Auschwitz (well, it's a city and a very well known one too, although I'd guess devs would be crazy to include it)
Auschwitz is not its Polish name, but its German name. Polish name is Oświęcim.
Oświęcim had totally no historical or any other significance prior to WW2 and 1940s.
If anything you could put Auschwitz into the German city list, because Nazi Germany founded the death camp. But I don't think that the purpose of Civ games is to bash countries for their wrongdoings in relatively recent history. And this town had no importance other than war crimes commited there in WW2.
Moderator Action: I told everyone to drop that topic.
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When it comes to Polish faction leaders - anyone knows how many leaders per faction are going to be included?
If you tell me the number of leaders, then I can write my predictions regarding who is going to be among them.
If anything, a city like Lviv (which I believe is currently on the Russian list) would make much more sense as a Polish city, as it was ethnically mainly Polish for most of its history, whereas Vilnius has always been dominated by Lithuanians.
Vilnius was not always dominated by ethnic Lithuanians. It is hard to trace when exactly the number of ethnic Poles (many of whom were Polonized descendants of Lithuanians) exceeded the number of ethnic Lithuanians in the city. But in the 19th and early 20th century Vilnius had only a very small ethnic Lithuanian-speakers minority, while majority of its population were Polish-language speakers and Jews (some of whom also spoke Polish as their primary language).
That said, I agree that Vilnius should not be included among Polish cities, because if they include it among Polish cities, Lithuanians are going to hate us even more than they already do (and the main reason of Polish-Lithuanian antagonisms in history is precisely Vilnius and it all started in the 1920s).
Also I think that Litva (aka Lithuania) was important enough in some period of European history (1200 - 1500) that it could be a separate Civ in this game.
Regarding Lwów (Lviv):
Lviv had perhaps a more multi-ethnic and multi-cultural character than Vilnius (i.e. Vilnius was more ethnically Polish than Lviv - at least in the 19th century). But Lviv was within political borders of the Kingdom of Poland since the mid-14th century and I agree that it should be included as a Polish city.
Also when we include Lviv as a Polish city, we are not going to be accused for "stealing" someone's capital, because Lviv was never a capital city of any historical state (before Red Ruthenia was annexed by the Kingdom of Poland in the 14th century, Halych and Volodymyr were capital cities of local Ruthenian duchies, rather than Lviv). Lviv was also a Polish city all the way since the 14th century until the 20th century - so much longer than Vilnius.
Lviv (which I believe is currently on the Russian list)
Lviv being on the Russian list is total absurd. Putting Lviv on the Russian list is more or less as absurd as putting Kaliningrad (Konigsberg) on the Russian list would be. Lviv was never within the political borders or "cultural borders" of Russia, which - as we know - traces back its origins to the Duchy of Moscow. Russia is not the same as Early Medieval Rus. Russia originates from the High Medieval Duchy of Moscow, which later conquered other duchies. If any modern state has the right to trace back its origins to Early Medieval Rus (which had its capital city in Kiev), it is Ukraine, not Russia.
Historically speaking Lviv was most important for Poland, though. This city played a very important role in Polish history until WW2.
Regarding Danzig (Gdańsk):
It was also historically a very important city for Poland, and Poland was historically even more important for Danzig and its urban development.
Ethnic composition of the population of Danzig (which all the way since 1350 until 1945 was mostly German-speaking) has no importance here. Especially that Poland was always a multi-ethnic state all the way since 1366 (final incorporation of Red Ruthenia) until 1939. Between 1366 and 1939 ethnic Poles were never more than 70% of population of Poland (and when you include entire Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, then ethnic Poles were never more than 60%).
My definition of "ethnic Poles" in this case, is "people who speak Polish as their mother tongue / primary language".
Economic and political ties (including political loyalty throughout most of history) of Danzig with Poland were historically much more important.
Gdańsk was responsible for over 80% of Polish maritime trade in period 1466 - 1795. For example in period 1600 - 1650 Gdańsk was responsible for handling 82% of Poland's maritime trade (while Elbląg for 7,4%, Riga for 6,2%, Konigsberg for 2,5%, Stettin for 1,6% and other ports for 0,3%).
The wealth of this city resulted from the fact that it participated in maritime export and maritime import of the entire Vistula river basin.
I described the importance of Gdańsk for Poland and the importance of Polish trade and protection / privileges for Gdańsk for example here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=12333199&highlight=Danzig#post12333199
