It deals with the threat mass media and culture poses to tradition and traditional values.  I got the idea for the story when several Polish teenagers knocked on my door in Warsaw on All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1).  They were trick-or-treating on the wrong day.  When I pointed this out, they said it didn’t really matter.

Until recently Halloween was virtually unknown in Poland.  As young Poles learn about it, more and more go out trick-or-treating.  As the short story points out, soon it may begin to compete with All Saints’ Day, a time when almost all Poles visit cemeteries to light candles on the graves of their ancestors.  All Saints’ Day is a great tradition Poles have observed for many centuries.  It is as spiritual in nature as Halloween is commercial.  This clash in values could threaten one of the hallmarks of what it means to be a Pole.

I hope you’ll take time to read the story and add any comments you might care to make to this post.  I want to consider reader reactions as I finalize the story and then submit it for publication.

I’ve been going to Poland since 1989 and feel privileged to have witnessed the country’s remarkable transformation—from an underperforming communist backwater to one of the most dynamic economies in all of Europe.  It hardly seems possible that in 2011 a Pole, Jerzy Buzek, is leading the European Union, or that Poland would play a leading role in structuring the bail-out package to Greece.  But it’s not surprising at all when one considers how hard-working the Poles are and how skillfully they’ve managed their economy since the Wall came down.

My work in Poland went very well.  I spent the year doing research on two books—one on the Solidarity trade union movement and another on a novel which I expect to finish next month.  The novel is set in 1944-45 and is based on a true story: how the Polish underground sought to seize evidence of the Katyn Massacre from the Germans in Krakow.  The mission goal involved an ambitious plan to conduct a grand tribunal to shock the West about Stalin’s murderous system and his true ambitions for Poland.  At the time Stalin was still being glorified in western media, and the Poles’ opportunity to regain their independence was slowly slipping away.

The novel will be published next year.  I will promote the book in Poland and other European countries in the fall of 2012.  I also expect to promote it extensively here in the U.S.  Once that is done I’ll start work on my next book which will tell the story of Solidarity’s foot soldiers who were at the forefront of the largest mass social movement of the Twentieth Century.  Solidarity’s primal role in bringing down the Berlin Wall is often overlooked in the West.

(See photos in gallery section: “Year in Poland Highlights”)

A Latvian edition of my book, Katyń, was launched in Riga last Thursday (April 7) before national media and an overflow audience at the Museum of the Occupation.  The kick-off was hosted by the Polish Embassy in Latvia and by my publisher Zvaigzne ABC.   Zvaigzne, which means Star in Latvian, it is the country’s largest book publisher.

(NOTE: See photos in my website’s gallery section under “Latvian Launch.”  A video clip of the event is being posted as well.)

Though it was much smaller and is often overlooked, Latvia had its own Katyń.  In 1941, 1100 Latvian army officers were arrested by the Soviets under the pretense of a training exercise.  Two hundred were shot and 560 were deported to Siberia.  Only 90 survived the war.  Stalin ordered the mass deportation of Latvians in 1941 and 1949.  Tensions on these issues linger still: a Russian language newspaper in Latvia wrote that the launch was “sponsored by Russophobes.”  In fact, my book is quite sympathetic to the Russian people and points out that they suffered most of all under Stalin.

The book launch took place one year to the day after the historic meeting in Katyn Forest between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.  I was the only American in the official delegation that accompanied Tusk.  I was invited to go back three days later on the presidential plane that crashed in early morning fog at Smolensk.  I declined the invitation because of responsibilities I had in organizing a 70^th anniversary observance of the Katyn Massacre on May 5 at the Library of Congress.

“We can all identify with the tragedy of last April 10,” I noted at the museum event.  “It could happen to any one of us.  But the tragedy of 1940 (Katyn) must be remembered too.  Its victims were cut down in the prime of their lives.  Entire nations were trampled in the dust.  All this is remembered by those who lost the most.  But it must also be remembered by Americans and others who often delude themselves into thinking that history cannot repeat itself.”

The launch was attended by leaders of the Latvian government and representatives of the diplomatic corps.  Short talks were given by Polish Ambassador Jerzy Nowakowski and Vija Kilbloka, Publisher of Zvaigzne ABC.  Both praised the book for its human dimension and for making the history accessible to a broad readership.

Research on a novel I expect to finish later this year has taken me to the origins of the Amber Trail on the Baltic Coast of Poland near Gdansk.

Man has searched for amber since prehistoric times and the road to the greatest source began in Pruszcz where small amber caravans from Rome came each year in mid-summer.  The journey was perilous because once traders passed Carnuntum, a fortified Roman army camp on the Danube, they entered Barbaricum and the domain of fierce tribes who demanded tribute.  Traders traveled in groups of about ten using horse or ox carts.  There were no roads, but the last leg of the journey – from north of Krakow to the coast – followed the Vistula River by boat.  The overall journey was more than 2000 miles and took about six months.

To commemorate the trail and its history, a first century AD fort and settlement called Faktoria are being built in Pruszcz.  I visited the site and met the archaeologist in charge of the project.  Agnieszka Ruta is an expert in documenting settlement remains, particularly in urban areas.  It was exciting to see how her vision has taken shape on the ground: from the massive watchtower at the entrance to her sprawling fort, to the sharpened longs that form its palisades.  Huts inside replicate where amber-makers and blacksmiths would have worked and lived.  Tasks performed by blacksmiths were crucial to survival, according to Ruta; they made weapons for defense and the tools needed plant and grow crops.

Archaeologists have found more than 1000 graves from Roman times in Pruszcz.  Ruins of wooden houses from the period have been found near the site of Faktoria, but fortifications have not yet been identified.  The City of Pruszcz and the European Union have funded the construction of Faktoria which will open this summer.  Ruta and her number two, Daria Zarowna, bring a level of zest and energy to the project that should make it a popular tourist attraction.  Special programs for school groups will be featured at the site.

The best amber in the world is found in Poland.  Winter storms often stir it up and leave it below the surf or lying on the beach.  Amber “fishermen” still work the beach much as they have for centuries.  A large amber mine operates in Kalliningrad, a part of Russia that adjoins Poland’s northeast frontier.

Amber began to form forty million years ago when resin secreted from trees.  Droplets slid down the trunks, encasing insects, buds and other natural object inside.  These fossilized inclusions became mineralized and are often called Baltic gold.  Although amber is found in Canada, Mexico and the Carribean, it is only found in its purest form (succinite) in Poland.

The demand for amber predates recorded history.  It has been found in Egyptian tombs and is mentioned by Homer in the Odyssey.  In the first century BC, the famous Roman historian, Pliny the Elder, wrote that people with throat diseases should wear amber collars.  At that time in Rome, a fine piece of amber had the same value as a young healthy slave.

The Rome-Pruszcz axis was not the only amber route.  Many traders traveled down the Vistula to a point near modern-day Sandomierz where they headed east with amber for Greek colonies on the Black Sea.  Another amber route went down the Elbe River in what is now Germany.  Ruta believes traders also sailed the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea to the Pruszcz area.  She points out that the Nydam, a type of warrior ship, was common in northern waters; that those who sailed it interacted with far-away cultures.

The presence of Roman traders in Pruszcz has been documented by Ruta and other archaeologists by objects found in graves: ornamental wine cups, glass, spoons, bracelets, clasps and toys for children.  She says Roman silver coins found in Pruszcz had great local appeal because they were so unusual.  For centuries, amber was used on the Baltic Coast as money.

“While the Roman traders were afraid of the barbarians, at the same time they knew a lot about what was going on here,” Ruta says.  She points out that traders were forbidden to deal in weapons.  At one time iron was banned and no iron is found in graves from certain centuries.  At other times, the worship of weapons did occur, she notes.  “Weapons were regarded as a gift from god.”

I was glad to see the Faktoria as construction was being finalized.  Ruta has an ambitious goal: to recreate what life was like in the era when Christ lived and when Rome dominated the known world and even extended certain influences to the far-away Baltic coast.  I think the site will prove to be a popular tourist attraction.  While the Silk Road is better known, Amber Trail extends much further back in history; it too stimulated a great many cross-cultural links.  And its secrets, thanks to archaeologists like Ruta, are still unfolding.

Grand Salon of Palace on Water

On Friday, Nov. 26 I received the Honorary Diploma of the Polish Foreign Ministry at the Palace on Water, one Warsaw’s loveliest landmarks.  The award is given annually for “outstanding promotion of Poland in the world.”  I was the only American among this year’s 11 recipients.

The diplomas were presented by Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski at a ceremony attended by U.S. Ambassador Lee Feinstein and many other dignitaries from Warsaw’s establishment.  I was cited for my book Katyn and for my role in helping organize a 70^th anniversary observance of the Katyn Forest Massacre at the Library of Congress this spring.

The Foreign Ministry hosted awardees at an informal dinner Thursday evening at Tamka, a modernistic restauracja that adjoins another Warsaw landmark, the Chopin Museum.  I sat at dinner across the table from Natalia Paszkowska and Marcin Mostafa, architects who received the award for their design of the acclaimed Polish Pavilion at EXPO 2010 in Shanghai.  It was voted one of the top two designs among more than 100 at the EXPO.  Its exterior resembled a folded sheet of paper and its inside design had a motif of traditional folk cut-outs.  In just four years the young husband-wife team has built one of the top architectural firms in Poland.

Others receiving this year’s award include: Jan Madey, who has coached two world championship Polish youth teams in mathematics; Henryk Skarźyński, a world famous specialist in hearing and speech disorders; and Jo Song Mu, the only Polish language teacher in North Korea.  More information about this year’s recipients is available at:

http://www.msz.gov.pl/Diplomas,of,the,Polish,Foreign,Minister,13676.html

The neoclassical Palace on Water was built in 1689 and remodeled nearly a century later by Poland’s last king, Stanislaw August Poniatowski, a great patron of the arts who made it his summer residence.  It appears to rise from the waters of a large lake in the Łasienki (Royal Baths) Park, the largest park in Warsaw. Łasienki is flanked by the Royal Route which extends just west of the Vistula River near the offices of the president and prime minister.  When the Wehrmacht left Warsaw near the end of World War II, it tried to blow up the palace but failed.

Dinner at apartment of Stuart and Nina Loory

We gathered in the spacious apartment of Stuart and Nina Loory in the center of Warsaw.  Stuart is a “Distinguished Fulbright Lecturer” at Warsaw University.  He and Nina have had fascinating careers.  Ted Turner sent him to Moscow to open CNN’s first Bureau there.  Most recently he has taught journalism at the University of Missouri.  Nina danced with the Bolshoi Ballet for twenty years.  The couple met during the Goodwill Games when Stuart rented the Czar’s box for an event hosted by Turner and the actress Jane Fonda.  Betsy and I are looking forward to meeting Nina’s mother, Tanya, who will arrive on Friday from Moscow.  She is one of the top English-to-Russian translators there.  She has translated any number of famous authors (e.g. John Updike, Agatha Cristie) into Russian.

Fulbrighters who came for Thanksgiving included aspiring novelist, a political theorist, an experimental psychologist and others specializing in political science and

English teaching.  Among the guests were my good friend Vanessa Gera who is chief of the AP Bureau here.

Honey at Pole Mokotowskie Park

Honey has adjusted well to life in Warsaw though riding escalators and entering packed subway cars are more than she bargained for.  She may feel a bit insecure because unlike at home she seems determined to sleep with us.  It makes for a crowded bed.  Recently I’ve begun to worry if someone has to go … it might be me.

I’m writing this on a sleek autobus en route from Warsaw to Krakow, the royal city of Poland, with 31 others in the 2010-11Fulbright Program.  Yesterday we gathered and met each other for the first time at the residence of U.S. Ambassador Lee Feinstein and were briefed on Poland’s cultural, economic and political landscape.  The meeting was held in a lovely atrium looking east toward the Vistula River.  As a sign of how well the economy here is doing (Poland alone in Europe has escaped recession) construction cranes could be seen all along the horizon.  The ambassador, who comes from academia, welcomed us warmly and expressed great enthusiasm for Poland’s future, predicting that more and more it will play a leadership role in the European Union.

His security officer told this is one of Europe’s safest countries.  Its crime rate is very low, though pickpockets do work metro and trams during rush hour.  Identity theft occurs at about the same rate as in the U.S.  A good thing we haven’t tried any bank transfers since arriving.  We have been taking our new netbook computer to a small coffee shop around the corner to send and check emails; it would be easy, we’re told, to capture the signal there.  We’ll have a secure connection when we move to more permanent quarters, but more about that in a moment.    Betsy attended yesterday’s briefing and was pleased to learn that she will be included in all Fulbright group functions.  Our dog Honey did not make the ambassador’s list and thus missed the sumptuous delicacies served at the end of the briefings.  Honey is adjusting to life in a large bustling city, a bit intimidated by dense crowds on metro and trams at rush hour.  She mostly  keeps her tail tucked between her legs on these occasions and seems bewildered by who all the people are.  Of course these are situations she’s never encountered before.  On the whole she has been very cooperative but absolutely refuses to ride the metro escalators.

Honey is a great curiosity here because Poles have never seen a dog with such “duza” (big) ears.  People stare at her on the street and it’s not unusual at all to have someone stop to pet her.  Questions often follow but with our limited Polish have to go largely unanswered.  Each morning Honey and I go to the Pikarnia (bakery) to get fresh bread.  The woman in charge there, Renata, makes a big fuss over her and now calls her by name.  Not sure what the rules are on dogs in skleps (small shops); we’ve been shooed out of a couple but welcomed in most.  Poland is dog friendly and to anyone over 65: public transportation is free which represents a considerable savings.

We caught a taxi at 7 a.m. this morning to meet the other Fulbrighters at their hotel before departing for Krakow.  The taxi driver insisted that Honey had to get on the podlugo (floor) in space only a chinchilla could fit into.  Honey balked and we went back and forth for a few minutes with the driver until Betsy offered the only practical solution: “We will hold her in our laps,” she told the driver.  Since his English was about like our Polish this idea didn’t register until we actually got Honey in our laps.  That earned a sour look and a dismissive wave but the driver finally took off … in frustration no doubt.  On reaching the hotel, he made a great show of brushing the back seat with a whisk while we waited to get our luggage.  He charged full fare for Honey which seems fair.  Honey sheds a lot, so we were somewhat embarrassed by the situation.  We could imagine the next passenger: a woman in a black silk dress arriving at an important appointment not knowing about the light brown fur on her derriere.

A short time ago the bus delivered us to Przegorzaly, the guest house of Jagiellonian University, which sits on a high hill overlooking the Vistula as it winds through farms and crossroad housing clusters of houses about five kilometers from the center of Krakow.  We will be here nine days.  On a clear day you can see the Tatra Mountains (Carpathians to non-Poles) about fifty or sixty miles to the south.  There is a zamek (castle) which perchs on a cliff about a thousand feet above the valley floor.  The zamek shares the crest with a thick forest called Wola Woods and a monastery where the monks observe total silence at all times.  Betsy has already inquired about the possibility of having me trained there.  Women are allowed to visit twice yearly but surely the vow of silence does not apply to them.

I have to stop writing now because Betsy are off to our first language class.  It’s taught using the immersion method.  We will be instructed daily by faculty from the best-known language program (for English speakers) in Poland.  The hope is that we learn enough to buy food in a sklep, order in a restauracja and ask for directions without triggering a diplomatic incident.

CONTINUATION – A DAY LATER …

Yesterday at 9 a.m. the Fulbright group received a formal welcome from Jagiellonian University in the lecture hall of famous Collegium Maius.  It dates from the late middle ages and features hand-carved seats for the professors and students.  Elevated seats in the center are reserved for the rector and his closest advisors.  The walls are lined with portraits (painted by prominent artists of each period) of rectors and professors who accomplished great things.  Copernicus spent five years here did formulated most of his famous theories Jagiellonian; his portrait occupies the prominence one would expect.  Many of the instruments he used are displayed in nearby rooms.  Betsy sat about ten feet from the spot where Pope John Paul II received an honorary doctorate from Jagiellonian.  In a larger room one floor up, 115 professors of the university were called to a meeting in 1939 by Herr Muller, ostensibly to learn how they would interact with the Third Reich.  They were arrested on the spot and sent to Sachsenhausen where many died.  Polish high schools and universities then were closed as part of the Fuhrer’s plan to turn the country into a vassal state.

During our stay here we will have quite a number of lectures from outstanding scholars on such subjects as literature, history, politics and economics.  There will be side trips to the death camp at Auschwitz, the Royal Castle which sits high above an elbow turn of the Vistula in stare miasto (the old city), and Wieliczka, a salt mine that began operating in the middle ages.  At one time Wieliczka provided the Polish crown with its largest source of revenue; it continued to  operate well into the last century.  We visited there four years ago and were amazed by the carvings – statues, entire rooms, etc. in salt.  Wieliczka is one of UNESCO’s World Heritage sites and certainly a “must see” when you visit Krakow.

I will need to do some detail research on the salt mine and plan to visit it at least once or twice more.  A chapter in the novel I’m writing takes place there.  The overall setting is Krakow where I spent four months in 2006 researching a mission of the Polish underground that took place at the end of World War II.  It’s an exciting story, though many details about it are not known.  I hope to finish the novel soon and my publisher hopes to bring it out next fall.

Although most of those in the Fulbright group are in their late twenties or early thirties, age hasn’t seemed to be much of a barrier to getting to know one another.  We all sit together at meals and it’s fascinating to hear what they are all doing.  As a measure of the disciplines represented, our group includes a physician from the Medical College of Virginia who is a specialist in emergency medicine.  He has been involved in organ transplants and will be teaching new ER techniques in several Polish cities.  He is here with his wife and two teenage children.  At lunch yesterday he described an accident victim – a motorcycle rider without a helmet – who got hit and suffered a serious brain injury, remaining in an indefinite vegetable state.  The doctor set off quite a debate when he noted that the victim had no health insurance. “Should we be obligated to keep him alive?” he asked.  It’s a difficult question as the Terry Schiavo case proved.

We also have a musicologist who specializes in the history and “language” of music; a former CNN reporter Moscow who teaches at the University of Missouri School of Journalism; an engineer who is an expert on water quality; an architect; several historians; and any number of English teachers.

Betsy, Honey and I will go back to Warsaw next Saturday and start moving the next day to our new apartment.  It’s only a one-bedroom but the rooms are large and well furnished.  It was redone by a young woman architect who is going to Madrid to study industrial design.  She added a lot of special touches to the flat: a slate entrance, beautiful ash floors and a very modern kitchen.  It catches the full morning sun (scarce in the hard winter months) and the setting sun reflects off the building across the street.  We are two floors up (no elevator) so we can add that exercise to long walks with Honey in a large park just a block or so away.  The apartment comes fully furnished including small but essential things like silverware and towels.

We especially like the fact that we are only one hundred meters from Pole Mokotowskie, a metro station two stops removed from Centrum.  The neighborhood all around us is filled with sklepy, pikarnia, cukurnia and restauracja (for those unlike us who haven’t had all of one language class, in order: small (food) shop, bakery, sweet shop and restaurants).  The kino (movie theater) is walking distance too.

I’m anxious to get to work because I know I have a lot to get done and nine months will go by very fast.  We do miss our family and friends already.  The consolation is that we have had many promises of visits.  We hope these promises are kept though I have to confess that we’ve reached the age where no overnight guest can induce us to sleep on the floor.  Don’t worry; as the younger members of our crowd would say: “We can always stack a rack!” … in other words find you a comfortable place somewhere nearby.

All the best,

Allen, Betsy (and Honey)

I made three book appearances in Charlotte on Saturday (Aug. 14); mainly due to excellent advance publicity on WFAE, Charlotte’s National Public Radio affiliate, turnout at each was terrific. The first was at Park Road Books, the Queen City’s leading independent book store; the next two were screenings by the Charlotte Film Society of Andrzej Wajda’s “Katyn” at which I spoke briefly and answered questions.

Tim Funk, President of the Film Society, reported that turnout for the two screenings set a record for the organization. Funk is an affable, detail-oriented writer for the Charlotte Observer who carries the title “Faith and Values Reporter” – i.e. religion, especially the mega churches of the mid-South region. He is a former Washington correspondent with a wide circle of media contacts which played a crucial role in the success of all three events. Tim arranged an hour-long guest spot for me on Charlotte Talks which is hosted by Mike Collins and produced by Wendy Herky. The program aired live 9-10 a.m. and was rebroadcast at 9 p.m. on Thursday (Aug. 12). I’d say Collins was as well prepared as anyone I’ve been interviewed by in a long time.

I was struck by the number of people in book signing lines at all three events who said they heard me on Charlotte Talks. A large percentage of those who turned out were World War II history buffs. Although Charlotte does not have a large Polish community, those who are there are tight-knit and gave strong word-of-mouth promotion to Saturday’s events. I was especially pleased that two Polish veterans of World War II came to Park Road Books. Both had narrowly escaped from Poland during the Nazi-Soviet attack in 1939 and had fought with the Polish army in exile. Both got to England and came to the U.S. from there. One of these men spoke of the pain he felt when the Poles, who fought so valiantly, were excluded from the giant victory parade in London after the war. By then Stalin’s stooge government had been installed in Warsaw. The British government (and ours too) was so anxious to avoid offending Stalin that it told Poles, who fielded the fourth largest army on the western side, to stay home.

The closing scene of Wajda’s film in which the bodies of the brutally slain Poles are covered by giant bulldozers always has a powerful effect. The Charlotte audiences reacted much like the audience I sat in at the World Premier at the Opera House in Warsaw on Sept. 17, 2007. You could hear a pin drop in either place. As a measure of interest the subject, I answered questions after both screenings for an hour and a half. It seems remarkable that audiences will sit still for that long, but the interest and inclination are always there.

I mentioned in my comments how a Polish woman once told me in surprise at a book event, “Why you don’t have one drop of Polish blood” … and how I answered: “You’re quite right – I don’t … but I’ve had a transfusion.” In a sense that is true: I’ve been going to Poland for twenty years and have developed a deep affection for Poland and the Poles. On Sept. 7 Betsy and I will leave for a year-long stay in Warsaw where I’ll begin work under a Fulbright Research Fellowship on a book about Solidarity.

Sherri Smith, who represented Park Road Books, told me after the last screening on Saturday that she had sold fifty books, a total that surpassed sales locally for several recent bestselling authors.