. He continued: “I came here because I generally am of the view that citizens have the right to know what to write their elected politicians, especially if something later goes into effect and the life of. citizens directly affected. “

Reasonable objections, mainly because the government has failed in fact, ahead of this Agreement conduct an information campaign. Meanwhile, there is therefore no longer at the demos alone to privacy and freedom of expression online. On the contrary. The dominant anti-government awards the most general kind is a trend that surprised the sociologist Andrzej Rychard not particularly like: “. The protest is largely a protest against the policy as a whole whether the whole thing turned into a political protest, we do not know.”
Kaczynski: “I studied the text is not exactly”

No wonder the opposition suspects that this development morning air. Above all, the largest opposition party in the country, the national conservative Law and Justice, with Jaroslaw Kaczynski at the top. But what ACTA means in detail that can not really say Kaczynski. “I have not studied the text carefully, so please do not ask me for details I think anything controversial, raising the possibility of a far-reaching control of the Internet and thus provides for the control of free access to information. “

Here Kaczynski responded similarly to the majority of the demonstrators. The main thing, the government issued a bad report card – no matter may be what actually formulated in the agreement. The most provisions assure lawyers, meanwhile, had long been a part of the Polish criminal and civil law. In many respects the Polish regulations would be even stricter than that laid down in international agreements.
Rare alliance in the Polish Sejm

For the opposition, but this plays no role. A fairly rare alliance comes into being in the Polish Sejm. From far left to far right. Only in the middle – so the government side – the members are in favor. Though not as impressive as one hundred percent before the protests.

This has prompted Prime Minister Donald Tusk to come now but on the brakes. “Up to the eventual ratification still held discussions and consultations,” said Tusk. “If it turns out that this freedom is in danger, then we will not ratify the agreement.”

Hacker attack on government sites

Prime Minister Tusk, but now wants to postpone the implementation of the Agreement.

The only question is why under these circumstances, the representative of the Polish government has signed the agreement last week officially in Tokyo. Especially ACTA saw in advance of the signing of a real cyber-war Poland. Hackers managed to put several pages of the government, parliament and the president lame. Instead of the official websites for hours, there was either blank black pages or anti-government slogans. On many a page of the Prime Minister as “Kim Jong Tusk” was mocked. Awards which are now no longer see but to government sites, but more often on the placards of the protesters on the streets.

This house is truly unique in that inverted position: under the roof, the floors above. That house belonged to a businessman from Poland named Daniel Czapiewski.
The house known as ”the house upside down” (The Upside Down House) was located in a small village in Szymbark. ”This house represents my opinion about the communist era and the end times,” Czapiewski describes the reasons for the construction ofhouses which took 114 days.
“It’s a challenge for us,” said Gerhard Mordhorst, a carpenter who worked on the house. ”The bathroom is the room the most difficult because many goods are large,” he added.

Citizen liberty is not one of them.

I don’t really want to write about politics. I just want to share what it is like to live here. I want to tell you about my (I hope) unique life experience. And how I survived the last 20 years. It is by no means a miracle.

I like to call myself a Partisan. This word is of course both too big and too small to describe what I really am, but it serves it’s purpose. A Partisan by my definition is a person, who dares to do stuff most people won’t do. And it doesn’t mean I’m mightier or better than everyone else. You see, a Partisan lives in fear. Constantly. A fear that his secrets are gonna be discovered by the wrong person, a fear that someone might see past a web of lies that holds his world together. Also, stress and anticipation. There is always something coming, something looming on the horizon. Usually it’s something to be avoided and you just have to be alert. All the time. Or you’re gonna lose more than you can imagine. 

There are no rewards. It’s just you and your fight. But there are certain moments. Moments that are addictive. Precious fragments of time that simply let you know that you’re alive. When you feel like your whole life has been a dream up to this point. As if it was all fake.

And then you gulp down the last piece of a certain illegal substance mixed with strawberry tobacco. You look out through the window of the police car and see the sunrise coloring the river. For the moment, you feel at peace. Like you’ve tasted life.

To be continued.

A touching realistic and passionate study of a young woman’s quest for revenge.

A victim of sexual assault and a witness to the murder of her young son during the French invasion of Vietnam in the early 1960’s Ngyen has come to a very sleazy New York as an illegal immigrant boat person and seeks out the man responsible for her despair.

Assisted by an ageing Polish immigrant with bitter memories of the Nazi occupation of his own country, she painstakingly tracks down her son’s killer, while working in soul destroying menial jobs.

The bond detente victims of two wars, a generation apart are very well handled, and the New York atmosphere is very well captured. Her personal hunt for a war criminal drives Ngyen, but she will discover a terrible truth about her target that will change her perception of him forever.

Jacques Tardi’s artwork haunts this heartfelt plea against the madness of war and vengeance.  Its ending makes the characters feel alive and genuinely tragic in their fates.

Arthur Chappell