Poles seek safety in gold investments at time of trouble across their eastern borders

(27 Jun 2024)
POLAND GOLD
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
RESTRICTIONS:
LENGTH: 4:36
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Warsaw, Poland - 25 June 2024
1. Gold bars
2. Mint worker places gold bar in line
3. Various of mint worker inspecting gold bar
4. Various of gold bars being pressed
5. Close of gold
6. Various of mint worker packing gold bars into boxes
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Warsaw, Poland - 18 June 2024
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Marta Bassani-Prusik, head of the precious metals trade at the Mint of Poland:
"The February 2022, the demand was really very high. Afterwards, it stopped a little bit, but it was pretty steady, but it stayed for a few months on the same position. Afterwards, depending what is happening in Russia, Ukraine actually, sometimes it's going up, it's going down, but it's not as spectacular as it used to be at the beginning of the war."
8. Various close-ups of gold bars
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Marta Bassani-Prusik, head of the precious metals trade at the Mint of Poland:
"Of course, there are still people who remember the war (World War Two) or they are listening to their grandparents who used to be in ghetto for instance and they could get out only because of the gold bar or gold something. So, yes, we do, we do have some customers who are still feeling, have a feeling to have gold to protect themselves."
10. Various of Bassani-Prusik showing gold bar
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Marta Bassani-Prusik, head of the precious metals trade at the Mint of Poland:
"We still have some customers who came to Poland to see the Warsaw, the city of their grandparents, great-grandparents, and they say that they are alive only because of the gold. Because their grandparents, they had a gold bar, a gold coin, and because of that they could, went away from from the ghetto."
12. Various of gold bars and coins
13. SOUNDBITE (Polish) Piotr Kozik, manager of shop selling gold:
"The first day of the war (in Ukraine) was Fat Thursday and then people started buying gold. They bought a lot of gold back then. That day we had longer lines for gold at our store than for donuts at the bakery."
14. Various of Kozik showing gold bars
15. SOUNDBITE (Polish) Piotr Kozik, manager of shop selling gold:
"There were people who preferred to buy small bars because they said that in case of war, they would be able to buy a loaf of bread with these bars, right."
16. Various exteriors of gold shop
17. Inscription on sidewalk, marking the boundary of the Warsaw Ghetto
18. Wide of street and road intersection
STORYLINE:
LEADIN
Russia's war against Ukraine has led many people in Poland to invest in gold.
While the war is hundreds of kilometers (miles) to the east, gold investors feel the precious metal offers them safety at a time of instability.
STORYLINE
Rows of gleaming gold bars line up at the Mint of Poland.
Gold is increasingly seen as a safety-net investment by Poles shaken by the war across the border.
The demand peaked first during the COVID-19 pandemic, and then when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Poles were shaken by the war across the border, which sent refugees fleeing to their country, and to many gold seemed to offer safety.
The long lines are now gone, but demand remains strong as the war rages on into its third year with Russia gaining some ground in eastern Ukraine.
A migration crisis at Poland's border with Belarus which Polish authorities view as hybrid warfare engineered by Moscow and Minsk adds to the unease.
In Poland, gold's allure is intertwined with the enduring trauma of World War II, when having gold could ensure survival.
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