European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 11, 1947, Darmstadt, Hesse                                V one Story shops have risen on foundations of the old luxury Sale contrast sharply with ruins nearby prewar As the first streams of citizens began to trickle there was talk of moving the capital to Poland second largest one Hundred Miles to the Southeast but Warsaw was too steeped in tradition and too drenched with the blood of its patriots to be the attempt to rebuild is the chief occupation in Warsaw citizens from All Over Poland donate a Day of work each month to take a hand at cleaning up and rebuilding the from rubble and Burntout hulks of hundreds of government offices and apartment houses have been Warsaw is being resurrected with almost nothing More than the Bare hands of its horse drawn carts and human brawn take the place of steam shovels and modern in spite of the Lack of Warsaw citizens Are Able to Point out proudly changes that have come about in their City in the last two thousands of one Story built from the rubble on the foundations of what were once four or five Story buildings have sprung lip almost overnight around the once the cites most Furo Nable shopping in the a Szalkowska of today the visitor can buy almost anything that can be bought in London or a the polish zloty is pegged at one Hundred to the but Blac Market quotations Range upward to a thousand for a single american Green there is Only partial there is a free prices seek their own but at the same time there is a controlled Market which enables a Man who works in an essential Industry to buy at a Low ceiling Price workers in nonessential and private business must pay the top there is plenty of merchandise for Sale and a or Rolle flex pm be found in almost any one of Warsaw Many camera shops for Rcw ranging from zlotys for a Rolle flex to for a Leica or persian and with Many unfamiliar pelts Are Dis played in the cites fur precious antique Meissen czech Glass and almost every conceivable Type of luxury item can be found in Warsaw thousand and one newly built food stores Are full of fresh fruits and and the chocolates and pastries in Warsaw Are unparalleled in the with the possible exception of meat is sold Only three Days a week but on meatless there is plenty of smoked Duck and quantities of butter and cheese Are so plentiful that Poland will Export them along with polish pork and but pan Slobowski and Pani so the and John Doe of Are poorly his average salary is approximately eight thousand zlotys a the Fine articles displayed in shop win Dows All Over town Are not for the nor Are the luxurious meals in the Polonia hotel or Cane As a worker in an essential Industry he can buy butter and other Staples in a govern ment store for a fraction of their free Market Cost with his special ration a loaf of bread will Cost them Twenty zlotys instead of living conditions Are difficult for the Slobowski but then they always for Poland has always been one of the most impoverished countries in housing is diff the fact that there is running water which sometimes even runs electricity and Gas in a City As badly damaged As is a major the Slobowski consider themselves Lucky to have a room Over their jammed into a tight Little they Are no better housed than their former conquerors in ber Lin or Frankfurt transportation and Eom Muni i cations have always been notoriously poor in Poland and their roads Are among the worst in eur poles Point with Pride the that bad As the transportation there Are More automobiles and trucks in the country today than be fore the War and new roads Are under so scarce were vehicles in Poland before the that the Man who can drive an automobile is considered a highly skilled the bus that takes pan Slobowski to and from will prob ably be an old american Towanda shared with fort five other the Slotow sets country cousins Are not Likely to be much better a peasant near planting potatoes by we work always had to work the government gave me five Hec Tares about thirteen acres of land and a the horse died two weeks another polish working his Small Patch with an looks Over at the Home of his former land now a stat owned agricultural and wonders if he was better off when the landowner was there to take care of the Good lord made Rich and poor he i guess that the Way he intended it to symbolic of the fatalistic hold a poles religion has Over him Are the thousands of shrines throughout the impoverished farm lands and the Many Well constructed always the one Stone or Brick building in a Community of wooden placed at intervals along the roads of which would make the proverbial Rocky Road to Dublin seem a masterpiece in Highway con Are piles of natural for every cubic meter that he chips into Small the Stone Chipper he is paid seven Hundred he did the same Job before the thinks the new government is but wishes his seven Hundred zlotys would buy As much As they did in the Days before there is no Iron curtain in i visitors Are free to journey where they please and talk freely to whomever they choose photographs May be taken at random of every thing except the former Home of Poland prewar and now the Home of presi Dent Beirut a polish postcard firm has a monopoly on except for a few russian soldiers in a red army Soldier is a rare sight Are russian monuments in the villages and for members of the red army who died liberating those same Sites the russians have buried their dead in polish cemeteries throughout the near where they while polish driven vehicles must stand a Check at control Points every Hundred Kilometres along the a foreign automobile is held Only Long enough for the guards to ques Tion the Driver As to How it what the different gadgets Are for and How much it Cost he is shop by labourer or former land owner they say the latter gather nightly in a cafe near the Polonia hotel to talk Over old times a pole is intensely politically cons Cious and feels free to and does sound off against today difficulties and his own personal Stanislaw vice Rem Ier of the provisional polish govern ment following the and Leader of the polish peasant is Warsaw forgotten he still lives in the polish capital and maintains Headquarters for his some on polish affairs had predicted he would be arrested and tried As a in the yugoslav following the defeat handed his party in the elections last others predicted his Fol Lowers would Rise and sweep away the present coalition government so far neither prediction has come so thoroughly is the present government entrenched that with his Twenty seven seats in the new cannot be considered much of a even though party members Are still going around muttering the polish equivalent of we Wiz robbed some rather important continued on Page 19