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00:30I'm approaching the city of Gdansk from the Baltic Sea.
00:43This unremarkable stretch of waterway has seen two seismic events in recent history.
00:50On September the 1st, 1939, World War II began over there on Westerplatte, when the German
00:56warship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on the Polish garrison.
01:01They held out very gamely, but within a matter of weeks, all of Poland was overrun.
01:09By the end of the war, the Poles had lost 20% of their population, a higher proportion
01:14than any other European country.
01:17Even when the Nazis were finally driven out of Poland by Stalin's Red Army, things didn't
01:22really get much better.
01:24The Poles merely exchanged one tyranny for another.
01:27So it went on through the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s, until something quite remarkable happened
01:34here at the Gdansk shipyards, not ten minutes by small boat from where World War II began.
01:45An electrician called Lech Wałęsa led a series of strikes that were the beginning
01:50of the end of communism in Europe.
01:57Under the agreement that followed, free trade unions became legal for the first time in
02:02any of the Soviet bloc countries.
02:06The famous gates of what was then the Lenin shipyard are still decorated as they were
02:10in the days of defiance, with the name of Wałęsa's union, Solidarity, and his inspiration,
02:17the Polish Pope John Paul II.
02:22Lech Wałęsa helped maintain a fleet of electronic buggies like this one, a job which kept him
02:27in contact with workers all over the yard.
02:32The shipyards themselves, shorn of their socialist subsidies, later went bust.
02:38They were bailed out, but the workforce today is a shadow of what it once was.
02:46I ask Andrzej Buczkowski, the manager, if there's still a sense of pride about what
02:51happened here.
02:52What do the workforce here today think about Lech Wałęsa?
02:57Well, they are very proud, knowing that Mr Wałęsa was for a long time employed here
03:05in Gdansk shipyard, and he was trying to help afterwards while being a president of Poland,
03:11for example.
03:12Yes, yeah.
03:13I think they have very good links, knowing some good friendships still maintained.
03:18Yeah.
03:19Do they regard him as a good president?
03:22Definitely yes.
03:23Yeah, yeah.
03:24Definitely yes.
03:25Yeah.
03:26Gdansk, reduced to rubble in the war, has been restored to its former glories, and ex-president
03:31Wałęsa has been granted a grace and favour office in this imposing former royal residence.
03:40It's here that he's agreed to see me.
03:45Few living Europeans are as illustrious as Lech Wałęsa.
03:49Married to Danuta, eight children, loves computers, has a Nobel Prize, an airport named after
03:54him, a daughter doing well in Poland's Celebrity Come Dancing, is serious and hates small talk.
04:02Mr President, what is the best thing about your life now?
04:09The best things are good food, good wine, and women, but I must remember that I'm 63,
04:18so I have to watch myself.
04:21Well, I'd like to say, I'm 63 and much inspired, thank you.
04:32Remember what Churchill said, the things we like are either immoral or bad for us.
04:40Comparing Poland then and now, what has improved?
04:52It depends how you look at it, how you look at the benefits.
04:56For me, the main benefits are freedom and democracy, that people can travel freely,
05:07that you can go to church, that I can be president, anyone can become president.
05:18I think that these things are worth dying for, but there are other people, for them
05:24the important thing is jobs, how much money they have, they see the benefit in a different
05:33light from me.
05:45Trade made Gdansk rich, it shows in the harmonious grace of its Dutch-influenced squares.
05:52Down by the canal, the largest medieval crane in Europe still stands, but no longer lifts.
06:01An hour's drive away, and I'm at another waterfront.
06:10This is Elblanc, equally war-battered, but less well-restored than Gdansk.
06:16It's the starting point for what is to be a most remarkable journey, on the Elblanc-Ostruda
06:21Canal.
06:35Our boat is called Wabench, the Swan.
06:37It's functional rather than elegant, an ugly duckling might have been better.
06:45Either would be quite suitable, as we make our way through a nature reserve of marsh
06:50and woodland that's a haven for birdwatchers.
06:53Oh, he's found one.
07:11The canal opened in 1872, just before the railway that took away most of its trade.
07:18It has to cope with a rise of 360 feet from one end to the other.
07:25The engineers solved the problem in a most spectacular way.
07:36As we enter the lock, the Swan slides into an underwater cradle.
07:47In an engine room built beside the canal, mighty wheels are slowly powered into action,
07:52which turn a drive wheel, which turns a cable, which will slowly draw the boat, secure in
07:58its watery hammock, out of the water and up the hill.
08:14This is pretty remarkable, because we've been dragged out of the canal, onto dry land.
08:21It's not a lock system, it's a slipway system, and basically the boat has to be raised a
08:26hundred metres in the course of the canal, and this is one of these locks, and I've never
08:31seen anything quite like this, so instead of just being in a water lock, you're actually
08:34taken out of the water, and up the hill.
09:01What amazes me is that no one bats an eyelid at the sight of a boat going up a hill.
09:26Well, it has been doing this for 140 years, I suppose.
09:55Climbs over the hill were eased gently back into the water.
10:05This whole wonderful Heath Robinson process will happen four more times before they reach
10:09Ostruda.
10:10Amazing, we've come over the hill, the rails have led us up, we're now back in the water
10:17again, which ceased to be a railway, we're now on a boat again, extraordinary.
10:26Really delightful, if cumbersome machinery, raised above the countryside.
10:38I'm not going all the way to the end, as I have to be back in Elblanc for a professional
10:42engagement, with a top cabaret.
10:46Well, this could be another career break.
10:48I've been asked by a group called Annie Mroomroo.
10:51They're a Polish group, they're very popular, very successful.
10:54Annie Mroomroo means, shh, don't worry, or something like that, which I quite like that.
10:59Anyway, they know of Python, they know I'm in town, and asked me to come and do a small
11:03part, so I'll do my best.
11:12I'm rushed to wardrobe to discuss my costume with one of the stars.
11:15Martin, what do you think, shorts?
11:17Yeah, it's very nice.
11:18I brought them with me, because I knew they'd come in useful somewhere on my trip to Poland.
11:23Yeah, yeah, they're very nice.
11:25And what with the...
11:26From Milan or...
11:27From Milan, yeah, yeah, especially with that, I like that sort of hat.
11:30Jean-Paul Gaultier.
11:31Jean-Paul Gaultier, yeah.
11:32You know, it's like a codpiece, coming out of your hip.
11:35Yeah, it looks like.
11:36Cookie?
11:37Yeah, kind of weird.
11:40When you do these shows, is the humour satirical?
11:45I mean, what makes your audience laugh?
11:48You never know.
11:49It's like...
11:50Well, you know Monty Python.
11:51Yeah, yeah.
11:52You must have seen him.
11:53Lots of people in Poland know you.
11:59And now joining a Polish group.
12:01So there!
12:02Cleve, Idol, Jones, and another one.
12:08I've been given the role of a five-year-old boy, a big test for any method actor.
12:15Oh, dear.
12:17Upside, still upside.
12:20That's too grown up.
12:21That's too...
12:22Silly.
12:24I suppose silly is what it's all about.
12:26Oh, dear.
12:29Or maybe...
12:30I don't know.
12:31And a little one from Stróga.
12:33Maciej, come on!
12:34I'm about to fly out of the house!
12:38Anyway, darlings, if you just...
12:40Give me a moment.
12:41Give me a moment.
12:43Just give me a moment.
12:46Yes.
12:47I'm ready.
12:49I'm ready.
12:51I'm ready.
12:52I'm ready.
12:53I'm ready.
12:54I'm ready.
12:55I'm ready.
12:56I'm ready.
12:57I'm ready.
12:58I'm ready.
12:59I'm ready.
13:00I'm ready.
13:04The sketch is a satire on pop stars who use sweet little children in their act.
13:21I've modelled my performance on the theme of over-excitement.
13:28And incontinence.
13:30Fortunately, I don't know the Polish for get off.
13:34Wielkie brawa!
13:36Michael Perrin i kameradanie w Romunowu.
14:04I hung around in ElblÄ…g for a while, but the phone didn't ring.
14:22So I'm off to Warsaw.
14:27Warsaw, the Polish capital, will be the midpoint of my journey.
14:30Before carrying on to Poznań, then south to Krakow and the Slovakian border.
14:45Warsaw suffered dreadfully in World War II.
14:49In his fury at the uprising of 1944, Hitler ordered the city removed from the map.
14:55Over 800,000 citizens died or disappeared.
14:59After the war, Poland's capital was rebuilt by the communists.
15:18Stalin gave this palace of culture to the Poles to show how much they meant to the USSR.
15:24Did you want it?
15:25Apparently he gave us a choice.
15:26You either get a metro system or a palace of culture.
15:29And he said, well, can we have metro, please?
15:30And he said, OK, I'll give you the palace.
15:32That's how it started.
15:34My guide is Polish journalist Monica Richardson.
15:38Well, you can see, really, it sort of plonks itself down right in the middle of a city,
15:41like some alien creature.
15:43Do you feel that?
15:44Like a scar.
15:45From Warsaw?
15:46Absolutely.
15:47It does cut the city right in half.
15:50Yeah.
15:51When you look out at your city from here, do you find it a little grey?
15:58Do you think it's a beautiful city?
16:00No, it's not a beautiful city, but it's a working city.
16:02I have a lot of respect for it.
16:04It's, you know, a good down-to-earth city of people who have busy lives.
16:08I mean, you get a great view of the city without having to see the palace of culture.
16:13I suppose in that way, it's better being in it than being out there looking at it.
16:18Absolutely.
16:19It's an awful place.
16:21Well, it's got a certain grandeur.
16:24An edifice like this brings to mind some form of architectural imperialism.
16:30Plonked down to dominate the subjugated people.
16:34Very true, but it's become a symbol of Warsaw, whether we're happy about this or not.
16:38Just like the fact that Warsaw is such an old, new city.
16:42An old, new city, yeah.
16:44It's kind of like an Eiffel Tower, in a sense.
16:47Indeed.
16:49Love it or loathe it.
16:52This is the Congress Hall.
16:54This is where the Communist Party would have its congresses every so many years,
16:58just to explain to people why things haven't turned out just quite as beautifully as they were going to.
17:04All the delegates would be sitting here from all over Poland,
17:07and the leaders would be up there talking for hours on end,
17:11and people sort of dozing away as it's all televised live for days and days.
17:15The irony is that people like Bob Dylan have come and performed here now,
17:19and I'm sure they knew nothing about the history of this place.
17:22Yeah, it reflects the history.
17:24And of course, you know, a few days ago, this was Miss World.
17:27I know.
17:29It took place on the same stage that these fiery Communist leaders would have given their rhetoric.
17:32How bizarre.
17:34What would Stalin make of that?
17:36I'm sure he's turning in his grave.
17:38That would make a sound.
17:40That would be a sort of 10.6 on the Richter scale, Stalin turning in his grave.
17:43Left in the wake of the onrushing Reds is the ruined city of Warsaw,
17:47seen of an indescribable five-year reign of terror.
17:50But at last, the exiled population, though still alive,
17:54are able to return to the shells of their former homes.
17:57For once more, the Polish flag flies over Warsaw.
18:03It is remarkable that this was rebuilt after the war.
18:08This is complete rubble.
18:11This has been built in my lifetime.
18:13Rather than 300 years ago.
18:15Yes, it was rebuilt to the exact specifications of the way it had been in the 18th century,
18:21rather than directly after the war.
18:23Because for some reason, the architects decided that the 18th century
18:27was when the old town in Warsaw was at its biggest glory, highest glory,
18:31and that's how they did it.
18:33But in a sense, it's completely artificial.
18:35It was supposed to be very beautiful, wasn't it, Warsaw?
18:37Yes.
18:38People compared it with Paris.
18:40Yes.
18:42It actually is a testimony to the amazing effort of those people
18:46who in 1945-46 decided to actually keep this the capital of Poland,
18:52which wasn't, if you think about it, all that obvious at all.
18:5585% of it was in rubble.
18:58Do you think places like this, these squares,
19:02that have been beautifully restored,
19:04is that sort of helping to remind Poland of a past, a golden past?
19:09Because after all, there was a time when Poland was a big player in Europe,
19:13much bigger than Russia or Germany.
19:15Do people harp back to that?
19:17No.
19:19I think I can see where you're coming from asking that question,
19:23but no, I don't think we've got any illusions of grandeur,
19:27past or present or future dreams of it.
19:29I think we just want to be taken seriously
19:33as a nation that's a force in Europe,
19:36as a nation that's got fantastic history to it.
19:39As a brave nation that, however, has something to offer here and now,
19:43rather than being a martyr for generations and generations.
19:50Plenty of Poles have come to work in the UK,
19:53but I'm off to meet an Englishman who's happier working in Poland.
19:57He's a Cockney called Kevin Aston.
20:00He came here 15 years ago without a visa,
20:02doing whatever jobs he could find
20:04and picking up the language along the way.
20:06He's ended up in the Polish Fire Brigade.
20:09And when I got the hang of the Polish language
20:13and I felt confident enough,
20:15I knocked on the doors of the Polish Fire Brigade
20:17and said, hi, I want to be a fireman, can I?
20:19Passed all the tests and everything.
20:21They said, sure, come on in.
20:23And today I'm a section leader in the Polish Fire Brigade.
20:25You say lightly that, oh, I learnt the language,
20:29but it must have been very, very difficult.
20:31I find it a very difficult language indeed,
20:33with the dents and the...
20:35Polish actually is amongst five of the most
20:37difficult languages in the world.
20:39I don't know how I've done it.
20:41How did you do it?
20:43Did you do it from books or just from...
20:45No books.
20:46Over a pint with a guy?
20:48Not over a pint, Michael, over about...
20:50I wouldn't even like to think about it
20:52because I'm sure I've drunk a car learning this Polish language.
20:54But the best way to learn Polish really
20:56is to buy a beer, buy the Polish guy a beer,
20:58sit down and chat with him.
21:00How similar are the Poles to the English or how different?
21:02Oh, they're very different.
21:04I wouldn't say similar, they're not similar at all.
21:06They're very, very, very opposites, I would say.
21:08They're opposites which attract, really.
21:10The Poles like the English, the English like the Poles.
21:13Poles, for example, they're very gallant
21:15if you're talking about women.
21:17They kiss women on the hand for hello and goodbye.
21:19An English guy does this, you know,
21:21hi, how are you doing?
21:23So it's a little bit cold and stuff.
21:25The Poles are very hospitable if you go to their house.
21:27They'll empty out the whole fridge
21:29and knock on the neighbour's door
21:31to get their fridge empty to put on their table
21:33in order to entertain you.
21:35I mean, what about your love life here,
21:36is it easy to meet girls, easy to meet?
21:38Yes.
21:40Yes, I did.
21:42When I came out here I was 21, 21, 22.
21:44Not married.
21:46The Polish women are really beautiful.
21:48They really are.
21:50Also very hospitable.
21:52They love English.
21:54They love the English men as well,
21:56not only their language.
21:58But I'm married, so I can't say too much now
22:00because I'm sure my wife's going to watch this film.
22:03I'm married to a Polish woman,
22:05building a house now in the forest
22:07which is coming up very nicely.
22:09I would not be able to do that in Great Britain,
22:11I'm sure of it.
22:13And we have a lovely daughter
22:15whose name actually, by the way, is Chelsea.
22:17So there's a nice piece of English heritage
22:19still being implanted in Poland
22:21and it is being raised in Poland.
22:24So I've still got Great Britain
22:26close to my heart and everything
22:28even though I am a long way away.
22:30But I would say this one thing
22:32for the Poles that are in my country
22:33is that I hope that Great Britain treats them
22:35as well as Poland has treated me here.
22:37That's the best that I could ever wish them, really.
22:40There's something I've always wanted to do.
22:42Michael?
22:44I don't like these gates, they look very serious.
22:46This one is quite serious.
22:48It's a long way down from here, isn't it?
22:50It certainly looks a lot further from here
22:52than it does the other way round.
22:54But we're going to get you down there, Michael,
22:56and we're going to get you down there safely.
22:58What you've got to do on this zeszlisk,
23:00in Polish it's a fire pole,
23:01throw that into your shoulder,
23:03here, here, do not hold it with your hands
23:05because you'll burn them going down.
23:07Do it with your sleeves,
23:09one leg, two legs, and you go.
23:11Got it?
23:13You nearly went then.
23:15Nearly? Okay, I'll go after you.
23:17Alright, so in like that.
23:19Throw it into your shoulder.
23:21That's it.
23:23Go down.
23:25Let gravity take over.
23:27That's brilliant.
23:29Not so bad, eh?
23:31Now let go of the pole, Michael.
23:33Let go of the pole?
23:35Yes.
23:37Oh, don't take it with me.
23:39How was that?
23:41Absolute mon blanc.
23:43So simple.
23:45I can't wait to try it again.
23:51This could be my chance.
24:01Hang on!
24:19I eventually catch up with Kevin at Polish television,
24:22where he's something of a star.
24:24He says he can get me on a top morning TV show.
24:27This could be the break I've been waiting for.
24:29Yes, yes, yes, yes.
24:31Yes, yes, yes, yes.
24:33Yes, yes, yes, yes.
24:34Yes, yes, yes, yes.
24:36Yes, yes, yes, yes.
24:38Yes, yes, yes, yes.
24:46He thinks it would be a good wheeze
24:48to test my Polish pronunciation on camera.
24:50Biękny banek.
24:52Będziemy?
24:54Bardzo.
24:56We're going to be on after an item about ladies' hairdressers.
24:57Witamy Leszka.
24:59Leszku, jak siÄ™ masz?
25:01Leszek Czajka.
25:03Powiedz mu, powiedz mu.
25:05Back in make-up, I asked Kevin
25:07how on earth he got into all this.
25:09I signed a contract for three episodes.
25:11What of?
25:13Of comedy show?
25:14Yeah, yeah.
25:16And that was four years ago.
25:18We're just on Friday,
25:20we're recording the hundredth episode.
25:22Amazing.
25:24You do stage stuff as well?
25:26Yeah, stand-up comedy as well.
25:28In Polish?
25:29Yeah.
25:30To the Polish audience?
25:31My hero in Great Britain,
25:33heroes are Jimmy Jones.
25:35Jimmy Jones.
25:36Jimmy Jones.
25:37Roy Chubby Brown.
25:38No, Lee Evans.
25:39Lee Evans.
25:40I love Lee Evans.
25:42Shall we go, Michael?
25:43We're done, okay.
25:44I'm full.
25:55On the European Union.
25:56Hello, Kevin.
25:57Hello, Rafał.
25:58Hello.
25:59Michael Pali?
26:00Michael Pali?
26:01Hello, Rafał.
26:02Hello.
26:03Listen, this is an idea like from Monty Python.
26:04Right?
26:05Welcome.
26:07This is my honour, really.
26:09I never thought I can shake your hand
26:11because you've created my sense of humour.
26:12Really?
26:14Is that a good thing?
26:15Yes, you're full.
26:16It has an impact on my sense of humour.
26:18Not only on my sense of humour.
26:20Thank you for being here with us.
26:22We know who to blame.
26:23Yes.
26:24So we're going to try and do some Polish.
26:26I'll try to teach Michael some Polish.
26:28How are you?
26:30Very good.
26:37No one will hear you.
26:38What can you hear?
26:42That's a difficult one.
26:43How are you?
26:45Very good.
26:46Look.
26:49It's your handwriting that's so bad.
26:52Very, almost, almost.
26:55Oh, yes.
26:57This is going to be one of your favourites.
26:59Look at that one.
27:00Show this to the camera first.
27:03Alright, we've got this.
27:04What is that, Michael?
27:10Close.
27:13Cimka, mate.
27:15Cimka, everyone.
27:16Can he just say goodbye to the viewers?
27:17Of course.
27:18Right here.
27:19Bye-bye.
27:21Bye-bye.
27:24Thank you, Michael.
27:28Oh, dear, now it's just back to normal life.
27:32The moment of glory is over.
27:35Polish television conquered.
27:37Tomorrow, the world.
27:39The world, in this case, being the great European plain
27:42where Poland was forged over a thousand years ago.
27:46It grew strong and successful until the Russians, the Austrians
27:49and then the Germans swallowed up their land.
27:53It's only now, in the new Europe, that Poland is regaining
27:56its stability, confidence and its history.
28:03Poznan is another picture-postcard piece of restoration.
28:06Its old square, where past meets the present,
28:09is the perfect place to watch the world go by
28:12and sort out the mobile phone offers.
28:16No, no.
28:17No, the thing is, I was on your two-for-one
28:20and I now want to change to the four-for-three,
28:23which is tariff five.
28:27So, I'm going to change to the four-for-three.
28:31I'm going to change to the four-for-three.
28:34Tariff five.
28:36So, four-for-three and tariff five.
28:38And I'm going on to Czestochowa
28:41and then crack off southern Poland.
28:43So, I believe that changes to the special offer then,
28:50which is like...
28:52And I only want it for a week then.
28:53I don't want it for the full three months.
28:55Yeah, I see.
28:56That would be...
28:57Ah, oh, do you?
28:59Ah, that's interesting.
29:00That's interesting.
29:02OK, right.
29:04This is the ten-for-one.
29:07That's wonderful.
29:08And that's only in this part...
29:10Oh, yeah, right.
29:13That's in where?
29:14That's in Moscow.
29:15No, well, I'm not...
29:17I'm not going to Moscow,
29:18but that's a fantastic rate.
29:21Ten-for-one.
29:22I think I might go to Moscow.
29:23I'll have a word with the director anyway, yeah.
29:27Poznan Central Station.
29:29The 858 to Wolsztyn prepares to leave
29:32with a very new driver.
29:34Well, this is it.
29:35This is the mighty oily beast that I shall be driving,
29:38and I've got the outfit.
29:40I might look a bit like a gent's hairdresser,
29:42but this is actually the PKP driver's jacket.
29:45PKP meaning Polish Regional Railways,
29:48and the great thing is this is a scheduled service.
29:51There will be passengers on board.
29:53They haven't been told that a member of a comedy troupe
29:57from England is actually going to be driving them,
29:59and probably just as well.
30:01Anyway, I can't wait to get on, so here we go.
30:03See you later.
30:05Englishman Bob Wyatt was one of the inspirations
30:07behind a very bold operation,
30:10an Anglo-Polish engine-driving school.
30:12Good morning.
30:13Michael.
30:14Carlos.
30:15Carlos.
30:16OK, great.
30:20Michael, do you drive to Wolsztyn?
30:22So I'm told.
30:23If you'll let me drive to Wolsztyn,
30:25I think it seems a dangerously big thing
30:28for me to be in charge of, so...
30:30OK.
30:37I can also be fireman if I want to,
30:39so I've been allowed to practice getting the coal on.
30:48That's why you have to practice.
30:51It's 8.58, and as the commuters pour into Poznan,
30:55it's time to go.
30:58Regulator goes down.
31:00There's always a bit of a gap
31:01between the regulator moving,
31:02the train moving off.
31:10There we are.
31:11The clouds are streaming into...
31:15...into the city.
31:16There we are.
31:17The clouds are streaming into Poznan.
31:22Now I've got to just concentrate.
31:36This isn't Thomas the Tank Engine.
31:38This is the real thing, on a real railway.
31:43With real passengers.
31:46Once we're clear of the main line,
31:48Janos puts me into the driving seat.
31:51And the station ahead...
31:52Little break.
31:53Yeah.
31:54Little break.
32:05All right, it's not Grand Central,
32:07but it's my first station.
32:09I'm rather proud of it.
32:13OK.
32:15OK.
32:18Beautiful.
32:31This is just stopping, you know.
32:33Stopping?
32:34Stopping.
32:36Starting's the bit I like.
32:37Oh.
32:39There we go.
32:40Whoa.
33:05OK.
33:06OK, stick to it.
33:09Oh, no, no, no.
33:11There we are.
33:22Beginning to get the hang of it.
33:36Oh, no.
33:37Oh, no.
33:38Oh, no.
33:39Oh, no.
33:40Oh, no.
33:41Oh, no.
33:42Oh, no.
33:43Oh, no.
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33:45Oh, no.
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39:22Oh, no.
39:23Oh, no.
39:24We have this place where we were free.
39:28This holy icon is a sign of presence, her presence here.
39:34She is here and we believe that she is as a mother, as a queen of Polish nation, of course.
39:41Then the time comes for the Queen of Poland to be hidden again.
40:11Two hours from the monastery is one of the most infamous places in Europe.
40:36Occupied Poland was where the Nazis put their most notorious concentration camps.
40:43This, one of the earliest, is in the town of Oswiecim, in German Auschwitz.
40:56Converted in 1940 from a Polish army barracks, Auschwitz I is where the techniques of mass
41:01killing were honed.
41:07This was one of the gas chambers and these are some of the first ovens developed to destroy
41:13quickly and efficiently all traces of organized murder.
41:23In the rooms where men, women and children were incarcerated are displays of what was
41:28found when the camp was finally liberated.
41:36Canisters of the killing gas Cyclone B.
42:02Piles of human hair.
42:25And somehow most moving of all for me, the bags and suitcases that once contained someone's
42:31last possessions.
42:36And on them the names of their owners, written in hope.
42:58I suppose it's good that places like this are still here, with the evidence of brutality
43:03kept in good condition.
43:05But I wish I could believe that people will never be like this again.
43:14I've reached Krakow.
43:16My conveyance this morning is the Trabant.
43:20Made in East Germany, it was the people's car of communist Europe.
43:25Thank you, thank you very much.
43:28Hello there, good morning.
43:30I'm Michael.
43:34Let's go.
43:36Reverse.
43:39Great.
43:42Among some young Poles, the humble Trabant has acquired cult status.
43:46Entrepreneurs like my driver Kuba Bialak are using them to offer less conventional city tours.
43:53Tell me about the car, Kuba, the great Trabant.
43:57Here we just got the speed meter.
44:01There's temperature of oil, which of course doesn't work.
44:05And the most tricky thing about Trabant is that it doesn't have a fuel gauge.
44:10There's no fuel gauge and the gas tank is under the hood.
44:14So we've got the hood, the engine and the gas tank.
44:17The gas tank is just by the engine, you know.
44:19So some people claim that it's not too safe.
44:23What are those over there?
44:27This?
44:28A knob, yeah.
44:29So this knob is to turn on the light.
44:32You better have that, because I don't know quite how to use it, where it goes.
44:36Well, me neither, so...
44:39We'll just...
44:41Keep that in your pocket for later.
44:43Yeah, maybe...
44:44Hang on to it.
44:46What's next to it?
44:48The next is for the windscreen...
44:52For lights?
44:53Yeah, this one is for lights.
44:55That's good.
44:56Windscreen wipers, that's fine.
44:58But the lights don't work properly, so I just don't use them until it's dark.
45:04It's too dark.
45:05So there's a heating.
45:06Of course it's not air-conditioned, it's just a basic heating.
45:09But the thing is, I've been doing this for the last six months,
45:12I have no idea how it works.
45:14So we don't know how it works.
45:18For a small car, the Trabant leaves a hell of a carbon footprint.
45:26But Kuba seems undeterred.
45:28It's a minor worry compared to some of his problems.
45:31Quite often, I mean, maybe once in a month or something like that,
45:36the wheels, they fell off.
45:38I mean, not all of the wheels.
45:41It's just the one wheel.
45:43But, you know, we've got four of them, and in two of them the wheels fell off five times.
45:47So, of course, it happened during the tour.
45:50So, you know, we drive a Trabant, like now 60 or something,
45:54and suddenly, well, you are without the wheel.
45:58So you're in the middle of the road, in the middle of the traffic,
46:01and you're in big problem,
46:03because it's not so easy to keep it running quite straight with three wheels holding it.
46:09It's not just the car that's different on Kuba's tour.
46:12It's the destination.
46:14A suburb called Nowa Huta, built in the 1950s as the ideal socialist city.
46:21So, here we are.
46:23Old part of Nowa Huta.
46:25Shape of the semicircle, like a fan.
46:28I can show you a few photos,
46:31because it's good to see how big achievement it was.
46:36Because back in the 50s, so please remember, 1949,
46:40beginning of the whole construction, first settlers.
46:44That's just farmland.
46:46Just the farmland, exactly.
46:49Greenfield, nothing on it.
46:51But in the 10 years, well, take a look what they did.
46:54We've got this central square that we can see on the map.
46:58It's here.
46:59And you see how grand it is.
47:01Very formal.
47:02Very formal.
47:04Kuba shows me the grand arcades of Nowa Huta,
47:07designed to prove that the proletariat
47:09could have a city just as beautiful as anything
47:11in snobby, priest-ridden Krakow.
47:14But in the 1980s, he tells me, it all went wrong.
47:18Like the shipyard workers of Gdansk,
47:20the steelworkers of Nowa Huta rose in protest,
47:23turning on the party and looking instead to the West.
47:28The sight of mountain peaks comes as quite a shock
47:31after weeks on the plain.
47:33Ahead are the high Tatras, half in Poland, half in Slovakia.
47:37I'm in the village of Biała Toczanska,
47:39where the highland wedding is about to take place.
47:43Two all-singing masters of ceremonies
47:46are delivering the bridegroom, a ski instructor,
47:49to the home of his bride-to-be, also a ski instructor.
47:53He's escorted by two bridesmaids,
47:56quite possibly ski instructors.
47:59The wedding is about to take place,
48:01and the high Tatras are ready to welcome the bride and groom.
48:05The wedding is about to take place,
48:07and the high Tatras are ready to welcome the bride and groom.
48:11They're ski instructors.
48:18On arrival at the house, Mariusz is welcomed by his bride Berta,
48:22wearing a heavy, metre-long headdress,
48:24which he's not allowed to take off until the end of a wedding day.
48:35They're serenaded into the house and up to the bride's bedroom.
48:42MUSIC
48:53Here, amidst total lack of privacy,
48:55Mariusz has to take off his shirt
48:57and put on one prepared by his bride.
49:07No fumbling goes unrecorded.
49:11WHISPERING
49:22MUSIC
49:25MUSIC
49:40At some point in the day's crowded programme,
49:43Mariusz and Berta actually get to church and marry each other.
49:55WHISPERING
50:03After the wedding, I take a walk in the hills,
50:06only to find the photographer's got them up here as well.
50:17Berta's being photographed with all the men she hasn't married today.
50:25She seems to be rather enjoying it.
50:32But who am I to talk?
50:49Oh, lovely.
50:56I keep trying to get away, but the photographer's insatiable.
51:06Now the wedding action shifts, bizarrely, to the local fire station.
51:12In small villages like this,
51:14it's often the only place with a room big enough for a party.
51:18MUSIC
51:21I really feel for Berta.
51:23Ski instructing must be a doddle after this.
51:32It's very hard to dance when you are drunk.
51:35Yeah, exactly. Better not drink too badly.
51:39Quite dainty.
51:43A supercharged vodka, specially bottled for this great day,
51:46keeps the 200 guests going.
51:48And going.
51:52This is supposed to be a bit of a comedy performance.
51:54It's supposed to be serious.
51:56CHILDREN SING
52:02We also have kozloweczka.
52:06Kozloweczka means wedding vodka.
52:08All right.
52:11What is wedding vodka? Is that different from normal vodka?
52:14Yes, it's much stronger, I have to say.
52:16It's almost 90%.
52:18This is what these people have been drinking for the last six hours.
52:21Yes. Like two bottles per head.
52:24Wow.
52:26They prepared 1,600 bottles for this wedding.
52:33And they come back tomorrow, don't they, some of them?
52:35Tomorrow is after a party, and they'll be after tomorrow.
52:40They have to bring all these bottles they prepared.
52:43Oh, they know how to get married in these clothes.
52:48I'm very happy for Mariusz and Berta.
52:50This is a night they'll never forget.
52:53And probably never remember.
53:00I'm in the gorge of the Dunajec River,
53:02which, after my long journey through the country,
53:04will take me to the most beautiful place in the world.
53:07My long journey through the country will take me out of Poland.
53:12And as I've learnt here in the Tatras,
53:14mountain people have a special way of doing things.
53:38Well, this for me is the last of Poland.
53:41And I mean literally the last of Poland,
53:43because this river marks the southern border of the country.
53:46So it's farewell and thank you for everything to Poland.
53:51And here we come, Slovakia.
54:07SLOVAKIA
54:37SLOVAKIA