Pre-war Poland is not only a country of impeccable manners, honorable officers and great cafes. Below is a list of 10 pieces of information from the Second Polish Republic that you will not find in history textbooks.
We will complain, but not because we have anything against pre-war Poland. In fact, the interwar period is our favorite era.
But what was good and successful in those days, everyone has heard and read a hundred times. Time for a bit of originality. Check for yourself (and let me know in the comments!) If we managed to surprise you.
You probably didn't know that in pre-war Poland…
 | 1. | The would-be suicide bomber and a man evidently mentally unstable became president of the country . Not only did he want to blow himself up in his youth, but he also suffered from a mania for grandeur, and he left the maintenance of the family and childcare entirely on his wife. Sam tried to make a fortune among others ... on the production of kefir (read more about this) . |
 | 2. | The crime was many times greater than in today's Poland. The country was struggling with a wave of child crime, with the widespread incidents of infanticide, and even with the dealers of cards at Warsaw marketplaces ... the mafia of porters. Apart from the largest cities, the Second Polish Republic should be considered "wild east". Even the Polish countryside praised by poets was in fact a hotbed of crime and pathology (read more on this). |
 | 3. | There was no punishment for drunk driving , and during the first decade - it was not even banned. No wonder that, according to press estimates (because the state did not deal with the matter at all), 75% of car accidents were the result of driving (read more on this topic). |
 | 4. | Lustration trials were conducted on an equally large (or perhaps even larger!) scale as in the 3rd Republic of Poland. The only difference was that various people were accused of concessions with the partitioning powers - not of being entangled in the communist apparatus of power (read more on this topic). On the other hand - and it is worth mentioning it for the sake of balance - the Polish interview was one of the best on the continent . |
 | 5. | The moral and sexual freedom was much greater than we think today. In fact, it was after 1918 that a real revolution in these areas took place in Poland. Unfortunately, it also had very negative consequences. Sexual crime and pedophilia flourished. Meanwhile, authorities pretended that the problem did not exist (read more about it). |
 | 6. | We had one of the most inept police forces in Europe. Polish detectives, instead of taking fingerprints, preferred to call for help from clairvoyants. They were also not particularly perceptive. In the louder case of the murder of millionaire Gierszewski, they did not notice the gunshot wound in the head and ... they pronounced suicide (read more on this topic). |
 | 7. | Józef Piłsudski, considered the founder of Polish democracy, became a dictator in 1926, and Poland itself - an authoritarian state. The ruling party (Sanacja) established a concentration camp in Bereza Kartuska, and threw political opponents without blinking an eye into the military fortress in Brest to win the elections. At least the phones were dirt cheap , but we didn't really have freedom in Poland back then (read more about it). |
 | 8. | Bigamy was a huge social problem . Not only did various smarts contract 10 marriages to earn their dowries, but the problem of multiple marriages affected the most ordinary people. Often, men who returned from war met their wives in the arms of another. A certain Dina S. completely unknowingly gathered three husbands! (read more about it). |
 | 9. | Independence was won not only by men, but also by girls forgotten by history. Legionnaires, often clandestinely and in male disguise, not only treated the wounded, but also went to the front with weapons in hand. Maybe it's time to start saying:"for the lancets in the uniform ... the gentlemen will follow the rope"? (read more about this). |
 | 10. | Divorce was illegal all over the country. So the marriage was close to the grave, or ... until the change of religion to another. Józef Piłsudski converted to Lutheranism to get rid of his first wife. The wife of Ignacy Mościcki, thanks to the support of her second husband, obtained a church annulment of her marriage to the first. Ordinary people resorted to more drastic measures. The number of marital murders was staggering! (read more about this). |