Page 51 - Demo

51map and its people to act as slaves until their eventual elimination as a race in about 1975. Poland lost 6.5 million souls or 20% of its total population. This was the highest proportion inflicted on any of the combatant nations. Warsaw alone suffered 700,000 dead, which was more than the death toll of the UK and USA combined.64 After the war, one Polish writer commented:%u2018The Germans worked long and hard to impart to the Poles an emotion largely alien to their character %u2013 hate. They succeeded in the end.%u201965 Czechoslovakia suffered less in comparison, but in excess of 350,000 people were killed by the Germans; most infamously the entire populations of the villages of Lidice and Lezaky. The Germans%u2019 long8term aim was to deport and eventually murder most of the Czechoslovak population.66 Hate drove some of the Slavs to shoot German airmen in their parachutes. On 31 August, Squadron Leader Alexander Hess of 310 Squadon attacked a Dornier 17 which crash8landed near Epping Forest. He had recently received the news that his wife and daughter had been killed by the Germans so he followed it down, determined to finish off the crew. Three Germans emerged from the wreckage who, on seeing him, held up their hands. He told a comrade: %u2018I hesitate, then it was too late, so I go round again to make sure I kill them %u2013 they wave something white %u2013 again I do not shoot %u2013 then I think it is no use %u2013 I am become too bloody British!%u201967 For all the pain and suffering the exiles had experienced few of them doubted that God was on their side. On 27 September Ludwick Paszkiewicz was killed. His friend, Pilot Officer Jan Zumbach, ordinarily a cynic with a caustic wit, wrote: %u2018He gave his life high up there, somewhere, where earthly matters are so distant, the rays of the sun so pure and God so close.%u201968 On 2 September 1940, 303 Squadron was involved in a combat near Dover in which one pilot, Sergeant Jan Rogowski, demonstrated the qualities that set the Central European airmen apart. According to the Combat Report, the squadron was patrolling at 19,000 feet when