damien: hello and a very warm welcome to "focus on europe," with some of the best personal stories behind the headlines. i am damien mcguinness. and we've got a great show lined up for you today. in finland, the long-lost children of hitler's army. in turkey, the authorities get tough. and ukraine, a new safe haven for the russian opposition. i can remember being quite shocked when i once heard how an elderly estonian lady had fond memories of one of the nazi soldiers who had occupied estonia in world war ii.

he had very kindly given her a red ribbon to tie in her hair, instead of the shoelace she was using. that story really showed me how the experience of ordinary people in occupied countries was much more complicated than the black-and-white narrative we often get in britain or the u.s. sometimes romantic relationships even developed between german soldiers and local women. nd in millions of cases across europe, children were born. which is exactly what happened in finland. since the war, it's been a taboo subject. but now some of those children, who are today elderly, are breaking the silence. >> pertti hartikainen would never raise any flag other than the finnish one in front of his house in rovaniemi in the heart of lapland. in fact, no finn would -- although 70-year-old hartikainen is also a german. in mid-july, he acquired german citizenship as the first finnish child of a german wehrmacht soldier.

he and his wife elsa are quite proud of the fact, because it was a long time coming. pertti hartikainen: it always bothered me that my origins weren't clear. it was always a strange feeling. you can suppress that feeling for a long time. but when it returns, it's even stronger. >> as a child, the neighbors' children called him a german bastard. he didn't understand why. he was 15 when his mother first told him his father was a german -- rudolf ehmann -- a corporal from wuppertal. that's all he was told. pertti hartikainen: the 1950's were an exceptional time in finland. our parents had an incredible amount of work. families had lots of children. back then, there was no time to worry about how children felt. no time for their psychological well-being. >> after the war, his father

returned to germany, married, and had children. he died in 1992. pertti never met his father because his mother refused to speak about him. he regrets that to this day. pertti hartikainen: yes, that's extremely sad. i really respected my mother, and that's why i didn't try to look for him while she was still alive. i first started to search after she died and tried to shed light on the matter, because it was so traumatic for her. >> in 1940, what would be a total of 6000 german soldiers began to arrive in rovaniemi, in as allies. and they became friends. finnish children in german arms, finnish girls with german suitors.

then in late summer 1944, the friends became enemies. finland changed sides. russia was posing a threat from the east. in the lapland war, hitler's withdrawing wehrmacht followed a scorched earth policy. 90% of all the buildings in rovaniemi were burnt to the ground. the people were evacuated, but there was nothing left to return to. the horror at this brutal retreat lasted for decades. hanna kyläniemi, historian: only now are people daring to talk again about how they have positive memories about the time before that destruction. after the war, it was taboo to even mention the germans. the atmosphere and political climate preserved the bitterness for a long time.

>> in 1963, locals demonstrated in rovaniemi at the dedication of the german soldiers' cemetery there. now, the cemetery in the finnish forest is no longer controversial. here, pertti hartikainen regularly meets his friend lauri koskela. he was born in 1944 as the son of a wehrmacht soldier. koskela's father was killed in action here. the two have been friends since they were 15. but they didn't talk about their fathers, both soldiers in the wehrmacht, until a few years ago. they were used to keeping silent about it. but nowadays, they find it helps to remember them together. lauri koskela: even though i don't have any pictures of him,

i have his name and my mother's notes. some don't know who their fathers were, so i'm glad i can come here and bring flowers. >> pertti hartikainen says visiting the cemetery is a kind of therapy for his friend lauri koskela. he himself found it important to take on german citizenship -- on paper and in fact. pertti hartikainen: i'm already over 70 years old. it may not be possible to learn a lot of german now, but i'm trying. >> pertti hartikainen plans to continue trying to gain acceptance in his father's country. damien: it's incredible to think that it's only recently that many countries have been prepared to talk about this openly. why do you think it's been such a taboo subject? let me know what you think about

that or any of the stories on today's show. but now to turkey, where hopes of peace between the turkish authorities and the kurdish militant group, the p.k.k., are disintegrating. ankara has been bombing p.k.k. positions. and the p.k.k. has resumed its deadly attacks on turkish police officers. things are looking like they are spiraling out of control. and kurdish people are scared. but they are also getting angry. and so the worry is that the more violent the situation gets, and the more ankara clamps down on the kurds, the more moderate kurds will become radicalized. it's a vicious circle which could just lead to more violence. but not everyone has given up working for peace. >> kurdish human rights activist ismail akbulut wants to prevent young kurds from joining the p.k.k. and taking up arms. so every day, he drives to the villages around his hometown of hakkari. first he speaks with the village

elders, like here in the mountain village of süman, because they're the ones the young people listen to. akbulut believes that the peace process between turkey and the kurds deserves another chance. ismail akbulut: sooner or later, both sides will have to sit down together again and talk. so why not now, before thousands are killed again? >> a ceasefire lasted for two years, including here at the border with iran. but now the kurds' anger can be felt again in süman. the village is right next to an army base. medeni askan: our sheep are up in the mountains. we're afraid that we'll be shot at when we go up to our flocks. we're really fed up. if they want war again, then that's what they'll get. >> the men here say that under turkish president recep tayyip erdogan, the government in ankara has been inciting

anti-kurdish sentiment. one man accuses the pro kurdish h.d.p. party, which ran a successful campaign in the elections this past june, of doing nothing about it. but akbulut resists the negativity. ismail akbulut: peace would not have been possible without the h.d.p. and what's the alternative to talks? war means that this region will once again suffedeath and destruction. and no one benefits from that. >> but war has already returned to the area. a few kilometers away from the village, the turkish military set up a roadblock after a roadside bomb exploded during the night. and almost simultaneously, a small truck loaded with explosives blew up outside an army barracks. footage from the funeral of a p.k.k. member shows how strongly the young people of hakkari supports the militant organization and that they're prepared to take the path of

martyrdom if necessary. and often, their arguments are more compelling than those of akbulut. after all, making peace with the turkish government didn't end the kurds' poverty. these boys have to pile up pressed cow dung, which is used to heat their homes in the winter. the p.k.k. has no real trouble recruiting them. >> the army helicopters fly over our homes every day. people are arrested. and if you go out on the street, explodes. we're fed up. maybe we can't beat them, but they can't beat us either. we're talking about 40 years of repression here! this has to end, some way or another. >> on the streets of akbulut's hometown of hakkari, things appear normal. but most people are too scared to venture out at night. it reminds akbulut of the 1990's, when martial law was in

place in the kurdish regions. the military and police tortured people, villages were torched, and hundreds of kurds disappeared. ismail akbulut: in 1996, this man was abducted by soldiers along with seven other shepherds and farmers. they were probably later killed, but their bodies were never recovered. the families were able to sue successfully for compensation in front of the european court of human rights. and now, once again, we're mourning civilian victims shot by security forces. >> war has returned to the kurdish regions of turkey. and pacifists like ismail akbulut are rare among his -- among the kurdish people.

damien: and now to our series about living by the sea. where i grew up on the northwest coast of england, the coast has completely changed over the last few decades. the high tide is less high every here it appears, so what was once beach is slowly becoming grasslands. and the place is turning into a seaside town where you rarely actually see the sea. in southern england, the coast is also changing. but the opposite thing is going on. and it's having a huge impact on people's homes and jobs. >> the waters off the western tip of england's isle of wight can be treacherous. here, the atlantic ocean crashes full force against the island. still, rob liddington heads out nearly every day to show tourists the landmark of the island in the english channel. the needles, three chalk stacks rising out of the sea.

rob liddington, guide: on a day like today, you think you are in the mediterranean. but on days when it's windy and stormy, it can be a different world. >> on days like that, the sea eats into the cliffs. when sand and scree hit them too, like here at the popular alum bay, huge landslides occur. rob liddington: the year before last, i was down here fishing one night. i had my tent up and my fishing rods out, and i sat there and i heard this rumble. and i thought, what was that? and on either side of me, the sand fell and just left me in a horseshoe shape over there. and i was a bit -- whoooo. >> gary smedmore wasn't quite so lucky. last year, the road leading to his caravan park crumbled away on both sides of the houses. since then, residents on undercliff drive have been cut off from the rest of the island. a small footpath leads along where the road used to go.

gary smedmore: the road was only six meters wide. we are way past that now. most of the residents have moved off-site. i run a caravan site -- or did run a caravan site. it's now closed for two seasons. no idea when it's going to open again, so i got zero income coming in at the moment. >> he is just one of many people affected by the landslip. and they're angry at the local council, saying they've received little help. these walls were meant to reinforce the road, but smedmore suspects it was the construction work that caused the landslip in the first place. gary smedmore: yes, it will end up in the sea. but we could be talking hundreds, thousands of years. this is an undercliff, so there a 100-foot cliff behind us. but i mean, that is just such a localized area that has moved.

and it's sort of strange that the road works were carried out precisely in the two areas that moved. >> a few kilometers away, the coast has been shored up with boulders shipped over from france. it's an expensive measure approved by the authorities. robin mcinnes, geologist: in order to obtain the necessary funding from the government to carry out coastal protection schemes such as the one we see here, it has to be economically justifiable. in other words, the assets you are proposing to protect -- houses, roads and infrastructure -- must be worth considerably more than the cost of carrying out the work. >> coastal areas in britain are increasingly eroding. geologist robin mcinnes says it's due in part to climate change. but there's little money to combat the effects. there's no saving some roads, such as the old blackgang road, which collapsed in 1928.

>> on the other side of the road in blackgang chine, the owners of the famous amusement park have accepted their precarious situation. the dinosaurs have survived the odd landslip. and they're always on the alert. the park has lost attractions to the sea several times over the course of its history. but the park's operators aren't giving up. they even have plans for new construction behind the present location. dominic way, park manager: the coastal erosion is not something that will happen all of a sudden. it does happen over a long period of time. over quite a few number of years. basically what will happen is that we will see different aspects of the cliff move, and that is normally an indication that it's likely there is to be some movement further later on in the year. >> the excursion boat to the needles is starting to turn back. teresa castle has been visiting the island for 30 years. she loves the needles, but she is worried about the next winter

storms. teresa castle: where we stay in colewell, a lot of the cliffs have fallen down there as well. but someone said they have got a good 50 years before the next earth move will actually make it where the bungalows where we stay will start to drop. but we have got a good 50 years. so, hopefully. >> even if the sea continues to reclaim the land, this view of the ocean from the isle of wight is impressive enough that visitors are willing to risk spending a few days living on the precipice. damien: when i was in ukraine before the conflict erupted, i always noticed how compared to some other countries in the region, such as the baltic states or georgia, it was more corrupt. and the whole atmosphere somehow felt more post-soviet than european. but russia's intervention in eastern ukraine has had a rather unexpected result.

ironically, instead of keeping ukraine in moscow's orbit, putin's actions have actually pushed ukraine further west. the country appears finally willing to properly tackle corruption -- and is keener than ever to join nato. and it's even now becoming a haven for anti-putin opposition activists, who are keen to see their very own maidan revolution in russia itself. >> herman obukhov comes from russia. here he is on the maidan, otherwise known as kiev's independence square. several exhibitions recall the events of the pro-european revolution of february, 2014, that ousted the pro-moscow government. the people had had enough of corruption, mismanagement, and economic stagnation. obukhov believes the revolution instilled fear in the rulers in moscow. and that is why they responded by forcing ukraine into a war.

herman obukhov, dissident: moscow started to show to russian people that there is no way of going this way like maidan. >> he left russia in the summer of 2014 to take up the political fight against moscow, as he'd done once before. obukhov was a dissident even in the soviet era, when he opposed the communist regime in the 1980's. his writings got him four years in a penal colony. then he was able to emigrate to the u.s. after ukraine's revolution, he realized kiev is where he belongs. herman obukhov: here is much more freedom, first of all. we are able to criticize moscow without anything -- what should be next hour or next day -- or what will happen with our family, with our work, or with us itself. >> around 60% of kiev residents speak russian, and only 40% ukrainian. maybe that is why kiev attracts more and more russians who are opposed to the government in moscow. political activists and artists

have formed an anti-kremlin opposition here. an exhibition of photos of the war in eastern ukraine against the pro-russian rebels. the russian exiles do not mince words. they see russian president vladimir putin on a par with hitler and stalin. obukhov has launched a campaign on the internet called "stop fascism in russia." herman obukhov: this guy and this guy have killed millions and millions of people. putin probably did not kill millions, but it is still blood. since he took power, hundreds and thousands. chechnya and now in ukraine, it is already thousands. >> they make it clear they see putin as the aggressor.

herman obukhov: this is from mortar. this is from artillery. it's heavy. this is from a tank. >> arms and ammunition left behind by pro-russian rebels in eastern ukraine. manufactured in russia. the photos show their deadly force. as evening falls in kiev, obukhov meets some of his fellow dissidents at the urban beach. among them, yuri melnichuk. the tattoo on his arm says putin is a thief. yuri melnichuk, exiled dissident: unfortunately, i don't see any forces in russia today that could change anything. people like us realize that elections won't lead to change there. this regime has to be toppled. >> by a revolution -- like the

one on kiev's maidan. the men here hope that their russian countrymen one day will maybe follow in ukraine's footsteps. damien: finally to bulgaria, which for centuries has been the world's biggest producer of rose oil. it's expensive, highly sought-after, and is used in perfumes and cosmetics. the oil is made from a particularly fragrant rose grown in a place called the rose valley. during the early summer, the whole valley explodes in bloom and for months smells like a huge outdoor flower shop. but although that all sounds idyllic, actually picking the roses is a tough job. >> the rose pickers have to be in the fields by 5:30 a.m. it's the start of a long, hard day for iskra asenova as she tugs on the thorny bushes, half awake. iskra asenova: it's a struggle

for our daily bread. what else can i do? >> the overseers make sure they keep up the pace. time is money in the valley of the roses. this is the ideal climate for roses. it's warm, and the valley is sheltered from stormy north winds and the dusty south winds. raim and iskra have to work fast. the rose harvest only lasts a few weeks, and every kilo counts. bulgaria has some 20,000 rose pickers. none hav social insurance. their harvest is paid by weight. the foremen keep track of every gram. >> we pick roses for 35 cents a kilo. >> today, raim and iskra have picked 60 kilos together -- amounting to 21 euros in all for their day's labor.

bulgaria is one of the world's leading producers of rose oil. experts rate the quality among the best. the old distillery. the sacks are inspected for the second time before the petals go into the stills. some have seen over a century of service. often, junior director filip lissicharov is personally on hand as the roses yield their precious oil in the boiling water. filip lissicharov: this is the fruit of all the labor -- a half a milliliter rose oil. about 2000 flowers have gone into it. it's our bulgarian gold. >> today they are world leaders, not least because of the new distillation unit filip and his father dimitar bought.

chinese purchasers pay 7000 euros for a bit less than one liter of bulgarian rose oil. it's also an important ingredient in nutritional supplements. kunling li, rose oil trader: in china as a matter of fact, a lot of people use rose oil, especially maybe in aromatherapy and cosmetic production and maybe others. >> iskra asenova has never heard of aromatherapy. she has to use her 10 euros daily wages to feed her family. damien: well, that's it for today. thanks very much for watching. do feel free to get in touch anytime with your thoughts and comments. you know how. twitter, email or facebook. tweet me and i'll tweet you right back. but in the meantime, it's goodbye from me. and look forward to seeing you next week -- same time, same place.

one of the ways that automakers have got to be able to compete these days is to get out of the traditional plac they do business and go to where the technological actions. ♪ raj nair is e group vice president and chief technology officer at the ford motor company. due to the vagaries of our scheduling i had to catch him here in downtown san francisco. t raj, great talking with you. great to be here. all about this new innovation center that you've got in palo alto. why palo alto? i mean, i know that's kind of an obvious question, but i want to hear you explain it. well, we've got so many partners out here, whether it's universities, like stanford, or a big partner start ups. it's just an amazing place to see technologies and kind of