Poland has suffered much over the centuries, and the Poles have been made stronger for it, in the spirit of what Ernest Hemingway wrote in A Farewell to Arms:
The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.