At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Poland, one of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's newest members and poised to enter the European Union sometime in the next few years, has begun perhaps one of its most stable periods in recent history. Divided for centuries between Russian, Prussian, and Austrian empires, Poland was able to preserve its language and cultural identity until its independence in 1918. Of nations involved in the Second World War, Poland was perhaps the most thoroughly devastated by that conflict, emerging only to be locked under the strict gaze of Moscow until the beginning of the last decade. In the wake of 1989 and the opening of borders and archives across Central and Eastern Europe, the experience of Poland has much to teach us.