The Evening Star (May 25, 1946)
Americans returning art stolen by Nazis ‘arrested’ by Poles
By Pauline Frederick, North American Newspaper Alliance
The writer was the only American correspondent to accompany the special American mission returning to Poland her greatest art treasure – the Wit Stowosz altar, which the Germans stole from Cracow in 1939. She had to wait until she left Poland before writing this.
NUERNBERG – One year after the end of a war fought for the four freedoms, Poland knows nothing about freedom from fear. The terror in this tragic land is such today that Poles risk arrest and imprisonment for showing enthusiasm for Americans and for democracy.
I have just come from Poland. I spent eight days there, 24 hours of which our entire party of 21 Americans was held under arrest in a train in the freight yards at Cracow. The 1946 version of the Gestapo, the security police, sat on watch outside in an American-made UNRRA truck. The guards wore GI clothing except for their Polish caps.
I was in Poland on two fateful holidays – May 1, when the workers and students marched under threat; and May 3, when the Polish people tried to celebrate their national constitution day against the wishes of the government with the result that there were cold-blooded shootings and mass arrests.
Plead with Americans
It is heartbreaking to witness as I have – and as any American who comes to Poland does – the way the people cling to the sight of an American as a sort of sign that in some way they will be delivered from their bondage. They stop you on the street and after making sure that no one is in earshot, plead: “Send us help for the June 30 referendum or there will be slaughter.”
On that day the Communist-dominated government, which is estimated to have the support of not more than three percent of the people, will ask for a vote of approval on a one-house parliament, nationalization of industries and land reforms, and Poland’s western boundaries. Nothing is said of the eastern boundaries. Nor, more than a year after V-E Day, is anything said about a popular election.
One of the GIs with our party came out of the Cracow YMCA on May 3 after lunch. People were marching with tiny Polish flags despite the government prohibition against celebrating their traditional “Fourth of July.” When the people saw the Yank they broke ranks and surrounded him.
They shook his hand, cheered him, began covering him with lilacs. Then they boosted him to their shoulders and started carrying him down the street. They had gone about two blocks when an American-made half-track appeared. It mounted four 50-caliber machine guns manned by Russian soldiers. The Russians fired four bursts over the head of the GI. The crowd slowly disbursed with hisses and cries.
Crowd gathers
The following Sunday as our party left church to walk to the hotel, a crowd gathered about us. Under the very barrels of the guns of the security police and armed guards, who were everywhere, they began to cheer, “Long Live the Americans.” They handed us armfuls of flowers, and from the windows all along the way, branches of lilacs were tossed down to us. The crowd grew, and so did the cheering. Finally, some of the men were boosted to the shoulders of the people and carried the rest of the way.
Standing outside the doorway to the hotel were four young Polish girls, laughing and applauding the performance. Before we were in the hotel two Russian soldiers had stepped up and led them away. As someone who was in Poland during the German occupation observed, “at least the Germans told a person why he was being arrested. Today one can never find out.”
As the young prisoners were taken off, the angry crowd burst into cries of “We Want Mikolajczyk!” (the leader of the Peasant Party who would probably poll at least 60 percent of the votes if a free election were held), “Down with Communism!” “Give us back Vilna and Lwow!”
U.S. party detained
Our party was forcibly detained at Cracow because a civilian member of the security police charged that a GI of our party had shot him in the arm. The incident was alleged to have occurred about 1 o’clock in the morning. At the time, a security officer told an officer of our party that “no one saw the shooting but it was believed to be an American.”
Two days later the security police started to arrest the whole GI detail of 13 on a Cracow street. But when a crowd began to gather they didn’t dare. They waited until the men boarded the train and without looking over all of them, pointed to one and said he was guilty. The GI in question had four witnesses to prove that he was not anywhere near the scene of the alleged incident. No American saw the alleged gunshot wound under a bandage around the arm of the alleged victim.
When the accused GI was not given into their custody immediately, the security police put all members of the party under arrest and posted guards to see that none of us left the train and that the train did not leave Cracow. Thirty-six hours of negotiation between the American Embassy, the Polish Foreign Office and the security police resulted in releasing the train and the rest of the passengers – but the innocent GI was left behind.
There are at least 80 American citizens in jail in Poland today on charges ranging from manslaughter (one case) to relatively minor matters such as not having the proper papers. In each case, negotiations are painfully slow, dragging over months while these Americans remain in Polish prisons. In some cases, representatives of the embassy have not even been allowed to see the prisoners.