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A monument was being unvcilcd, honoring the heroic Red Army and Polish soldicrs who had died to liberale Lublin. Tens of rhousunds of pcoplc jamrncd the arca for spcCcbcs and a big paradę. The rc-vicwing stand was draped with Polish, Sovict, British and American flags. After Polish soldicrs and one or two companies of Russians marched by, the members of various Polish political partics workers lrom factorics and trade unions paradcd, carrying t banners and slogans. It had a faint aroma of Union Square but it seemed terribly ali vc and vical and quitc normal.

During the long afternoon Ld Angly of the Chicago Sun and I visiccd a Polish family. The father was a landowner—not largo, noc smali. He had Soo aeres about 13 miles cast of Lublin.

The family was tcrnbly upset by the rcsulcs of the Warsa w up-ristng when the Russians failed to takc the city. Also it was obvious chat Papa was going to losc a large sharc of his land. This he seemed to acccpt. Whilc the family supporced Stanisław Mikolojczyk, rhc middlc-of-thc-road premier of the London Polish govcrnmcnt-in-cxilc, they, like other Poles, wcrc adopting a laissez-faire attitude about the new Russian-sponsored Polish committee. Its members wcrc unknown to them. They were waiting. “For what?" 1 asked. No one answered dirccrly, but oneof them said, “We are all countmg so much on the Americans to elear things up.“ We said that was too optimistic.

“I shall burn you alive!”

Whilc we were walking back to the butlding where atro* hearings wcrc bcing hcld we accidentally met Edward Osuhs Morawski, who is chairman of the PCNL, the cxecutivc branch of new Sovicc-sponsored Polish administration in areas west of the Curzon linc. It is responsiblc to the lcgislativc Polish National Council, hcaded by Bolesław Berut, which has bccn holding sessions in Lublin.

Osubska-Morawski took us in a jeep to the hcaring room. On the dats were members of the joint Sovict-Poli$h commission, including Father Krusiński, a Roman Catholic priesc. The first of the German witnesses on rhc stand was followcd by a tali, grisly charactcr named Staub who had bccn a trusty at Majdanek. One day, he testi* fted, lic saw a truckful of prisoners arrivc. They were told to un-dress. One Polish girl, łS or Z9 ycars old, refused. Mussfeld, one of the camp's Ohtrfiihrtr, began to beat her She srrarchcd him yelling, "Why am I to die?" Enraged, Mussfeld roared, “I shall burn you alivc!“ He called two assistants. They grabbed the girl and bound her hands and legs. She was carricd to rhc crcmatorium, where they puc her on one of the iron stretchcrs and slid her inro an oven. Staub rccallcd calmly, "There was one loud scream. Her hair flared up in the flames momcntarily. Then I could sce no morę."

Theodore Scholcn, a Nazi party member, said, “At ńrst sighc of the crematorium I was ashamed.” Then he added, “Then I goc ac-customcd to it." Asked who borc the chief responsibtlicy for Majdanek, he replied, “It musc havc eonie from Berlin."

The last witness was Anton Terness, 5X, who had bccn a German officcr sińce 1916 and rankcd as .1 senior licutcnanc in the SS. He was bald, pouchy, unpleasant. He audited Majdanck s books. There had bcen huge proftts senc homc to Berlin, plus gold watchcs, ri and bracelets wmng from the camp’s yictims.

After the hearings and during one of the intermissions we talkcd to scvcral Poles, including Captain George Borcisza, cditor of hoth the PCNL’s oflicial newspąper, Rzeczpospolita, and the local paper. Gameta Lubelska. "There has bccn much criticism of the comnuttcc by the pcasants," he said. “They want the large church estates broken up but the comnurtcc won't do it."

“Mikolojczyk is nowour party leader," anochcr Pole said. "We know him and rcspecc him. All ovcr Poland he is known and rc-spcctcd. How long lic will be our leader 1 do not know. If he doesn't eonie herc in two months he will 110 longcr be the head of the Polish Pcasant Party as lic was for many ycars. It is not a political qucstlon. It is peace. The pcople want pcacc morc rhau anything."

Others told us that cvery new day there was a "passivc shift" to the new committee. Not acdvc, just a passivc acccptancc of things. The PCNL had discrihuted sugar. They had sheep and goats and pigs flown in from the Sovicc Union. They controlled prices.

At supper I sat nexc to Mary a ^cderęl who was a leader of the Polish Socialist Party. * The'underground is a world you cannor un-derstand,” she said. "F.very day you stood on the fronricr betwcc^-life and dcarh. Men did srrange, bravc things. Now peace is cvct body's politics. . . . That is all, simply. No Germans. Peace. Aftc. fivc ycars isn'c that cnoutth?"