World War II began when a German battleship shelled a Polish base on the Baltic coast on September 1, 1939. Right? Wrong, say residents of Wielun, who want the southern Polish town to win global recognition, albeit 70 years late. On the road into this community of 24,000, a "Welcome to Wielun" sign looms large. Three numbers stick out ...

Arletty was a great French star of the silver screen during the Thirties and Forties, but she was also known for a few outspoken apophthegms about having sex with a German officer during the occupation. 'If you hadn't let them in, I wouldn't have slept with him, ' and the better known, 'My heart is French, but my arse ...

Sir: Le Corbusier, whom Theodore Dalrymple accuses (Global warning, 7 June) of causing more damage to European cities than Genghis Khan, the Luftwaffe and Bomber Harris combined, uttered one of the most evil phrases of the 20th century. 'The house is a machine for living in', a notion taken to heart not only, alas, by French architects but British ones ...