♪ >> hello and very warm welcome to "european journal" coming to you from dw studios in brussels. commemoration -- like the famine continues to haunt ukrainians. discovery along roman roads in germany. and devotion -- how a nun is trying to bring peace to sarajevo. they say that one man's loss is another man's gain, and in the netherlands, the socialist

party could benefit from the fact that dutch voters have had enough of the current right-wing government. the dutch are heading to the polls in a few days because the ruling coalition collapsed earlier this year. there was a major disagreement over how best to handle europe's debt crisis, and now say -- some say this election is another chance for the socialists to take back power. >> it is an oasis in the otherwise vibrant city of amsterdam -- a community project that seems stuck in another time. hear, the left-wing ideals of the 1960's and 1970's live on. everyone pitches in without being paid. some work in the organic garden. others in the kitchen or the community store where used clothes and housewares are given away for free. caterina helps out twice a week in the store, a painter by profession. here she says she can live out her ideals.

>> left is on the site where the heart is. >> we are trying to be as non- commercial as possible. we are environmentally conscious, child friendly, socially engaged. we take care of people here in the neighborhood. people can come here and drink coffee or celebrate, even if they do not have much money. >> people here would like to change the world, but many seem to doubt that the revolution will happen at the ballot box. this man does not know if he will vote himself. he says there are no truly left- wing parties anymore. >> it does not matter how people vote -- right, left, or green. as soon as a party gets into power, they do the same as everyone else.

they have to compromise. >> but not everyone has given up. the head of the socialist party is making every effort to present his brand of politics as a relaunch of the left. the socialists are hoping that their anti-austerity message will bring him to power in the upcoming elections. >> i am not against saving money, but i am it against saving until your country goes broke. we need healthy finances, but we cannot live -- let the economy and social structure collapsed. >> his message seems to be hitting home. in recent polls, socialists have held a strong lead, for the first time in the country's history. >> he is on our side. he will fight for old people and our pensions. we worked hard our whole lives. i deserve to get something out of that. >> i think he does what he promises.

>> he is a person of substance with traditional values, and that is something we can really use here in this country. >> he comes off as a solid man, almost conservative, without a trace of it define revolutionary. nevertheless, the dutch socialist party has its roots in communism. in the 1970's, it was known as a marxist/leninist party. political societies studied the approval of such voters. he says the socialists' new more moderate image has been a critical element of their popularity. >> they have moderated their stance. we were a communist party in the 1970's and have basically transformed into a version of social democracy, and that has made them, i think, a tractor for the broader electorate. -- a tractor for the broader electorate. >> but some feel betrayed by the party's new orientation.

they miss the days when politicians have the courage to take on the system at a fundamental level. >> there is not a single big party in the netherlands or in europe that has any idea how to solve the crisis. they are trying to keep the system going to make sure the powerful people stay in power. they just pump more air into the system to keep it running however they can. >> there's enough money to go around, but it is divided up the wrong way. there's enough food. there's enough land, but a few people own it all. something has to change, but the politicians prefer to scare us. they only care about staying in power. >> many people here say that is true of the socialists as well. they are part of the system. in this neighborhood, people prefer to act on their own initiatives.

in the courtyard garden, workers plant organic vegetables and herbs. their commitment to leftist values is apparent in the neighborhood restaurant -- a three-course meal costs five euros, which does not leave much room for profit. >> ukrainians have another two months before they go to the polls as well. the country is europe's biggest in terms of size, and historically, the population has been divided into two sides. the parties that represent them -- one blue, one orange -- have very different ideas about their future. kiev turn east towards moscow or become a member of the european union? the devices also makes it so difficult for ukraine to come to terms with one of the darkest chapters in its history.

>> sometimes, the prettiest landscapes conceal the most terrible secrets. in the darkest -- and the darkest shadows fall on the sunniest of days. pit is hard to imagine the millions of ukrainians once starved to death in this fertile land of plenty. on this beautiful day, we have come to a village 100 kilometers south of kiev. the former mayor takes us to the home of alexander, who just turned 91 -- alexandra, who just turned 91. she was 12 at the time of the famine. >> we had nothing to eat. every night, we would dream of bread. we could not think of anything else. just a little scrap of bread.

the first in my class to die -- his mother laid him on the table and dressed him in a sailor suit. >> as many as 4 million people starved to death in ukraine in 1932 and 1933, but the famine was not a natural disaster. it was caused by joseph stalin. in his drive to collectivize agriculture, he forced farmers to relinquish their entire crops, even seen. moscow than it exported much of the grain and left the ukrainians with nothing. hunger lead the people to do terrible things. >> in our neighborhood, the

people went crazy with hunger. two parents chopped their boy up, cook and eat him -- their own son. afterwards, they put out his bones in a pot on the street. >> during soviet times, people were not allowed to speak of it -- of this famine. only after achieving independence and the ukraine publicly remember the victims, and only after the orange revolution of 2004/2005 was a memorial to their memory created and a small museum opened in kiev. but the decades of silence and then i'll have left their mark. many, especially pro-russian ukrainians, are still unwilling to of knowledge what happened 80 years ago. even today, this man-made famine which killed millions, is a highly politicized topic, one which divides the country.

>> the pro-russian government under president victory on a code which does not wish to deal with this dark chapter in our history. but until we do that, we will not be a united nation for a true democracy. >> the soviet-era mayer discovered a mass grave full of famine victims. no one was willing to talk about it, so he decided to erect a memorial to them. the very next day, the kgb arrived and whisked him off to kiev. today, the russian secret police are gone, but the denial and repression continued. he has to watch as the statue of a mother holding a dead child crumbles away before his eyes. he would like to build a museum but cannot find funding, so

instead, he is collecting memories, like those of 91-year- old alexandra, who narrowly escaped death when she was 12. >> i was in the woods with my sister, looking for edible roots. suddenly, a campbell stood before us. he had a long knife, and everyone knew that he used it to kill children and keep them in his home. i'll never forget his face, his eyes -- those predators eyes. he was only four steps away from us an almost caught my sister and me. but we ran for our lives. >> alexandra's harrowing tale is enough to make anyone shiver, and yet, she is warm and gracious. after keeping silent for so many

years, she is glad to finally be able to tell her story. she thanked us for coming, listening, and making sure the famine is not forgotten again. >> in the last part of our summer series, journeys in europe, we take you on a discovery tour of what you could call europe's a very first proper roads. some 2000 years ago, the romans revolutionize your of with their network of roads while germanic and tell the tribes were still crawling through bushes on natural trails. the romans were able to transport commercial goods and legions into the very far corners of their empire. one road led through what is today germany towards the roman provincial capital in the east. >> hour journey begins in this

quaint city that was once the site of a roman fort. the local history museum has a few artifacts, but other than that, there is not much left from the romans except in the hotel room of -- rooma -- roma. if years ago, the hotel was bought and refurbished. when workers discovered traditional roman artifacts, they were turned into a breakfast room. >> of first that thought it was a curse, but now it realized -- i realize it is a blessing. it is something unique and works in well. >> we are traveling some of the ancient roman roads that crisscross southern germany. today, a bicycle path follows much of this route and is part of the region's efforts to encourage more tourism.

roman roads form the backbone of the roman empire. they enabled roman legions to quickly move around and defend the entire's frontiers. students were doing experimental archaeology, wearing apple -- after replicas of the equipment roman soldiers carried i intend to see how far roman troops could walk on a hot summer day -- in an attempt to see how far roman troops could walk. >> to dependent a lot on the distances being shorter or whether it was in hostile territory, where we know that it forced marches up to 50 kilometers a day carrying lighter loads. >> the road crosses the river. foot weary roman soldiers almost 2000 years ago no doubt enjoy

the cool water just as much as these students do today. memo with equipment that wait a good 25 or 30 kilos, we can be pretty sure that roman soldiers were in much better shape than we are today and could deal with these loads a lot better than we have today. >> experimental archaeology brings the ancient world to live in a way that more traditional archaeology cannot. many of the students attending information day at the high school are fascinated.

>> it is great. it is super how they used certain helmets and fought in a certain sequence, who they fought and why. it is really nice that we can do something like this, that we can try this out ourselves. >> sophie is interested less in the gladiators than the field kitchen. what did roman soldiers eat on their marches? another question that experimental archaeology can help answer. >> the advantage of this kind of work is that you come to conclusions you cannot get from normal sources. >> south of munich, the road turns straight south and passes through a forest before it reaches the modern equivalent of a roman road. six or more lanes and the constant roar of high-speed

traffic. roman troops would have needed several days to reach salzburg from here. today, it is less than two hours away. salzburg was the southern end of the road. it split with one branch heading south toward the adriatic sea and the other going east to what is now vienna. aside from the usual museum artifacts, there is not much left of the romans. so we consult our navigation system and discover it is not what we had hoped for -- just an unremarkable suburban side street. we turn east and go toward vienna. in roman times, it was an important provincial capital where the european amber road crossed the roman frontier.

today, it is a museum that includes three roman buildings that have been rebuilt on their original locations. two villas and a bath. this is not some ancient fairy land but a fascinating glimpse of life 1700 years ago. >> look at these thermal spas. we just tried them out. sat there by the water and soap. they are really comfortable today. >> it is striking how modern roman architecture looks even today, a reminder of the time that had a lasting influence on europe. >> the superiority of vermiculture at the time and its many achievements can still be seen today in things like the road system, the legal system, the political system. here, there was an elected local council. all that is still with us.

>> europe's roads in places like this remind us that though rome they have conquered the continent by force and conquest, it was also the first to unite europe. >> if you are 20 and lived in bosnia-herzegovina, you most certainly grew up in the middle of a terrible war. some 100,000 people died in the mid-1990's in the conflict. after yugoslavia disintegrated, there were fears tensions over religious and ethnic identities in the region. in the capital, sarajevo, these tensions persist even today. one swiss none is trying to help the young generation overcome them. >> sarajevo, 6:00 in the morning. the system leaves her franciscan cloister and starts her way to work. sarajevo is a multicultural city. the skyline is full of minarets,

and church towers and synagogues, but it is still divided by faith and ethnicity. she does youth ministry work for young people of all faiths, an unusual job these days. it is the morning conference at a drug addiction prevention association. social workers are muslims, catholics, and a piece. she does not know the release of her fellow care givers. >> we do not talk about it. that is what makes our situation special. >> the bosnian war ended in 1995, but tensions from the conflict run deep in this multi- ethnic country. 11,000 people died in sarajevo alone during the war. bosnian serb troops laid siege to the city for almost four years, dug into positions high above the town. sharpshooters took aim at people as they tried to go about their lives. the siege effectively broke up sarajevo closing multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society --

sarajevo's multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society. today, the city is dominated by bosnian muslims with a substantial catholic minority. most serbs live apart in an eastern corner of sarajevo. the 1995 dayton accord brought peace, a product of compromise from each side, but according to a salary of a theologian, the aggressors succeeded in one way -- people now largely stick to their own ethnic and religious groups. >> the present situation is a pity. people are ignoring each other. there is no wish to meet others. imagine in this information technology age, we do not want to meet others. there is a lack of knowledge of

others. believe me, there are people living in this city who will not visit a church or a mosque belonging to others. people from the outside say, "talk to each other." that is something that even the politicians are not doing, not to mention religious authorities. >> his sisters trying to break down those divisions and build something new -- sister magdalena is trying to bring down this divisions and build something new. >> we need to form a circle so we can join hands. i would like you to stand up and come here. >> the students take hold of a red cord that binds them together. it is a simple exercise, but it addresses basic issues of trust,

something that will be needed to rebuild a sense of community in bosnia. most students from different ethnic backgrounds go to separate schools. >> schools also suffered greatly under the pressure of the war. afterwards, schools became politicized. >> education became a means to separate ethnic groups. back in sarajevo, in a high-rise district from the era when yugoslavia was a united socialist country. the social worker from sister magdalena's organization is picking up whatever charges. once a week, she does volunteer work at a retirement home. people here are muslims and catholics and many atheists -- a mirror of the population of the former yugoslavia. hear, the past lives on, the time before the bosnian war.

but outside, he must cope with nationalist pressure every day. when he was younger, he was a hooligan and hung out with nationalists. >> young people are a source of potential. it is excellent to have them contributing to society. older people transfer life experience to them, so they support each other. >> it is a ray of hope for the young people involved, but in sarajevo for the suburbs, it is another question. >> i know some people who think differently from, and they cannot imagine even someone from croatia or serbia moving here. they cannot live with that fact. >> he is not 18 years old. sister magdalena has been

helping care for him since he was a child. -- he is now 18 years old. people like him are one reason she does her job. she hopes it will not fall under the spell of nationalism. >> in any case, i hope they do not get involved in party politics, but that they really contribute and help develop a democratic society here. >> system magdalena has high hopes for the next generation, but in a country still divided by ethnicity and religion, it looks like the fruits of today's laborers may not be visible for some time to come -- sister magdalena has high hopes for the next generation. >> that report wraps up this edition of "european journal >." remember that you can watch all of our reports on line. until next week, from all of us

here at dw studios, thanks for watching, and good bye for now. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--