Knowledge

An American visiting Poland for the first time is struck by his own preconceptions and lack of knowledge about, people in this part of the world. Poles have a fairly good idea about what is going on in the United States. Western Europe, and the rest of the world and they know how to evaluate sources of information; but we are woefully ignorant and prejudiced in our views about Eastern Europe.

A Polish girl who spent a summer studying in England was asked by a woman from West Germany whether Poland had its own stamps and currency or whether it was part of the Soviet Union. The same woman, a teacher, wouldn't believe that the attractive clothes the girl was wearing were really her own. "The government outfitted you for the trip," she insisted.

The same kind of naive views exist in the United States, making one wonder where the Iron Curtain really lies. While Eastern Europeans avidly devour whatever sources of information they can find about the outside world, the people of the so-called free world are content to live with their 15-year-old stereotypes of Eastern Europe as a great air-tight prison, rigidly controlled by the Soviet Union.

One imagines people speaking in whispers, secretly trying to listen to radio broadcasts from Western Europe and walking the streets in ugly, ill-fitting clothes. On the contrary, Polish people are outspoken in their political and economic opinions although they caution Western visitors not to write anything until they leave Poland; Radio Luxembourg, the BBC and the Voice of America come in loud and clear and American films and serials are shown on Polish television; and the young women of Warsaw and Krakow are attractive enough to make a man turn his head when they pass him in the street.