“OF those. killédithere. ae significant: ‘because it‘ Was ‘the Pola ‘Stories by Rod Link ‘surging on board a aight train leaving East Berlin for ~ Poland. cy must speculate,” she. Said in ipassable English’ once. the ““T haye. ‘rain was underway, two children and otherwise, d can’t make its”. Her.’ speculation, .. as ‘she described it, was. tn. Western cigarettes,.a@ common item: smuggled into and then sold oy Poles:in East Berlin. They ‘are cheaper to’ buy in’ Poland than in Germany, Re- advertisement’ Sor thieves.’? sale means not only a profit but one in Western currency to buy . goods unobtainable with Polish currency. 4 As if to emphasize the point, the man sitting beside her. lifts up his-pant leg to show a wad of West German Deutschmarks stuffed Into his sock, There's a distinct feeling in Poland’ that anything. and everything is for salc, ; The end of the Communist- dominated government and its centrally-controlled economic. structure, in ptace since the end of the Second World War, ‘has meant the sudden arrival of a Western economic system, While the new government prepares the sale of factories, buildings and services . once owned by the state, its citizens practice the. ‘Same. principle on the streets of-the cities. A wide variety of food and goods are on display in booths in open air markets, on tables on sidewalks or simply laid. out on the sidewalks. Some of that for sale was from Poland. A lot of it wasn't. Before, it was a matter of. not having anything available to buy. Today, practically. everything is available but it’s a matter of whether the average Pole can afford the price, Bananas, once unseen, in Poland, are for sale on many street corners. They. cosl.; inet ween 12,000 ‘and’ 15,000 Fo lish, zlotys a kilo. To a Westerner who can change one U.S. dollar for 9,300 Polish atolys, the cost is minimal. To Poles, whose average wage is one million zlotys ($100 U.S. dollars) a month, bananas are a luxury, Sausage, at an average price of 50,000 zlotys a kilo, is also expensive. Among the booths and tables selling American cigarettes, German orange juice and chocolate and Japanese video and cassette lapes, were elderly women, _ Their wares weren't so exotic. It may have been a couple bars 7 he} ‘was “aniong those. _ One: case, a small collection of : published - of soap; rubber siirgical zg oves, used clothing, used shoes of, in grey sponges, , -Bechise, ‘a “complete ‘iN: economic. systems has left, “vulnerable those op fix- _ ed or.low-incomes. There is not only unemployment but. rising : Prices and massive inflation, ‘et 5 say. he can get hive us @F- three — ‘thousand: -. 2 dollars and he buys a ‘Satellite’ dish. His Children’ can watch those. channels. But it’s also'an He's an economist, travelling with a, colleague to'a conferencé on inflation in Latvia, one aj the Soviet.Baltic republics. _ “H's an international: con- ference. _— West,"? we're from the " Says. one, With economic and political freedom has come a new and richer class of. citizen, But there's also a rising crime rate as ‘others react differently to unemployment and rising prices. . . On one October night in War- saw, two Kodak film processing outlets were blown up. It’s sug- gested later that other film pro- cessors weren't happy with the new level of service being of- fered by the two outlets. In a “Warsaw newspaper, _in -English,. the government minister: in ‘charge of police talks of the néed fora ~ well-trained force to. deal with armed robbery gangs. - Its something that wasn’t needed before under strict governmental. control over society and over the economy. People continually warn tourists to be careful of War- §aw’s Centralna railway station. It’s the clearinghouse for the majority of trains arriving and leaving from the Polish capital so it attracts criminals hoping to steal suitcases, wallets and other personal goods, a “Ofi'‘a° “site ‘Street “off ore’ of - Warsaw's’ main’ thoroughfares isa new, ‘modern, corner store quite like one you would en- counter in Canada. What! s dif- ferent is a display of guns and military clothing in an adjoining alcove, On a back wall are several Rambo-type posters. The rapid words in Polish be- ing spoken by -one person behind the counter of the alcove to a potential customer were im- possible to follow. Yet the in- tent was clear when he pointed to'a picture of a Walther PPK on a wall and said: “James Bond.’’ The guns for sale, at one COMPLETELY DEMOLISHED during the Second World War, the downtown old section of Warsaw has been re-created from plans, photos and memories. It's home to museums, restaurants, shops million zlotys.and up, are gas- powered replicas of the real thing. They’ve become: popular ‘self-defence weapons. . * Also onsale at the store arc electric shockers. About the size of an electric razor, they hav: two prongs. Touch somebuci: and they receive a paralyzing jolt.. - olitics, politics. -I1’s too much, People are tired of politics.” He is a tutor at a- scientific institute in the southern Polish city of Krakow and an editar of a magazine. on parapsychology, the art of trying to explain the unexplained. “People i ii Polak right, now. need something different. Something not rational,” he says af the magazine, On Nov. 25 Poland holds presidential elections. There are two main candidates, Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, the man who lead the movement that resulted in the new Poland, and Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki,.a former Solidari- ty colleague of Walesa’s. | _ Mazowiecki is viewed ‘as a calming and moderate in- fluence. Walesa. promises to give each Pole 100 million zlotys: to help them take part in the "mew economic system, The election, will mark the end of turning Poland into a democratic country. There is already an elected Senate and an elected Parliament. Facing the ‘country is ‘an overhaul of its economic and social services system. There is also the task of cleaning up industries that free- ly pollute, cleaning. up water supplies fouled by the factories and: improving transportation networks for the efticient supp- ly of goods and services. Its common in Warsaw for: .| ® residents to. line. up for potable water tapped from a’ lake® underneath the citys icin At ean, pedestrians. can “‘see” the air move.in clouds under the hazy,” eerie glow of orange mercury- vapour street lights. Emissions «| ,. from soft coal burned in fac- tories and i in homes hang i in the’ sky. This will be a tough winter in Poland as the economy and people struggle to cope. Sup- plies of natural gas and oil from | the Soviet Union are being cut back because that country’s own economy is in trouble, . The changes, says one Pole, should come fast. Yet, he cau- tions, they should also be reasonable. Auschwitz still a potent place © In the cellar of Block 11 at Auschwitz are the punishment cells, ~ The worst are‘the standing’ cells. Each is: a brick cubicle measuring three’ feet “by three | feet. Into each were put. four people. © These were. the. people who , tried to escape or who broke any one of many camp regula- tions, ©: There was no room to sit ‘and . the only ventilation was from a small opening at the bottom,’no larger than that of the average doghouse. It was'also:the only way in or out of the cubicles, ‘Block 11 was called the Block of: Death’ by those in Auschwitz for it was, here that many. execu- tions . were “ordered, The Gestapo also'held court here to " pronounced sentence on those it _ had arrested. from the surroun- . ding area, . “The executions by.” -ftring _ Squad took place beside Block. - Heup against what’ 8. called the : Wall of Death, - More “than, 20,000' pedi ple. were put against. the. wall.: Fresh. flowers laid at the wall.eadh’ ‘day: * continue to mark: the mentiories, ‘The ‘cellar Block. 11> is- ‘ise location. of the ‘first: testing, . ia. tember: 1941, of CyclonB took -Birkenau. Together, they form- tool, That was just. ‘over a year after the camp- was. first established as a place to send Poles moved. from their homes to make way for the settlement of German peoples, ; Auschwitz is a German name ofa suburb of a Polish town called . Oswiecim in southern Poland. It’s about 60km from the-city of Krakow, homie at one time to Polish kings and capital of that country centuries ago. - The- name Auschwitz also in. another “camp, ed.a 40 square kilometre area of factories in which prisoners worked, ' their accommodation, a the gas chambers and. the ovens in which bodies were cremated. The complex was the largest _ OF the concentration’ ‘camps - organized by the Nazi Germans . during the Second World War. It’s estimated that four million people died at Auschwitz, Poles. were s00n by joined by Jews and others from countries “invaded by Nazi Germany.’ Unlike. prisoners of war.from | other’ countries _ who found themselves :in: separate: camps, . ‘those’ from the Soviet Union were: ‘dent to. Auschwitz, TI he large wareholses ‘in a3 _ sehich,’ the clothing and. ‘other AUSCHWITZ, in southern Poland, was the largest Nazi So a i ee ei i i i o_O i ei Fak so Bailie biel lied and an outdoor market, It'll take that’ kind of initiative again to overhaul the country's economic and social system built up by the former Communist country. fu) ant night. in, i Rakow nme ONLY 20 per cent of Polish farm land ended up in the hands of the state. Small holdings continue to dot the countryside. in bad times, city residents flock to the country for food and other goods they can't find at home. concentra- tion Camp complex of the Second World War. Buildings have been ‘turned Into a large museum. An nearby camp has been left as is. Visitors can stay at an adjacent hotel. - acl Fikes camp comman- luschwitz was overtaken by dant, "was tried and found guilty Sovict amy in January P by a olish tribunal, He was rt eed at sgh. “for. western & travellers, was about 30, 000 nats ing tg.2 Westerner. is: ‘ver ine for 30 ) days, bial hati. a. lol expensive,/ TtZalso y es cheaper than. tlie. $15 (Us: y an . Although: tou, ism i regarded aga valuable wa! gaining western “¢ travelling within the counitr cally’ for lots of. patience _ keeping a: sense of humour and - accepting. /a..-cettai amount of confusion. * You may feel you dre a. vic tim at times: Don'ts:It's not 227° your Faull: U's just: the: way 4) ihings work... : vg! ® Booking. hotels, wand: traing before: leaving, saves. alot, of * AS: wih anything, theley 2a service you..want.is:deter mined ‘by. how. much": YO] want. to pay, Even 50,.wh e: elpful:T here'i is, hoi sertain amount; of 860 oward ‘Germans and peopl pmay': -alitomatically i ou come fromm that. country: t's ‘somewhat sitnllar ta: how partied when : Hickelst is eal “ing, witttlengih i oA package’ tour is: conve-