What Every American Should Know About Europe

by Melissa Rossi

  Although economically linked to Germany, with which she enjoyed warm relations in the early twentieth century, Luxembourg was twice overtaken by her neighbor—during the first and second world wars. The occupation was far worse the second time. The Nazis quickly launched a charm campaign, heavy on the propaganda, about how Luxembourgers were actually ethnic Germans and should embrace being part of Greater Germany. And then the Nazis held a referendum asking if Luxembourgers wished to join hands geographically as part of Anschluss. One imagines that the propaganda director was soon out of a job: 98 percent of Luxembourgers voted no, using the phrase that is now the national motto: Mir wëlle bleiwe wat mir sin—“We wish to stay as we are,” i.e., independent. Furious, Nazis annexed Luxembourg anyway, rounding up the many dissidents and shooting them or sending them off to concentration camps. Luxembourgers were forced to speak only in German, and names that smacked faintly of French were Germanized. Even the name of their country was erased: it became Gau Moselland, or the district of Moselle country. The resistance grew stronger with general strikes and railway closures, particularly when the Nazis began calling up Luxembourg boys.3 But Luxembourg was really hammered in the Battle of the Bulge—one of the bloodiest showdowns in European history.

  BATTLE OF THE BULGE

  By December 1944, the Allies had liberated Paris and Rome, chased the Nazis out of Belgium and Luxembourg, and were moving toward Germany. After months of heavy fighting, troops were fatigued, supplies were low, and the advancing front was thinning. Seeing a weakness in the formation as the Allies took a break, Hitler made a last-ditch effort to win the war. His plan: breach the front—forming a “bulge” where his tanks could break through—make a run for Antwerp in Belgium, and seize that port city and the land on the way to it. Three hundred thousand Nazis advanced on Allies starting on December 16, 1944, snatching back liberated territory. General Patton’s troops, en route to Germany, quickly returned to engage in the war’s fiercest fighting, worsened by the nasty winter—one of history’s most frigid. Allied troops, poorly outfitted for the brutal cold, were blinded by snow that fell so thick that fighters could not see twenty feet away. In the agonizing battle that dragged on for six weeks, American deaths and casualties numbered over 75,000, and German casualties were nearly 68,000. Germany finally conceded defeat on January 27, 1945.

  Invaded and occupied by Germany during both world wars despite claiming neutrality, Luxembourg ditched that apparently worthless concept after 1945, and signed on as a founding member of NATO. Now she is a partner in a controversial military coalition with Belgium, Germany, and France, called the European Security and Defense Union, which the United States sees as threatening to NATO (and to the American ability to manipulate Europe).

  Luxembourg’s major industrial moneymaker, Arbed, is Europe’s biggest steel supplier.

  Hot Spots

  Luxembourg City: Stacked on a hill, the handsome capital city is brimming with everything needed by the wealthy: banks, fancy restaurants, wine stores, a medieval old town, and a modern urban center. But she gets plenty of beauty sleep, locking up early. Siegefroid’s castle was dismantled in the 1800s, but parts of the casements—the labyrinthine escape routes that coil around under it—still remain, and the pedestrian way that winds down from the hill is called the most beautiful balcony in Europe.

  Ardennes: Low mountains rise above thick woods in this northern region of rolling pastureland, meandering rivers, and such attractions as the Valley of the Seven Castles. Known for romantic inns and for her violent past: much of the Battle of the Bulge played out here.

  Luxembourg’s vineyards are mostly in the south, which is called “the good country.”

  Hotshots

  Grand Duke Henri: Reigning monarch, 2000–present. Bourbon-blooded and handsome Henri has been unofficially running the place since 1998, but his dad, respectable Grand Duke Jean, officially abdicated and handed over the keys in 2000; Henri’s likeness adorns the one-euro coin. With his wife, Cuban-born Maria Teresa, he is boosting the Catholic country’s low birth rate. The royal couple’s offspring number five thus far.

  Jean-Claude Juncker: Prime Minister, 1995–present. Smart, kindly, and slightly nerdy Christian Democrat Juncker is pushing through banking changes and new financial laws that are yanking off the country’s veil of secrecy. It’s a delicate balancing act, since what makes Luxembourg rich is her banking attractiveness.

  PM Juncker, popular at home and in Brussels

  General George S. Patton (1885–1945): A national hero, the three-star American general helped liberate Luxembourg, and his quick actions in the last months of the war prevented the Nazis from prevailing at the Battle of the Bulge. In 1945, while in Hamm, Luxembourg, he was in a gruesome road accident that left him paralyzed; he died several days later. He’s buried in Luxembourg, where a George Patton museum honors him.

  Neo-Nazis: Yes, they are here too. At their only recorded “march” the participants numbered but four.

  News you can understand: 352, a weekly paper in English: www.352.lu

  PART II

  NEW EUROPE

  INTRODUCTION

  The ten countries that entered the European Union on May 1, 2004, aren’t actually “new”—their histories and cultures go back for centuries, even millennia. To Western Europeans, however, they are all novel indeed, being mysterious places with names like “Ljubljana” and “Vilnius,” that for much of the twentieth century lived in a dark parallel universe that the rest of Europe tried to ignore.

  Most of “New Europe” was reborn in the 1990s: when the Soviet Union fell, the three Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), Poland, and Czechoslovakia reestablished independence, with Czechoslovakia going on to divide into two; Slovenia was born in 1991 when Yugoslavia broke up. Cyprus and Malta are the relative elders of the bunch—they’ve been independent since the 1960s.

  NEW EUROPE

  Poland: Most people

  Hungary: Most glum, most Roma

  Estonia: Most proud, best-behaved

  Latvia: Most vulnerable

  Lithuania: Most likely to be site of next Chernobyl

  Czech Republic: Most skeptical

  Slovak Republic: Most likely to be overlooked

  Slovenia: Most promising

  Cyprus: Most likely to be schizophrenic

  Malta: Most likely to bolt

  Excluding the Mediterranean islands Cyprus and Malta—both former British colonies—the new EU countries came out of Communism, and, except for Slovenia, they were closely bound up with the Soviet Union, being either republics or satellites that spent almost five decades with Moscow panting down their necks. Becoming independent again only in the past decade and a half, these former Communist states are fledglings, filled with energy and hope but still bearing a few scars from their not-so-distant past. More than simply being repressed under the Soviets, who steamrolled their rebellions, these countries—most of them devastated during the Second World War—didn’t have much of a chance to heal: under the Communists, those ugly days were simply swept under the rug. Unlike Western Europe, which had six decades to rebuild itself and forge friendships with former enemies, these countries are still confronting issues that go back to the 1940s—or sometimes even to the First World War.

  These new EU members see the European Union as the great equalizer that can shell out the funds for agriculture and infrastructure that many need, and provide wider markets, and help attract more foreign investment. They also view the EU as the way to reconnect with the past that was ripped away. And plenty of them eye the EU rather warily, unsure that Brussels won’t simply replace Moscow in dictating what they can and can’t do.

  Another feature that most of these countries share is that they are not as wealthy as those in the West, save for Slovenia and Cyprus, which have GDP levels around those of Spain and Portugal.

  While there’s plenty of excitement about reconnecting with their European kin in the West, some of these countries are still peev
ed at Western Europe, for letting them fall to Communism and, despite encouraging them to rebel, not showing up to help when they defied Moscow. And the one thing that disappoints almost all is that the West seems utterly clueless about who they are, what they’ve been through, and the history that links them to the Continent. But for all the twitchiness of the moment, all across “New Europe” there’s also a sense of exciting change and regeneration, and a joy at being brought back to the table with the European family.

  17. POLAND

  (Polska)

  Split Personality

  FAST FACTS

  Country: Republic of Poland; Rzeczpospolita Polska

  Capital: Warsaw

  Government: Republic

  Independence: November 11, 1918, independent republic proclaimed; 1989 independence from Soviet Union (Poland was a Soviet satellite)

  Population: 38,537,000 (2006 estimate)

  Head of State: President Lech Kaczynski (2005)

  Head of Government: Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski (2006)

  Elections: President by direct public elections every five years; prime minister appointed by president, approved by Sejm

  Name of Parliament: National Assembly; Zgromadzenie Narodowe (Sejm and Senat)

  Ethnicity: 97% Polish; 0.4% German; 2.6% Ukrainian, Belarussian, and other

  Religion: 95% Roman Catholic; 5% Eastern Orthodox, Protestant

  Language: Polish

  Literacy: 99% (2003 estimate); 25% may be functionally illiterate

  Famous Exports: Chopin, Copernicus, “the Polish Plumber”

  Economic Big Boy: PKN Orlen (oil and gas operations); 2004 total sales: $6.53 billion1

  Per Capita GDP: $12,700 (2005 estimate)

  Unemployment: 17.2% (January 2006 Eurostat figure)

  Percentage in Poverty: 17% (2003 official estimate); some figures say 40%

  EU Status: Joined May 2004

  Currency: Polish zloty

  Quick Tour

  From the mammoth bison that roam forests of ancient oaks to the snow-crusted Tatra Mountains peering over farms with oxen-pulled plows, Polska has always lived in a different world—or a few of them simultaneously. Straddling Russia and Germany—a lethal position for centuries—Poland was yanked back and forth between them for much of recent history, and she’s now pulled between her own past and present: landscapes of medieval villages and Renaissance castles are broken by smokestacks of steel towns, the donkey-drawn carts on two-lane highways are swept aside by trucks and Mercedes, the farmlands that once fed most of Europe are now Europe’s least productive, and Poland’s former greatness is now captured mostly in history books that few outside Poland read.

  CHEERING POLES

  Few Americans (or Europeans, for that matter) are aware of Poland’s many collective contributions. A few examples: Poles saved the city of Vienna from being pulled into the Ottoman Empire, pointed out that the sun is the center of our planetary system, made population growth possible in medieval Europe, deduced that air is a mixture of substances, created some of the world’s most stirring piano concertos, discovered radioactivity, and were the most dynamic force in knocking down Soviet Communism. They also claim they invented vodka, but the Russians disagree.

  The Big Gal of central Europe, Polska is by far the most significant of the ten countries that joined the European Union in 2004. Poland is weightiest in terms of size (nearly as large as Germany), people (more populous than the other nine together), and economic output (bigger than the next three countries’ GDPs combined). More than any other Communist country, Poland won the world’s heart in 1989, when, led by Lech Walesa and Solidarity, she broke out of her shackles and triggered the downfall of the Soviet Union. So moving was this country’s heroic uprising, so promising was her newly opened economy, and so hopeful was the mood, that Poland alone was the impetus for the European Union to fling open its door and welcome in first Poland and then other countries from the East.

  Since linking arms with the European Union, Poland is finding new muscle: she commands more EU funding than any other country. Over the next six years, some $110 billion in EU money will wing toward Polish coffers, much of it earmarked for modernizing the lost-in-the-dark-ages rural parts and helping out the millions of farmers who tend them. Additional moolah is flapping in from the World Bank and the United States.

  After centuries of withering in the shadows of her neighbors, Poland now cuts a striking profile as a major European player—and not just in the European Union, where she is cozying up to the big babes on campus—France, Germany, Britain, Italy, and Spain. The country is also now a significant name in NATO and will take over NATO operations in Afghanistan in 2007.

  DOES UNCLE SAM HAVE A DEAL FOR YOU!

  Having been kicked around by Russia for centuries, post-Communist Poland was easily wooed by NATO, the U.S.-dominated security force created during the Cold War to keep the Soviet Union in check. Infuriating Moscow, Poland joined NATO in 1999, the first former Soviet satellite to do so. Poland promptly signed up for the biggest arms sale ever in central Europe, ordering forty-eight F-16 fighter planes from Lockheed Martin, the strongest lobbyist for NATO expansion. To sweeten the $3.5 billion deal, Lockheed Martin and the U.S. government promised to lure American companies to Poland as part of a $6.9 billion foreign investment package.

  The fledgling republic is also President Bush’s biggest fan. A 2005 attitude survey of Europeans, Transatlantic Trends, showed that 52 percent of Poles approved of Bush’s foreign policies—the highest level of support in Europe, higher even than Bush’s foreign policy approval rate in the U.S.2 Poland was also Europe’s most visible supporter of the 2003 invasion of Iraq; she sent troops for the reconstruction, and the Polish military stayed even when most other countries yanked their troops back. And with the right-wing Law and Justice Party heading the government, Poland is now waving her hand wildly in the air to be selected as a site for the American missile defense shield program.

  POLAND AND THE U.S.

  Poland isn’t snuggling up to the U.S. simply because she is loyal. Money and security are two motivating factors: backing the U.S. in Iraq spelled billions of dollars for Poland. The government was compensated for sending the military to Iraq, and Polish defense contractors, wounded when the Soviet Union fell, raked in needed biz: munitions maker Bumar alone stood to make more than $500 million from what was viewed as the “Iraqi Opportunity.” And Poland won’t be paying anything to be part of the missile defense shield; it’s more likely that the U.S. will be paying Poland to use the territory, which could become sovereign U.S. land. And there’s a payback implied in Poland’s pro-U.S. rah-rah-ing: Poland is very much expecting the United States, with or without NATO, to help fight Russia back if she moves on Poland. “The support for American military in Iraq,” wrote the Warsaw Voice in 2004, “…is treated as nothing short of a guarantee of across-the-board help on the part of the U.S.”3

  And Poland is showing her clever side, devising novel ways to put herself on the map. In 2004, when the French and other Western Europeans began sniveling that Polish workers (symbolized by “the Polish Plumber”) might take their jobs, the Polish Tourism Board initiated a brilliant campaign. The new poster featured a handsome “Polish Plumber” saying he’d rather stay in Polska, but inviting Europeans to visit. Even more effective in boosting tourism: a new Polish airline, Centralwings, is zipping passengers from Britain to Poland for some $30 round-trip.

  So if everything is so darn peachy, why are Poles among the European Union’s most unhappy people? Why is Poland causing the EU to fret, and why is the country gaining a global rep as a pain in the neck? The answer has to do with leadership—or lack thereof—and the pressing need for Poland to grow up. Here in the land where corruption runs rife (Poles, reports the Economist, are legendary cheats even on school exams), nearly 18 percent are jobless, more than anywhere else in the EU. And the employed are grossly underpaid. Doctors recently held a massive strike protesting their pay of
$3 an hour; teachers make about $300 a month. Many Poles are fleeing in a brain drain that is diminishing the population by 0.5 percent yearly.

  The national tourism board is trying to carve a new international image, but representatives in London apparently can’t get around to answering repeated e-mails from travel writers or sending out newsletters to those who wish to travel there. But the most inept people in the land may be those now warming up the government power seats. Flaming nationalists, anti-Semites, and the extremely devout are all vying for power—and some say the Law and Justice Party, which won in 2005, combines elements of all three.

  MEET THE TWINS!

  Imagine if Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen turned into screaming nationalist conservatives, went on a religious kick, and took to running the country. That’s the simplified take on Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the fervently Catholic identical twins who campaigned on bringing a “Moral Revolution” to Poland. Critics say their “revolution” consists of stripping gay rights, backing the death penalty, and ensuring that abortion in Poland remains illegal—as well as bringing Catholicism even more to the forefront, instilling nationalism, and gunning for former Communists. The mischievous child stars of the famous Polish movie The Two Who Took the Moon starred in the 2005 parliamentary elections. Their Law and Justice Party was loudly supported by controversial Catholic station Radio Maryja, which reportedly overstepped Vatican rules by insisting that good Catholics would vote for the Law and Justice Party; reading between the lines, one might imply that those who didn’t would go to hell. Lech Kaczynski stepped in as president, and in 2006, Jaroslaw became prime minister. The twins immediately teamed Law and Justice up in a flimsy coalition with two of Poland’s most outrageous parties: Self Defense (an angry farmer’s party known for hurling spuds at visiting dignitaries and worse) and the ultra-right League of Polish Families, whose virulent youth group includes neo-Nazi skinheads. The coalition partners immediately raised eyebrows, but so have the actions of the twins’ government. The EU and Human Rights Watch are so concerned about the government’s attacks on homosexuals, whose gay pride marches are now often prohibited, that they’ve both written warning letters underscoring the importance of human rights to all. With all the scandals, the heat is on for the twins to call a new election—one which many hope they won’t win.