History and Geography
Throughout the majority of Milkweed the story takes place in Warsaw, Poland, an eastern European country in between Russia and Germany. The head of the Polish government, Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, was put in exile when Nazi Germany took over Poland making Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi party, the new leader of Poland. The invasion of Poland caused the Allies to claim war on Nazi Germany, which resulted in many Poles to be killed, both civilians and soldiers alike. At the end of World War II only 174,000 people remained in Warsaw, Poland.