Time

28

COVER: Fifty years ago next week, Hitler's legions began World War II, and darkness fell upon much of mankind

Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, started a titanic struggle that ultimately killed about 50 million people and changed the world forever. Here is the story of how it all began, plus vivid reminiscences by such varied survivors as Poland's General Jaruzelski and West Germany's President Von Weizsacker and a profile of that architect of evil: Adolf Hitler.

16

WORLD: The Polish crisis produces the unimaginable -- an East European government led by non-Communists

Solidarity, long an outlaw, forms a new coalition to take over from the bankrupt regime in Warsaw, but the army and the police remain under Communist , control. Eyeing each other, Washington and Moscow promise to let Poland be Poland. -- Beirut's battling factions threaten finally to murder the city itself.

10

NATION: The U.S. mulls widening the drug fight into a new jungle war

Drug czar Bennett wants to carry the battle against coca barons to Peru and Bolivia, but Washington worries about another endless struggle against elusive guerrillas. -- A Detroit father's grisly way of getting rid of his "burdens."

54

BUSINESS: Sports shoes are leaping off the shelves

Nike, Reebok and L.A. Gear are creating space-age sneakers in their fight for a $9 billion market. -- Payoffs and fake lab results taint the generic-drug industry.

58

ENVIRONMENT: An acrobatic bid to save the forests

Activists from the radical conservation group Earth First take to the treetops to protest logging in the nation's few remaining tracts of old-growth woodland.

60

MEDICINE: The youngest victims of alcohol abuse

Drinking during pregnancy, and even while nursing, is riskier than many women realize. Each year more than 50,000 U.S. babies are born with alcohol-related defects.

69

EDUCATION: Taking aim at the nation's schools

In his forthcoming book, John Silber, Boston University's outspoken and controversial president, speaks his mind on teachers, students and declining standards.

71

SPORT: Beach volleyball nets some big bucks

Once a laid-back California pastime, the seaside game goes major league with six-figure earnings for pro players and a televised schedule of tournaments.

72

ESSAY: Banning flag abuse may not be so easy

Questions abound, including: Philosophically, can a secular symbol be "desecrated"?

5 Letters

53 People

61 Religion

61 Milestones

63 Law

64 Cinema

65 Books

65 Food

66 Health

Cover: Photograph by U.P.I. -- Bettmann