Oswiecim

Tags

auschwitz, Birkenau, Nazi, Oscwiecim, Poland

You have heard of the village of Oswiecim in Southern Poland about 40 minutes from the ancient Royal Capital of Krakow. Today it is more commonly known by its German name as Auschwitz. I visited this village and the Death Camps about 5 times while in Poland. I did not know much about it at first, no more than the average person did through the usual media reports, movies and history that has been repeated so many times about the Holocaust. I went many times for official reasons to attend ceremonies or because our visitors wanted to see it. It is not a place you want to visit more than once.

Oswiecim, Southern Poland, today 

Oswiecim was an ordinary Polish village with a small Cavalry school, the school was closed at some point and then the buildings became a trade school which was in turn closed. The area is covered by forests, it is swampy land and it rather picturesque.

On my first visit on 02 August 1998, I went with several Diplomatic delegations to attend a commemoration ceremony for the SINTI people who were Gypsies (Roma) marked for extermination. Some 23,000 were imprisoned at the larger Auschwitz II Camp Birkenau. Heinrich Himmler, the Head of the SS wanted to study them, they apparently belonged to an Aryan tribe and he wanted their habits and lifestyle studied, the Sinti were housed in Birkenau which is the large industrial extermination camp, Auschwitz I is very small in comparison. After the study was concluded, Himmler had them all gassed in one night. There was one survivor at the ceremony I attended, this gentleman survived because he was sent to another camp the day prior to the mass execution.

Before we attended the ceremony, my colleague suggested I might want to look at the Auschwitz I camp first before going to Birkenau which is 5 minutes away by car.

The buildings are all brick and are built in that style found in Poland, it was a school and the buildings are neatly arranged. It does not look at first like anything special, just old buildings. The electrical wire double fence still rings the whole place and of course the infamous entrance way with its sign above ”Arbeit macht Frei”.

Auschwitz I with its brick buildings.

We walked around and saw how the camp was organized, the house of the Commander and his family, I could not imagine having your family living in such a place but it was very common amongst SS Guards. The small gas chamber next to the house and the crematorium and the still standing gallows from where Camp Commander Höss was hanged in 1947 by the Polish Government. Different buildings and different purpose. The site after being approved by Himmler was refurbished by the SS  just after the invasion of Poland and first opened in May 1940, it was used to house and kill the Polish Intelligentsia, Polish Resistance Fighters and Russian prisoners and Resistance fighters from many other European countries, Priests and Nuns also. Later Jews will also form a contingent of prisoners. Some 70,000 people will die at the Auschwitz I Camp.

There was one building in particular I will never forget, it was the Camp Tribunal, if you can call it that, given that the only sentence was death. Prisoners were brought in and a quick trial took place, mostly to humiliate and degrade the person, this was common for political prisoners, the inmate was then made to strip naked, taken to the outside stone courtyard, where they knelt and were shot behind the head. Prisoners assigned would then drag the body with meat hooks to the crematoria, the ashes were simply dumped outside.

In this building, in the administrative room, which had been old school room, were on displays all the insignia prisoners had to wear, different insignia indicated to what class of prisoner the person belonged to. I suddenly realized that the list of people who did not fit into the political agenda of Nazi ideology was very long. I could have been on that list and found myself in that camp. The criteria could be racial, ethnic, religious, political, medical, sexual orientation, general, etc… It was not restricted to Jews only, they were one part of the whole population.

In Poland, the first victim of the Second World War, some 7 million Poles died, Poles were a special target, Poland was to be wiped out completely and systematically, it cities totally destroyed, nothing was to be left standing, Warsaw suffered that fate amongst many Polish cities. Russians and other Slavic people also where targeted for extermination. Opponents, resistants of any stripe, persons belonging to an opposition or a labour union, journalists, teachers, people suffering from a physical or mental handicap also exterminated. In Germany hospitals were emptied, families received an official death certificate with an invented cause of death. Catholic Priests and Nuns were not safe either, despite the fact that the Nazi Regime was Atheist, the old rivalries of the Thirty year War between Catholics and Protestants were playing out again, in Bavaria a Catholic stronghold repression was vicious.

Courtyard where executions of Political Prisoners took place against the wall at the back. On the right are the steps into the building where death sentences were pronounced. The boarded up windows on the left was to prevent prisoners from seeing what was happening.

Here I was now in a place where evil had reign supreme, I could still feel it and this camp was what evil looked like, unabashed and proud. I remember feeling sick with dread, I could sense the presence of the ghosts of those tormented souls who had perished. I walked into the gas chamber, though abandoned, I could smell the fear and death as if etched in the concrete walls.

Auschwitz I also has very good records of the inmates, each person on arrival was photographed, many with smiles on their faces, they had no idea what was going to happen to them. Little library cards recorded in details their lives and who they were. Why keep such records if you intend to exterminate them all, what madness was this and how could anyone, every day for several years work at killing people systematically. Killing a boring ordinary task, though some enjoyed it and kept thinking of ways to torture inmates, that too is documented. I suddenly understood that humans are capable of great evil which boggles the mind and becomes incomprehensible.

We proceeded to Birkenau for the Commemoration ceremony to the Sinti people. This camp was built on the ruins of a small village called Brzezinka, the ground is swampy. Birkenau or Auschwitz II is immense, cheap wood barracks lined up. I could not quite believe the size of the camp, it was surreal, it opened in November 1943. This is the camp where the trains entered through the infamous gate tower. Where Dr.Mengele worked, he and his acolyte decided on the spot who would die now or be worked to death or who would be subjected to horrible pseudo-medical experimentation. The camp was divided in neighbourhoods, all fenced in from each other. Most prisoners at Birkenau were Jews and Gypsies with populations of Russian prisoners, there was also a section for Czech and Slovak families. This is were one million people perished.

At this point I was rather stunned by it all and could not think clearly. I was thinking mostly of all those people who were put to death without mercy, their crime, they did not fit into the Nazi World Order. There was no human emotions involved, we were in the cold mechanization of death as a means to achieve a political goal enshrined in an ideology of hate which became acceptable because it was presented to the masses in Germany as well meaning and reasonable to ensure prosperity.

Of all those visits to these two camps, my thoughts and prayers always returned to the people who perished and those who survived to tell their tale but also live with the horror for the rest of their lives. The total numbers of dead is not that important, what is important is to remember that these people were just like you or me, ordinary people with jobs, families and friends, from all walks of life, from many countries, princes and paupers, of various religions and beliefs. What the Nazi destroyed was Europe, culture, education, humanity, a whole way of life. They also introduced into the world an evil we still live with today, that evil was not destroyed in 1945, it lingers, if the war in the former Yugoslavia 1991-1995 is anything to go by and so many on-going conflicts.

On this anniversary of the liberation of the inmates of Auschwitz-Birkenau by Russian soldiers in January 1944 let us remember all those souls whoever they may be and those who also perished in all the other Nazi Death Camps. As human beings let us reflect on what it means to live in Peace, understanding and the value of human life.

Travelling in Poland

Tags

cuisine, Food, Gdansk, Gorali, John Borrell, Kania lodge, Krakow, opera, PKP rail, Poland, Tatras mountains, Wawel, Zakopane

While living in Poland we travelled in the country, not as extensively at the time as we would have liked, mostly because in the 1998-2001 period the hotel infrastructure was still not as developed as in other Western European countries. But we had as I indicated in a previous post our Polish Hiking Group with whom we went to various places in Poland and then with PKP Polish Rail we would go up to Gdansk and down to Krakow. Sometimes we would drive but the lack of highways made traveling hazardous and we were forbidden from travelling at night. I remember driving to Zacopane in Winter from Warsaw but we did so all in the day time. The main danger at night were  animals, like cows, sheep or horses on the road. The roads were dark and poorly indicated and in case of accident help might not be available until morning.

Language was also a barrier then, once outside Warsaw, Krakow or Gdansk I am not sure how we would have managed, my Polish was good enough for Warsaw but limited.

When travelling in Poland you do notice the architecture of the Cities and villages, the country farms and the Manor houses or Dwor. In the North the style is influenced by the Hanseatic Trade League which dominated part of Northern Europe from Bruges to Latvia between 1267 to 1669, it had its own flag and style of architecture, laws and regulations. Since it re-grouped the merchant class, the Hansa had a lot of clout and influence, when in Gdansk (Danzig) you see this style of architecture.

Krakow on the other hand in the South is the ancient Royal Capital of Poland with Wawel Castle, its Royal Cathedral built-in the Italian Baroque style where the Kings of Poland were Crowned, it is also their resting place and that of National Heroes. During the Second World War many of the most important treasures of Poland were kept in Montreal and only returned to Wawel in 1959. The City boast many churches and Trade hall, it has that flavour of Old Poland about it.

Wawel Castle, Krakow

Mausoleum of St-Stanislaus, Patron Saint of Poland

Often on weekends we went to visit a fellow from New Zealand who had married a Polish girl and was specializing in building a wine cellar and a small boutique hotel about 35 minutes West of Gdansk in the small village of Kartuzy in the Kaszubia region. This area of Poland is very interesting, it was old Prussia and much history happened in and around this region. Malbork is also not far and by coming from Warsaw by train we would stop near the old fortress.

John Borrell who is a former War Correspondent Journalist and his wife Anna opened around 1993 this small lodge hotel on a pristine lake, beautiful and peaceful. Since it has become famous, it now has its own vineyard and a Villa was also built near the Lodge. Kania Lodge and the wine cellar has won many awards from the New York Magazine, Wine Spectator and it is listed amongst the best 500 hotels in the world.  kanialodge.com.pl Total number of rooms-suites is 15. I know John Borrell and I had conversations years ago on what he wanted to do with his small hotel, with the help of his wife Anna, they bought much of the land around their property to ensure that the area would remain pristine and be encroached upon by developers. There was one small piece of land near the road at the top which he wanted to buy but the farmer who was open to selling the land, would not sell to him because he was not Kaszubian nor Polish. I do not know if he ever managed to buy this parcel of land finally. Nonetheless it is a beautiful property and quite relaxing for a few days of quiet.

I remember the food at Kania Lodge was of very high standard, regional and using local produce. We just loved it at night being in the countryside you could see our Galaxy the Milky Way and the number of visible stars was amazing to look at.

But for a taste of truly old Poland you have to go to Zywiec, Nowy Targ and Zakopane and see the Highlanders or Gorali. About 1000 years ago Celts, Saxons and Slavs lived in the area. By 1200, Germans, Slovaks, Wallachians and Russians also settled in this mountainous area, Tatras and Pieniny Mountains. The Gorali culture has a distinct dialect, farming practices, architecture, dress, music, cuisine and mindset. Their ornate costumes of wool and flax are very regional in design, the men’s trousers bare the kind of military stripes once common to Hungarian troops in Orava and Liptov counties in Slovakia.

This is another area where we went hiking and though I do not ski, returned in winter. I do recall at the time that the main heating system was soft coal which gave me a powerful headache. Though I am told now that all coal heating has been replaced.

The Tatras Mountain area is very interesting to visit and the scenery is breathtaking. This is a vacation area for hiking, a good drink, conversation, book reading, if you are a painter you certainly would be inspired by the landscape and tasting regional cuisine specialty. Often you will find local musicians in restaurants and the music and songs of the Gorali is very nice. In fact there is one opera entitled The Miracle, or the Cracovians and the Highlanders written by Wojciech Bogusławski’s to music by Jan Stefani, it is considered to be the first Polish national opera. Written and staged shortly before the third partition of Poland. Here is a short explanation of this political situation; The Partitions of Poland were a series of three partitions that took place towards the end of the 18th century as a result the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was dissolved and sovereign Poland disappeared as a country for 123 years. The partitions were conducted by the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia and Habsburg Austria, which divided up the Commonwealth lands among themselves progressively in the process of territorial seizures.

The opera its witty, light musical form and brilliant text carried a very clear national and pro-independence message which was particularly important to Polish audiences at that time, today, it only has a historical significance. The Cracovians and the Highlanders (Gorali) is still an attractive show with a universal message stemming from folk wisdom. The Teatr Wielki Opera Narodowe in Warsaw is presenting it this coming March 2015.

Typical Zakopane architecture 

Food in Poland!

Tags

Charles de Gaulle, Christmas Mass, coffee, Fish, Mickiewicz, Nowy Swiat, Paczki, Pan Tadeusz, pierogies, Poland, Warszawa

I really liked Polish cuisine, it is varied and excellent. Poles love good well prepared food and Polish cuisine has many delicacies, depending on the Seasons and the Holidays, New Year, Easter, Christmas, etc….

Our house was on Ulica Dabrowiecka 8, Saska Kepa, in Warszawa. A very nice house it had 3 floors and a large finished basement with garage. The garden was also quite large and one section had large ornamental bushes that needed bi-monthly trimming and flower beds etc. this is where I would hire the gardener of the Ambassador to help out with this work.

We had a housekeeper Kristina, a statuesque woman who had just buried husband number 3 and was now going out with a Polish Senator. She also had Baboon red ass hair. She was a superb cook and housekeeper and was very organized, you just left it to her and she too care of everything. She also took care of our two dachshunds or Jamniki in Polish, our short hair Bundnie and long hair Reesie. She spoiled them rotten and would constantly talk to them and feed them whatever she was cooking. Little morcels of food, being Jamnikis of course they loved it.

The best of course was at Christmas, galaretka was my favourite it reminded me of dishes my grandmother prepared for our Christmases in Montreal. Galaretka of chicken or Carp fish filet. It is an Aspic (jellied) dish of Carp filet. The preparation of the Carp is quite interesting.

Many of the ponds and streams of the Royal Palaces in Warsaw all have giant Carp fish, they are quite big, the size of a large Catfish with a huge mouth. It is said that Carp can live a very long life, there was a story I remember hearing from one of the keepers of the Garden’s at Versailles that up to 1900 you could find Carps who had known the days of Marie-Antoinette, that would make them 130 years old. Now I do not know if this is true of not but I do not see why not since they have no predators in these big ponds and the water is constantly refreshed because they are fed by streams running through the palace grounds. It is a bottom feeder so they live off of many things.

So for Christmas one of the popular dishes is Carp and it is prepared in many different ways, the one I especially like is Karp w Galaretka, (Carp in Aspic jelly). I asked Kristina if she could do that for us, of course and then she went on to tell me, as was her fashion all the other dishes she would prepare for us. Feeding an army was her hobby, but there was only 2 of us.

She went to the market and bought several live Carps, now the trick, I kid you not, is to keep the Carp alive in your bathtub until the day you need to prepare the dish. This is what she did like all other Poles I knew did. Then on the appointed day you take a baseball bat or something similar and you kill the fish by hitting it on the head, proceeding to then gut and clean it and proceed to make your Karp W Galaretka.

Other dishes where various soups like Borscht, hers was very good, and desserts, so many desserts and salads made with beets, carrots and various style of coleslaw. Her meat pirogies were also quite good.

One sweet I always liked were Paczki (pronounced punch-key) a doughnut filled with cream or jam. Now there are special places to buy these Paczki in Warsaw, bakeries who specialize in them and they must be very fresh, everyone I knew had a special address of a bakery that made the best. There was one in Saska Kepa about 3 blocks from my home, I would go there to buy Paczki.  There was at 33 Nowy Swiat street near the Rondo de Gaulle’a, Blikle Cafe, I never found it to be that good. There is also E. Wedel an old family chocolatier and pastry place, they had apparently the best pastries, I was not sold on them either and found better elsewhere, though their chocolates were good. In Poland it is often best to go with Polish friends who have lived in Warsaw and know where Babcha would go and shop, those are the best places.

Paczki

In Poland when you are having a pastry have a cup or pot of Tea, coffee is not a Polish thing at all. I say this because in the Epic Poem Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz, there is a famous passage which makes any Pole smile, Takiej kawy jak w Polszcze hie ma w żadnym kraju... . It makes me smile too, the translation reads; In no other country is there such coffee as in Poland, the text then goes on to say; In Poland, in a respectable household, a special woman is, by ancient custom,
charged with the preparation of coffee. She is called the coffee-
maker; she brings from the city, or gets from the river barges,
berries of the finest sort, and she knows secret ways of preparing
the drink, which is black as coal, transparent as amber, fragrant
as mocha, and thick as honey. Everybody knows how necessary
for coffee is good cream: in the country this is not hard to get
for the coffee-maker, early in the day, after setting her pots on
the fire, visits the dairy, and with her own hands lightly skims
the fresh flower of the milk into a separate little jug for each cup.

I am sure this secret recipe was lost somewhere under the Communist. If you have a chance do read Mickiewicz, Pan Tadeusz, it is a magnificent work of literature.

Our memorable trip to the Karkonoshe

Tags

Czech Republic, hiking, Jelenia Gora, PKP, Poland, Schronisko Szrenica, Silesia, Travel, Warszawa

While in Poland Will and I met with a group of Polish Hikers who would take trips around Poland to go hike in the Mountains.  One such excursion was in the Karkonoski Park Narodowy Wiesci it is a mountainous area, a geographical triangle in fact where 3 countries meet, Germany, Czech Republic and Poland, a region known as Silesia. During the Cold War days this was a no go area for a Canadian Diplomat or any Western Diplomat since it was in a strategic area of the Communist Bloc, absolutely forbidden an area crisscrossed by the Iron Curtain dividing Western and Eastern Europe and fortified with para-military border patrols and attack dogs. It is nonetheless a beautiful area of high mountains, ski stations, and lots of wild natural beauty.

Our group of 60 guys took the train from Warsaw to Jelenia Gora in South Western Poland and then on by regional train to a small town of Szklarska Poręba. The train trip from Warsaw to Jelenia Gora over night was quite funny, since our group was large we had taken a whole train car (sleepers) but we did overflow into First Class which was empty. The only person not with our group in the sleeper car was an old lady who was traveling to Jelenia Gora on her own to visit her sister. Not wanting to divide our group we offered her the cabin in First Class in return for her cabin in Second Class. She was very suspicious and thought this a very strange deal. It took some talking and she eventually agreed to switch and go to First Class. When we arrived in Szklarska Poręba in the early morning, it was around 06:30 am, we had to find a place for breakfast, but this was a very small place and a weekend, very early in the morning and nothing was open, except for a cantina owned by three old ladies and their dog. They were very surprised to see so many people wanting breakfast and all they could do on short notice was scrambled eggs and bread with jam. I do not recall if they had coffee but I think they had tea. The breakfast cost was about 0.66 cents for one person. The cantina was a hole in the wall, old rickety tables a few chairs, very primitive, but picturesque nonetheless for us since we had never seen anything quite like it. I was also intrigued by the old ladies, I had learned that many of them were grandmothers and I knew never to cross a old Babcha, otherwise you would get it between the eyes, maybe old and frail but tough as nails. I will write more about them because they are a formidable Polish phenomena.

It was quite funny to hear them talk about these city dwellers from Warsaw, the Capital, arrive like this and expect breakfast, though for them it was a very profitable affair, we were probably the only clients they would see all weekend.

From the small town of Szklarska Poręba we had to walk to our destination with luggage in tow. Our hotel, I was not quite sure where we were going since I had not organized the trip, was apparently a ski resort up on a mountain. What I had not been told was that it was a few more kilometres from Szklarska Poręba and up a steep hill, in winter it was a ski slope, to this hotel. The first part was very easy since we walked a short distance and took a chair lift up to the first stop and then switch to a tee bar lift to arrive at the second stop up the hill, normally we should have been able to take the final lift to the hotel.

our Hostel at Schronisko Szrenica first opened in 1918 and owned by a German fellow by the name of Endler, the hostel is at an altitude 1362 meters above sea level. Yes we walked to it. You are 300 meters from the border with the Czech Republic.

This is were Fate intervened, the weather in the high mountains can be unpredictable at best and a violent storm a few days prior had knocked out the power and the ski lift did not work, so we would have to hike up the ski slope to the hotel. Now we had a choice either take the longer walking path up to the hotel or simply walk straight up the slope. In hindsight we should have taken the walking path but no, we decided for the slope. Now all the Poles had small backpacks, whereas I had packed my trusted Samsonite suitcase, very cumbersome to carry such a case up a ski slope, but carry we did. The slope was also water-logged making walking very difficult on very soft and soggy soil. We came across a family of porcupines, never seen one up close, they are quite big animals and their quills are very sharp and long. We saw bears in the distance but we made so much noise that they stayed far away from us. Finally I came dangerously close to a Corsican Mouflon which has huge horns, it was a big buck and he jumped out at me and ran down the hill.

We finally arrived at the hotel but we were exhausted but happy to have made it. However this was a very old and decrepit place, in front of the building by the entrance  was a huge slag heap of residue of the coal they burnt to heat the place, it had a strong sulphur smell. The building itself was a massive stone building with an Alpine wood decoration inside, it was probably a very attractive building a century ago but it was no longer very pretty. It was cold and very uncomfortable looking, the rooms where like army barracks, rooms for 12 or 8 or 6 persons, bunk beds, the mattress was the finest straw, and the sheets where starched with a strong smell of Javel water. I knew right away I was not at the Ritz (see photo above). Now after this treck I was quite tired so I enquired about the showers, oh said the manager we only have hot water from 4pm to 7pm daily. There was no question of taking a cold shower since the water was from a mountain stream and freezing cold. So feeling defeated we retreated to the restaurant,  the menu was rather thin as you can imagine from my description so far of the lodgings. The menu had tomato soup, hot dogs and potato chips. So we ordered the tomato soup and what we got was a bowl of hot water with packets of Ketchup. You pour the Ketchup into the hot water and stir and voilà tomato soup. I suddenly understood why my Polish friends had brought with them all manners of can foods and bread and a can opener, plus packets to make instant coffee. Again they knew something I did not. In their kindness and seeing our déconfiture (upadek) they offered to share with us their cans of meat and fish. We finally got our hot water shower, communal setting, it was truly a luxury and the evening was spent talking about this and that, we were grateful for the friendship and conversation of our group.

The next day was brilliant sunshine and so we trekked to the Czech border, to my amazement the border was marked by a series of rocks on the ground, they were the size of small boxes, painted white and red, National colours of Poland on one side and blue, white and red the Czech colours on the other side. Now most of us did not have our passports with us, I had my Diplomatic Identity Card issued by the Polish Foreign Ministry and we wondered should we try to cross, no border guards in sight and the Czech side of the border looked very prosperous with lots of big fancy cars with German licence plates and a very nice restaurant. It was only about 60 meters from where we stood on the Polish side to the restaurant on the Czech side, not a big deal really, well no you should never enter another country without your passport, but I seem to recall that there was a sign in Polish saying you could cross if to go to a bar or restaurant. So we crossed into the Czech Republic and went to the restaurant and had a very good meal. Obviously the Czech Republic had received a lot of foreign investments at this point mostly from Germany, historically this region had been part of Prussia for centuries and then Germany, this may have explained the presence of so many German tourists.

Upon our return to our mountain lodgings it was decided by the group that we would return to Warsaw the next day. However that evening we went walking to a small village, I forget the name now, it was a farming area and came upon a tavern full of Polish farmers having a drink or two. This was an isolated place and the farmers were not terribly welcoming of so many people from Warsaw. There was an odd tension which I did not understand, the head of our group who was a Polish Banker with one of the big banks in Poland, explained that we were Roman Catholic Seminarist, a white lie which gave us an aura of respectability with the rural crowd. We had a drink and moved on.

In those days we did travel to remote areas of Poland by car and it was always interesting to see that in the countryside far from large metropolitan centres, a non Pole was looked upon with suspicion.

 

 

 

WARSZAWA

Tags

art works, Customs, moving, Poland, Warsaw

Upon my arrival in Warsaw in 1998 I was housed at the hotel Marriott for a few days and could walk to the Embassy which was just a few minutes away. Then I was moved into my Staff Quarter with a Pack-up kit, everyone in the Foreign Service knows them, it was a kit which allowed you to have a somewhat normal life until your belongings arrived. In other words you were camping, the famous kit had 2 of everything, 2 forks and 2 knives, 2 plates and 2 cups and 2 sheets and 2 towels and so on. You had to account for all of it upon reception, it came in big trunks and do an inventory when you returned the kit. It was the Property of the Crown, I can just imagine how upset Her Majesty would be if somewhat misplaced a knife or a plastic plate.

I had been warned by my colleagues not to bring any works of art or anything of too great value because Polish Customs was very strict and demanded photos of any item of value and a full declaration on the day you received your shipment of personal belongings. On the appointed day, at 8am arrives at the house a drunk Polish Custom official. He was so drunk that has I was shaking his hands and welcoming him he passed out flat on the floor of my living room. I was so shocked at first I thought he had died on me. I was in a panic, I frantically called the Office and told them I was sure the Custom Official was dead in my living room. Not to panic I was told, we will send a driver to your house to help you out. What? what am I to do in the meantime? Just sit tight someone will come, do not worry. The staff at the Embassy knew something I did not obviously.

The Embassy was in Central Warsaw about 35 minutes away if there was no traffic, in those days Warsaw had no highway, there had been no need of it since before 1990 the only people with cars where all senior Government Officials or Senior Military Officers. So the streets saw no traffic at all, all streets were simple neighbourhood streets or great broad avenues in the centre of the City for military parades, Communist Party thinking here at work.

After an hour, a driver from the Embassy finally arrived, examined the situation and told me not to worry, the Customs Official was passed out not dead and surely someone would come and collect him at 4pm, it was 09:00am at this point. I pleaded with our Embassy employee not to leave me with this guy and could he not drive him back to the Customs Department. NO not my problem, I was getting quite upset and said well fine then I will complain officially to the Protocol Office of the Foreign Ministry about this incident. I was told not to do anything of the sort, this would only create greater problems for me and everyone concerned. The driver finally agreed to help me get the fellow off the floor and into the car and he drove him back to his Office in town. However before our Customs Officer left he came to, he looked a little more sober, he took all the paperworks stamped it all and signed it hurriedly and left. I was concerned because in his state would he remember what to do with the paperwork.

Quiet enquiries were made and I was assured that it was all being taken care off and by the way, the Chief of Customs was sorry for his man’s behaviour but let’s not talk about it anymore.

When my car arrived from Jordan about one month later, in a sealed container, it had travelled from Jordan by land up on a flat bed truck through Syria then Turkey then through Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and finally Poland.

Krakowskie Pzredmiescie

I had to go to the Customs clearing house on the other side of town. The courtyard where my car was still locked inside the container on a flat bed truck was a sea of dark sticky mud. I was driven to the side of the truck and was able to step on solid ground and watched with some concern as they opened the container, the car was fine if a bit dusty. As it was being lowered pushed down a rickety ramp about 2 meters to the ground the mechanic almost flipped it. Once on the ground we found out the battery was dead. What to do, simple my driver said we will simply used the battery of the Embassy car we came in and start you car, once the motor is running you do not need the battery to return to the Embassy with the car. I did not know you could drive a car without a battery but sure enough this is what happened, the trick was not to stop anywhere for anything. But the Embassy was about 20Km from the Customs Clearing House, we are in the City we will have to stop for red lights and people. Not to worry I was told, it is very easy just follow me and do not stop no matter what. So I followed the Embassy staff car closely and we did not stop anywhere. We had a very good driver and a clever fellow to boot, he knew that the traffic was light and we had diplomatic plates so we could take some liberties, we were not driving very fast since it was all inner city streets. We made it back without a hitch.

Hotel on Aleje Jerozolimskie  (Jerusalem street)

Another lesson I learned that day was that living under Communism makes you resourceful and street smart. My driver had a lot of experience and it paid to watch and learn. I would learn a lot from Polish people in the years to come.

The Pope visits Warsaw, June 1999.

Tags

Church, Curia, Greece, Jean-Paul II, Orthodox Christian, papal visits, Poland, pope, Russia, Vatican, Warsaw

Being in Poland at the time of the long pontificate of Jean-Paul II meant that he was a very central figure in the affairs of the Polish State, this despite the fact that many Polish politicians were not necessarily his fans. But being politicians they had to show proper respect and speak in code so as not to offend the powerful Polish Church and other Catholic zealots. On the other hand Lech Walensa the former leader of Solidarnosc and ex-President of Poland was not liked much in Poland which for us Canadians was always a puzzle. Was he not sort of the great man of resistance to the Communist authorities? By becoming President and siding time and again with the Church did not make him popular, for a lot of Poles it was like you replace the Communist dictatorship by a Catholic dictatorship. Walensa was also seen as a man of little education and he apparently could not speak very well in public often using slang expressions and not having enough gravitas in public. Poles preferred figures like General Josef Pilsudski (1867-1935) or Ignacy Paderewski (1860-1941) Walensa was too of the people.

In the Spring of 1999 it was announced that the Pope would come and visit Poland again, he actually came 9 times between 1979 and 2004. June was set date and an elaborate program was laid out including visits to many cities and mass rallies and all manners of public events. Considering that the Pope suffered from an advance state of Parkinson’s disease at the time, many of us wondered if he would be able to do everything. His Press Office and the Polish Catholic Church controlled the agenda and the messaging was not only optimistic but enthusiastic, yes he would go hiking in the mountains and yes he is ill but it has no impact on his daily activities. The truth was very different, the Pope was frail and many activities announced were often at the last moment modified into some other activity. But every time we were told that he had decided to change the program to cram in even more activities to please as many people as possible, it was not true of course, but the gullible public was willing to believe anything and the Polish and international press played along.

Per example there was a large monument across the street from our Embassy building and the Pope was scheduled to come and bless it. In the end the pope mobile passed by, stopped briefly, Jean Paul II raised his hand and blessed it and then simply moved on.   A small circle of people knew that his team of doctors would prepare a medical cocktail each day and would either increase or decrease certain drugs to allow him to do his program. One day the medical team over medicated him and he was unable to get out of bed. It was announced immediately that he had the 24 hour stomach flu and he needed to rest, nothing to worry about and then a series of interviews were given by specially designated Catholic spokes persons to reinforce the point that the Pope was vigorous and would continue to work from his bed directing the affairs of the church and attending to other matters. All this was a lie, in reality Jean-Paul II was not conscious and his entourage were very worried he might have to return to Rome immediately or worse be hospitalized in Poland, his condition was that serious.

The health of Popes is a little like the health of the Soviet leaders, everyone has the 24 hour flu until suddenly they are dead. Every word has to be measured and only positive or optimistic pronouncements are allowed after having been vetted by advisors and senior Cardinals who alway have an eye on the political impact of events and developments. Also Popes despite having all the necessary means at their disposals do not always have the best of medical teams. Again consideration is given to Canonical Law and Church doctrine what is allowed and not allowed or what could go against Church teachings, after all the Pope is in God’s hands, the Heavenly Father decides not us. Modern medical science plays only a side role not a primary one. Finally another element maybe more venal, all the people around him lose their positions when a Pope dies. The new Pope will have a new Court around him so if you are waiting to be created Cardinal or if you want this or that prominent post or a commission within the Curia or become bishop in some diocese, you have to make sure your cause is advanced while the Pope can still sign a decree granting your wish.

It was known that once Jean-Paul II died all the Polish prelates would go, there would be a house cleaning, though the public is never made aware of this. Though it was no secret in Rome that the Polish group was not well liked by other members of the Curia. The reason being that mixing Polish Nationalism, Nationhood, Politics and Religion mixed with, in some cases, extreme Conservative views never a good cocktail, though you find this in other countries like Orthodox Christian Russia and Greece.

Jean-Paul II wanted to visit Russia in what was described as the Spirit of Ecumenism and dialogue. The Russian Orthodox Patriarch rejected the idea of such visit for various reasons. One main reason being that the Orthodox Church does not recognize the supremacy in Christendom of the Bishop of Rome (Pope) and in this case of a Pole over a Russian and how would that play politically in the popular minds in Russia to see such a visit happen. Jean-Paul II could have visited had he taken the role of the supplicant and drop the title of Pope for that of Bishop of Rome, knowing the man this would never happen.

The rest of the June visit continued after this flu episode but the pace was more leisurely.

 

Warsaw, Poland, 1998.

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Amman, Jordan, opera, Piaseczno, Poland, Russia, Saska Kepa, Soviet, Stalin, Vistula river, Warsaw

I arrived in Poland from my previous posting in Amman, Jordan, from the desert to a lush green land. The day I arrived it was raining in Warsaw and my hotel room was high up in a tower facing the Central Train Station and the Palace of Science and Culture, an iconic building in Warsaw, a gift of Josef Stalin to Poland, not much loved though and after 1990 there has been continuous discussion about demolishing the large monumental building in the Stalinist style. All I could see through the rain was green everywhere, it made an impression on me because a few hours before I had left dusty Amman behind.

Palac Kultury i Nauki, Warsawa

In 1998 life was still changing fast for Poles and everyone had ideas about becoming rich and starting a business, everything was possible now that the Communist were gone. One funny thing was that I could not find one single former Communist Party member. It appears that no one had ever been a member of the Party despite the fact that Communist ruled Poland from 1945 to 1989 though there were many people whose parents had participated in the Warsaw uprising of 1944 against the Nazi rule. Whatever happened after 1945 was lost in a sort of collective amnesia. I came to understand that the historical period after the end of the Second World War was a painful episode for many Poles. Poland had recovered its independence in 1918 only to lose it again in September 1939 when the Nazis invaded its territory which started the Second World War. Then in 1946 Polish borders shifted yet again West and many were forced to migrate Westward in a social engineering project imposed by Stalin. You can understand why many Poles were wondering when they were going to get rid of the Russians once and for all.

After reading Polish history you can see why Poland is always weary of Russia. Though Poles are Slavs like the Russians, they have been dominated politically by their neighbour to the East for centuries. Polish language is written with Latin characters whereas Russian uses Cyrillic alphabet. Poles are Roman Catholic, Russians are Orthodox Christians. So all those differences made for very uneasy relations for a very long time.

Warsaw is also a culturally rich city and this was a nice change from Amman where the entertainment was playing Bridge, golf or bowling and endless rounds of dinner and cocktail parties with the old Hashemite Princesses and Lebanese Bankers.

Seen from the air the Teatr Wielki Opera Narodowa

the Quadriga on the main facade of the Opera house, installed in 2010 some 180 years after it was planned.

Warsaw has the Teatr Wielki Opera Narodowa (National) and the Opera Kameralna (Chamber), the Narodowe has a full seasons offering each night a program of Opera, ballet or concert. The Opera Kameralna at the time under director Stefan Sutkowski who we knew personally  a charming person and we met the company of singers many of them are international stars, like Marta Boberska and Dorota Landowska. He had started a Mozart Festival which is now in its 24th edition. Sutkowski is now 82 and he is retired, he was the creator, founder of the Kameralna from 1961 to 2012. We loved going to the Kameralna because it is a very small theatre housed in a former Protestant Church with a beautiful garden all around. The performances were intimate and absolutely charming. Since 2012 and because of drastic budget cuts from the Polish Government the program of the Opera Kameralna has changed substantially.

Then of course there is the food and Polish food is very varied with many different dishes, salads, meats, paté, deserts of all kinds etc.. In 1998 many restaurants were opening and offering good quality food, some had pretensions and the decor was often over the top. Many old houses that once belonged to Noble families were taken over and restored to their former splendour such as the Sobanski Palace on Ulica Ujadowski near the Canadian Embassy.

Upon my arrival in Poland I was assigned a staff quarter, you do not get to choose where you will live, the employer decides. It was a house in Piaseczno a small town south of Warsaw, my house was near a very big forest famous for a terrible plane crash. At that time Piaseczno was really the end of the world, we were far from everything and Russian criminal gangs still operated in Poland. Meaning that there were shootings and car bombs but within one year of my arrival much of that had disappeared, the Polish Police must have been very effective. I had been offered a much bigger house outside of Warsaw some 40 Km from the City located on the Vistula River, but it really was too far and to isolated and I could not imagine living in such a place. Until 1995 by law we as diplomats had to live in Polish Government flats in the city proper, where in the days of the Cold War the Polish Secret Service could keep and eye and an ear to our doings and goings. Those buildings were horrible, poorly built, cramped and smelly, in other words the finest of Soviet architecture. After 1995 the Polish government abolished these rules and Foreign Diplomats were allowed to live wherever they wanted. Our administrator at the Embassy was a women who loved the far, far suburb and she had gone out and bought all kinds of houses far from the city centre. She did find plenty of old rambling kind of houses with vast gardens in the middle of nowhere. No one at the Office shared her love of the suburb, so her decision quickly became a problem for everyone. I campaigned to be housed within walking distance of the Embassy and within one year, I moved to Saska Kepa a very pleasant and green residential neighbourhood across the Vistula River from the centre of the City. We had a lovely house on Dabrowiecka street with a big garden.

It really was a period of Renaissance for Poland and I am glad I arrived there at that point.

Diplomacy, Language, Poland, Popes

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diplomacy, Poland, Popes, protocol, Vatican

I my memories of my encounters with Officialdom at the Holy See (Vatican) in the period of 1998-2001 I was on post in Warsaw, Poland. The Embassy of Canada is across the street from the Polish Parliament in a nice park like setting in the centre of the Polish Capital near the Royal Park of the Lazienki Palace (pronounced Wajenki) built on water.

At the time Jean-Paul II was Pope and the favourite son of Poland. His long pontificate from 1978 to 2005 was coupled with the end of the struggle in Poland with the Worker movement Solidarity who received his support to the cause of National Liberation from the influence of the Soviet Union. I was in Poland at a time of great changes in terms of building of first ever new infrastructure like shopping malls, gas stations, modern banking, ATM machines etc. What I took for ordinary as a consumer was a discovery for most Poles who had never seen anything like that prior to 1990. Suddenly they went from an economy where everyone had to queue for bread and any other commodity to giant supermarkets with so much on offer that it often created a kind of paralysis in shoppers who did not seem to know what to buy. My first experience with these brand new modern shopping malls was during my first week in Warsaw, I walked into a supermarket wanting to buy milk. I was not prepared for the fact that despite the fact that the Supermarket was a chain from Holland all the products on sale were labelled in Polish language only. So what is the word in Polish for Milk? Good question, there I was in front of a gigantic dairy counter with all kinds of products with not a clue as to how Milk would be labelled. So after 10 minutes of a frustrating search, no one amongst the staff could help me since they also only spoke Polish. So finally a mother with a little boy around 4 years old come along and I see the boy make a beeline for a carton of milk, the word is MLEKO. Needless to say after that I made a point of learning the language, you cannot take for granted that Nationals will speak either French or English, though at the time in Poland anyone over the age of 50 spoke French and people under 30 spoke English. Most Poles spoke Russian or German, but generally refused to speak Russian, a language they were forced to learn by their Soviet Comrades.

So during my stay in Poland we had visits by the Pope which were treated by Polish authorities as grand State Visits. Meaning that building were re-built, renovated, roads repaved, parks renovated, enormous expenses for the State all to prepare for the ”visit”. Every minute of the visit had to be historically significant, with jubilant crowds, marching bands, honour guards, etc. Poles would say that the Pope should visit more often since the infrastructure got a lot of attention prior to his visit. Essentially each visit was pastoral or religious in nature but in reality they were nothing short of Political with messages directed to the Government of Poland on what the Vatican would like to see in reforms in Law and to the Constitution. Per example, prior to my arrival in Poland, the Polish Constitution had no mention or description of what constituted a couple. The Communist government did not bother with describing what constituted a couple or a spouse or a family member. However now that they were gone from Office the new Catholic members of the Government strongly linked to the Archbishop of Warsaw, Cardinal Josef Glemp and connected with the Papacy were rewriting the Constitution along Catholic doctrine.

Within days of our arrival in Poland so I could take up my post, the Polish Embassy informed me that they would not issue a residence visa to my spouse because we did not fit the new official definition voted by the Polish Parliament 48 hours prior. I informed my Ambassador who took up the matter with the Polish Foreign Minister, a diplomatic visa was issued though it did not Officially recognize the existence of the bearer but did permit entry and residence in Poland. A strange twist of logic only possible for anyone in that rarefied world of protocol and diplomacy. When my spouse wanted to work, the Embassy asked for a formal recognition, the Foreign Ministry could not help since according to them he was not ”Officially” in Poland though physically present in the country. The Official directed us to the City of Warsaw, maybe they could help since they issued work permits and this matter was out of his hands. The City Official had a interesting opinion on the matter, he could not issue a work permit to a person not recognized by the Foreign Ministry. If we returned to the Protocol Office maybe they could help us because any diplomatic matter was not a Municipal jurisdiction. So you would think at this point all is lost, well not quite. We had made the effort of asking Officially the pertinent question and were given an answer, no one could fault us for going ahead and having my spouse work, since the Polish authorities had played ping pong with the question. If the matter came up again, and everyone concerned knew it would not, we could simply repeat what we were told officially on recognition. As for the Officials, diplomatic circles are very small and everyone knows everyone else, the situation was documented and no one was hiding. The Officials had done their job by repeating verbatim the official position in their sphere of competence and would take no further action because it would cause embarrassment and in polite society no one wants to cause unpleasantness between allies. My spouse went on to work for senior officials of the Polish Government in Warsaw.

Lazienki Palace, Warsaw