Why Did They Shoot the Stanislavs?

"For me, the collapse of Communist East Europe began on August 18, 1980. Yes, on precisely that day." Martin Pollack, then an almost unknown journalist wanting to report on the Solidarity strikes in Danzig, was refused permission to enter Poland. The customs officials at Warsaw airport seemed to behave differently. They seemed nervous, uneasy, almost scared.
For award-winning writer, translator and reporter Martin Pollack, individual events and personal encounters have always provided a means to explore the larger picture. Why, for example, were Stanislaw Mdrek and Stanislaw Grzanka, two Polish forced labourers, shot by Soviet soldiers in 1945 in Southern Burgenland? What is the story behind the two-mile "Bridge of Friendship" connecting the Bulgarian town of Ruse with Giurgiu in Romania? Why did Julian Leszczynski make it his life's work to seize SS member Rolf-Heinz Höppner? In his reports, Martin Pollack creates a multi-faceted panorama of transition – and a manifesto against the much-heralded "end of history".

"Martin Pollack is a master of journalistic literature and literary journalism." (Henryk M. Broder)