WARSAW (WARSAWA)

The next day, we flew out of Berlin and into Warsaw, Poland on Lufthansa. While in flight, the pilot got on the intercom and gave us orders in English:

“Achtung! Ve are flyink at 40-tousant feet, und dis arhcravt veighs fifty-tousant tons! Now! Take out your flight booklet und follow mit me on pages forty-tree to forty-neun! (long pause) – I vill vait (long pause – I hurried and opened the booklet, because I assumed I was the one holding up the whole drill). Do you all half your books open to dees pages? Ya? Den, put your fingr on “Poznan!” und follow along die flight root. Ve are now flyink over Poznan, und den ve vill be flyink straight in to Varschau.” And so on (the Poles loved it when I imitated the Germans in this manner – can’t imagine why!). I remember this because on subsequent flights to Poland out of Frankfurt, I got this pilot a couple of times, and this was his constant "spiel" (so to say).

Of course we landed side-ways down the runway (the wind must have been blowing). But since the word “Poland” means “Prairie,” I suppose wind would be expected to be "sweeping down the plains." Landing sideways for me, was not expected, and I was a little concerned about dying this far from home. But we managed to come to a stop without an explosion of any kind and de-planed on the tarmac. We braved howling winds as we schlepped into the little customs shack to fill out more papers, have our visas examined, declare the amount of money we would be bringing into the country, and what we would be doing while we were in the country. Then we got a stamp in our passport, and were let through the turnstile to claim our luggage.

The moment I stepped off the plane to the enthusiastic greetings from the Polish customs officials, my perspective shifted once again. I immediately realized that the people in this neck of the world were not the enemies I had grown up with, but victims that had been enslaved by the communist over-lords that I had feared as a child. Their renewed enthusiasm for the possibilities of life exuded from the Bagazojevs (baggage handlers) to the school children. They were free, and the economy was free and open for all the potential anyone could imagine. These people were not my enemies, but my brothers, and my heart was broken for what they had been forced to endure for 50+ years. I was outraged and committed to the determination to somehow help this nation thrive in freedom.