( part 4 of 4 parts ) What I Learned as an 82-Year-Old Trekker on a Bucket List River Cruise to Germany, Poland, and Czech Republic

•      Part Four     Poland and the Scars of Communism   

A Memoir by Robert R. Schwarz

                                    Power tends to corrupt and absolute power

                                    corrupts absolutely  ( Letter to Bishop

                                    Mandell Creighton , April 5 , 1887 )    

                                   

           

     

   Bussing to Warsaw,  we stopped  at a McDonald's, and  Mary Alice  and I had coffee and french fries. Two hours later we checked into the Sofitel Warsaw Victoria, a five-star hotel where many of its guests, during the Soviet control of Poland, were diplomats and high ranking officials.  

     That Sunday night my wife and I headed to Warsaw's main street, Kraowskie Przedmiesʹcie , which was very wide, without sidewalks, and lined on one side by outdoor  restaurants and cafes for a good half-mile. We sat at one of the cafes  for a meal of  pierogi (meat dumplings ) and bigos ( a stew of various cuts of meat and sausages, cabbage, sauerkraut,  honey and mushrooms). 

   

Mauriusz, one of our Warsaw guides

     We held our table for  at least two  hours,  enchanted  by the constant flow of  Europeans  strolling closely past  us with cheerful faces and voices.  There were families with their children , an occasional  pregnant mother or a mother  pushing a baby carriage, and laughing teenagers ( who knows at what?)  wearing shirts and  jackets imprinted with names of American athletic teams or eye-catching  prose  and  slogans in English. There were twosomes and foursomes of women of all ages with stylish   hairdos and  wardrobes ( a few mismatched ) .  Many hands were holding  ice cream cones and ,  now and  then , you  saw  a vaping cigarette.

            A few large cement-gray buildings  reminiscent of those in Prague lined the other side of  Kraowskie Przedmiesʹcie . In front of a palatial government  building my wife and I watched   a crowd of  protestors  expressing outrage over their  government's plan  to put  Poland's  judicial system under  political control; they were accusing the ruling party leader of being a dictator.  Though the  protest group was well behaved,  police had formed a ring of security .

            Mary Alice and I were the only ones who appeared startled when a siren-screaming ambulance   came speeding—yes, speeding—down the middle of this crowded Warsaw artery.  We saw the flock of strolling pedestrians casually take a few steps to the right or left as if deaf to the siren as well as blind to the  vehicle rushing right through them at arm's length.   

            This  entire scene resonated deeply with me ; my father's parents had emigrated from Poland  and  survived the Great  Depression in America  by owning a small grocery store in Chicago's Buck Town  neighborhood.  ( How I wished I could be interviewing them here and now ! ) .

                                   

 Resistance Fighters;  My Turn to Lecture a Guide;  and Mission  Accomplished (for now ? )

                                    Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults,

                                    hardships, persecutions, and constraints,   for the

                                    sake of Christ; for when I am weak, than I am

                                    strong. ( the Apostle Paul , 2 Corinthians,

                                    12:10 , New American Bible )

        
       Brushing elbows with security police and a curious crowd of tourists outside the Museum of Warsaw Uprising, we  waited an hour while Prince William and his  Duchess of Cambridge wife , Kate Middleton,  finished their tour inside. The two  unexpectedly exited   from another door.
        The heroic  Warsaw Uprising between August and October, 1944,  was  passionately related  to us by a museum dulcet as  she pointed to photographs and exhibits . This woman brought it to life for us. Without melodrama but determined to  give us all the horrific facts, she  made us   feel these facts whenever she paused to point  at a gruesome  scene or at  heroism displayed in an  exhibit or photograph. She had been giving this tour for several years (as she told me later , adding that she was a  child in Warsaw during the war ) , and  I sensed in her voice that she still had to choke back her  emotions . In a sense, this museum had become her personal shrine.  

Statue to honor the Resistance fighters

 For two  hours  we moved slowly with reverence  through dimly-lit narrow corridors of  nightmarish  reminders of the years of  brutal murdering and  ineffable suffering which the German army  had inflicted upon innocent people since  invading Poland in 1939 , especially during the  Uprising .  We saw a new dimension of  sacrifice and courage . 

            She  began with a commonly known fact that in the final weeks of the  Uprising  , when  the capitulation of the  German army was  evident , the Soviet army was  encamped at  the Polish border near Warsaw  .She related the following: For weeks, the Polish commanders  had been communicating their intention to cross the river bordering the two countries  and then to liberate Warsaw. The Red army, however, never made  good on their intent but chose to wait week after week while the German soldiers continue  to decimate the Warsaw resistance fighters. This Polish  group of  patriotic and ill-equipped volunteers had gone underground and had been pitifully reduced in size , yet  continued to fight   German soldiers, often with only  knives and Molotov cocktails.    Meanwhile , Warsaw citizens continued  to exit the  city as they had been doing all during the war. Whatever remained of  the Jewish population continued  to be rounded up by the German military  and shipped by freight cars to death camps in other parts of Poland. 

    

                 

    With more than her usual passion now,  our dulcet   told us that the dying wish of each resistance  fighter was that the Soviet army never should liberate their  country, let alone Warsaw.  As Poles , they had seen what a Communist-imposed government and lifestyle had done to cripple the Soviet Union's satellite countries, how inimical to freedom-loving people this  was , and how the worship of God had been diminished  by the viral influence of  atheists like Lenin and Marx . No, the battle cry of these few, now doomed  Polish  men was, our  dulcet exclaimed, Poland must liberate itself  !

" Poland must liberate itself !"  they vowed before dying

            No one  could ever be certain what impact this patriotism  eventually had when described   at post-war peace  conferences of world leaders. Nevertheless ,  Poland in 1989 was free and an independent country.  

            Our dulcet ( I never got her name  ) also related to us another Uprising, that of more than 100 , poorly armed  Jewish fighters who were killed by German soldiers  while trying to liberate their captive Warsaw  Ghetto .

[Wikipedia gives these statistics: An estimated  16,000 members of the Polish resistance were killed and about 6,000 were badly wounded. In addition, between 150,000 and 200,000 Polish civilians died, mostly from mass executions. Jews being harbored by Poles  were exposed by  German soldiers making  house-to-house clearances and mass evictions of entire neighborhoods. Following the surrender of Polish forces, German troops systematically leveled another 35% of the city,  block by block. Together , with earlier damage suffered in the 1939 invasion of Poland  and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943, over 85% of the city was destroyed by January 1945 . ] 

Our impassioned dulcet 

                     

***

            Back at  our pierogi restaurant that same day, Mary Alice asked: " After our museum excursion, I saw you holding your recorder up to that woman. What did she say, Bob ?"

            I replied, " I  had asked her ' what can we do to prevent all this from ever happening  again? "

            " And ?" My wife wanted to know. 

            " She simply said, ' Take care of our youth. Teach them. ' "  

            After  lunch we walked back to the hotel and connected with Mariusz Nurkiewicz , who was as  much an  actor as  a top-notch Viking cruise  guide . He   constantly assumed a dramatic posture  with spread-out   arms ,  then sudden quick steps to left or right, along with facial expressions for  the inflection points of his speech.  I chided him about  this.

            " I'm not an actor," he said.   "That's why I'm a tour guide ." It drew laughter from those in our group who had overheard him.

             When we stopped at a revered Jewish site,  he explained how the statues of  trees there  "represent life" and that another , rather large abstract icon over  the  doorway,  meant to be the  " parting of the Red Sea by Moses . "  He  went on tell the story of a brave spy who infiltrated a  concentration camp to gather vital information about the early aggression of the Nazis . His reports , Mariusz said,   were  ignored by both Churchill and our Pentagon. 

  

            At the end of our tour , all of us  rested on the steps of some statue—there seemed to always be a  nearby statue in Warsaw—while Mariusz , holding a small microphone, again , dove into  his favorite topic  (as did several of  our past guides ) :  the bad or evil deeds  of Communism. This time I couldn't help but get on  an evangelical soap box, something I always try to avoid.  I didn't know Mariusz had left on his microphone .

  

            "You know, my friend, "  I began, " I am as opposed to Communism as much as you are , but why haven't you and the rest  of the guides mentioned  the root cause of a century of conflict between Soviet communism and most of Europe , why people of good will hate and  fear  Communism  and oppose it , sometimes with their life  on the line ?"

            His expression told me he  thought my question was a no-brainer, and he  politely remained silent.

            I drew closer and ,  with  an edge to my voice, answered my own question:  " Because it is a godless form of government,  as godless as their godless Communism's founding fathers , those atheists  Lenin and Marx. You know that, I'm sure . "

            All chitchat in our group  stopped. Mariusz looked at me again and spoke quickly and without his usual guide- tone of voice. I never had any reason to doubt that he was a moral man or person of goodwill;  His words showed him to be  a man who believed that intelligent  and self-directed behavior could by itself  correct those evils, which he now described in detail. 

            I  debated with Mariusz , but only for a few minutes. Our  group was restless to get back to the hotel. ( Mary Alice had returned there earlier . )  Mariusz said goodbye to all ,  but remained with me on our  statue step. I asked him to say more and say it into  the voice recorder  I pulled from my pocket. He agreed. He began with Pope John Paul  II.

            Mariuz  began like  a college professor : " Invited by the Polish communist authorities,  this pope he came to Poland on June 2, 1979 [ to give his  homily at Victory Square  ] . The people , they didn't know what they were doing…They were just fulfilling the  wish of a nation which was very proud that one of them was now a pope. But they were opening a Pandora cage… The pope  would start here his campaign against that [Communist ] system in the name of freedom , in  the name of Christ,  and  in the name of humanity,  that the Polish people deserved something more than what the Communist authorities had given  them. "    

  

          Let the Holy Ghost come down and renew the shape of this land  is what  Mariusz quoted me from the pope's famous address to the Polish people and  their Polish communist authorities present that  day  in Victory Square. (Historians have noted  that Soviet leaders  were  currently on edge   as to what impact the words of this world figure  would have on the entire Polish population—and therefore on Soviet power in Eastern  Europe  , which  we know , eventually collapsed . )  The pope's actual words were:
 

                                           

                                                              Let your Spirit descend
                                                             and renew the face of the earth,
                                                             the face of this land.    

           

Victory Square in Warsaw where Pope John Paul II spoke
boldly to the Soviet Union  in 1979. 

            " People in the square  roared,    We want  God !  , a  roar that  was televised  around the world," Mariusz  continued. "The Poles had not fought against the commies not because of lack of faith,  which was strong,  but because they were afraid of losing so much like what happened to Czechs  and the Hungarians. "   

            I switched our topic to Nazis and asked why he thought the Nazi  Germans had a demonic, homicidal hatred of  the Jews. He surprised me with his  answer: " The potential for evil is hidden in the heart of every man…"  

       

            I now had to ask— and  I admit it was a baited question— " Would you agree that there would be peace on earth if all of us obeyed the Ten Commandments ? "

            " Of   course. If only all of us read the Bible well, there would be no crusades or inquisitions."

            "I'll leave you with this," I said.  " I think you'll agree that power corrupts  and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

            "I do."

  
  We exchanged smiles and a handshake. I was compelled to leave behind  a  New Testament bit of wisdom , one which either confuses or is  flatly  rejected  by many  people I have met: " By the way,  You know that power is perfected in weakness. "

            He said nothing,  and we parted company .

A television crew taping protesters  on Warsaw's main street

            ( Upon my arrival at home , I came across  these words   written by Pope Pius XII  in 1945 that superbly expressed what Mariusz and I  were unable to express: We know well that the resources of men are unable to heal these great injuries. We know that the human mind, especially when hate and rivalry have blinded it, cannot easily determine a just and equitable solution of affairs along with a fraternal agreement. It is therefore necessary to implore the Father of light and mercy repeatedly. He alone, in the midst of such violent disturbances and tumults, can persuade those concerned that too many catastrophes and devastations have been piled up in a fearful mass, that too many tears have been shed, and that too much blood  has been spilled.)

            On the way back to  our   hotel, I stopped at  the square where John Paul  II had delivered those  history-making words . Our American president also spoke there on July 6, 2017 .  As reported that year in the July 23 edition of the National Catholic Register, President Trump told  his immense audience in Victory Square ,  " We can have the largest economies and the most lethal weapons on Earth, but if we do not have strong families and strong values, then we will be weak and we will not survive. "            

An artist at work in the Jewish quarter

         This square was now empty except for a girl standing next to her bike  she had  leaned at the base of a  large stone cross known as the " Pope's Cross. "  I clicked my camera a few times . Many unlinked thoughts began to flow in me  concerning  people in my youthful days with whom I had vigorously interacted,  people  with hearts and minds as different as their fingerprints. A few  obviously needed to be loved; but,  I regret  to say that  I too often had waited for someone else to give that love. . I also  thought of my brother Lester ( I loved him a lot ) , a paranoid schizophrenic whose adult life was  pitifully lived . Yet,  he  joyfully (and, by the grace of God and  with  full  cognitive attentiveness )   surrendered to a  Christian conversion  months before he died. And strangely,  I thought of an old Hollywood  movie about family love and sacrifice  I had seen recently, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.  

          That last  thought led my mind  once again  to  a  spiritual concept   (The Body of Christ)  , which then I had no more than  a neutered , intellectual understanding of  it.  Here is the gist of  it :       

   

                                    For  in one Spirit we were all  baptized into one body,

                                     whether  Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,

                                    and were all given to drink of one Spirit…Now

                                    you are Christ's body,  and individually parts

                                    of it.  ( 1 Corinthians: 12: 12, 13 and 27 )   

             ..

            

Epilogue:  The Birthday Party…

            On September 8, seven weeks after our return to Arlington Heights, Illinois ,  Mary Alice and I sat down at our dinner table with seven  friends to celebrate my 83rd birthday. There was  Mary Richter and husband , the Rev. "Rick" Richter, my coffee  buddy for the past ten years and retired pastor of a Lutheran  church  where I once hosted  its local  televised program, " Crossing the Finish Line " ; Marcia and Donald Knorr, a CPA and my Catholic faith mentor  when I joined his church;   Bruce Kuss, a boyhood friend whom I then visited weekly at a nearby rehab center ; and  Lisa Duffy, daughter of my deceased brother Lester , who flew down from Woodstock, Canada. I  loved each for

allowing me to be my true self , .   

             

            Before  we began munching on roasted chicken and lasagna, Rick prayed . I was a bit embarrassed that his prayer centered on God's  graces he asked for me.  Our  table conversations  crisscrossed a multitude of topics. Only Mary Alice heard the phone ring;  it was Scott, her son, joined by his wife Karen and their  son Sterling. For various reasons ,  my relationship with Scott and Karen had cooled during the past three  years , which had had a negative effect on Mary Alice. But now I heard not only a cheerful  "Happy Birthdays" on the phone , but  an overture of family  reconciliation  in our voices . Mary Alice and I felt it  was our very  best phone call of the year !

 

   Julie Cohen,  the soprano cantor from my church, arrived after dinner and, sitting a only  few feet from me in the living room , began to sing songs  rehearsed especially for me . They included a hit song from the new  Broadway show , Anastasiaand and  my favorite, Going Home , from  Dvořák's "New World Symphony." Contentment  filled  the room; every face I looked at glowed. In his wheelchair  was  my  friend Bruce, who retained  a stillness I had never seen on  him.  Julie closed with Ave Maria.  

   

      When the last friend had left, I turned to Mary Alice, and sort of whispered, "Mission completed , Dear." 

         

The best birthday of my life ! Our cantor Julie ( standing )
has just arrived. ( I'm at the far end on the left . Photo
by my niece Lisa Duffy . )  

  

             

            

The  End

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© 2022 Robert R. Schwarz