The Poles weere in fact, accepted and respected during and after WW2.
Where I loved as a kid was an ex anti aircraft gun station. Afte r the was it was turned into a Hostel for Italian ex prisoners of war and Poles had a section. Everybody was friendly to them.
When the Poles flooded the UK a few years ago.it was simply because they were the first of the new batch of members of the "European Union".
The fact that they arrived in busloads and started trading as plumbers and electricians and charging less than "Brits" made them at first welcome...then the papers announced that they were claiming low pay benefits, Family Credits etc,. and families still in Poland were getting these payments, totalling £8Million a month! tended to piss people off a bit.
After that an dteh amouunt of publicity given to illegals waiting in France an dthen finding out from TV, that terrorist suspects were also illegal started a lot of bad feelngs. Remember the policeman shot dead in manchester.... the muslims were illegal I think.
In times of crisis, people look to cast blame - and because its known that the UK is soft on immigration and there are about 1 million illegals in th coutry.... its an easy target.