Poles Apart?

Our Charmain recently visited Poland as part of the programme "Our Freedom and Ours". Here are some of her thoughts on the visit and how it made an impact on her.

A few months ago, I registered to take part in a programme called Our Freedom and Yours. The programme itself was fantastic in that we learned about the key historical aspects of WW2 and we also learned about the role of the Polish Airmen in the Battle of Britain. The more I heard about their role in the war, the more I started to feel a connection between them and me. I kept thinking to myself “these guys fought for the freedom we all enjoy today” but why in some instances are some people so hostile to those people from Poland and other European countries who come and live here in NI. Some people in NI have welcomed migrants with open arms whilst some  others have been openly hostile and racist.

Half way through the programme, to my surprise I found out a trip to Poland was arranged. I was thrilled as I had never been to Poland. I had my own perceptions, I thought Poland would always be 6 feet under a blanket of snow or it would be economically underdeveloped. You might wonder why I had these perceptions, I suppose it was from images I have seen online or pictures I have seen in books, most of it around the Holocaust to be honest.

How wrong was I? When I arrived the first thing to hit me was heat; lovely warm sunshine. Well, I thought to myself, that’s one perception blown out the water. Then I saw Warsaw I fell in love. The buildings, the atmosphere, the ice-cream.  You couldn’t beat it! I thought to myself, how or why did I ever think Poland was so bad? In contrast I spoke to our tour facilitator who told me the same story as to how when he first thought of coming to NI his family thought he was mad and that he was putting himself in direct danger.  

We went to the Warsaw Museum and the concentration camp at Majdanek. Never in my life have I ever been so shocked, so moved, so scared as when I was at that concentration camp. I can’t describe what I saw or felt but the memorial with tonnes of ashes from those who died said it all. The heat of the holding rooms for those waiting for the gas chambers, the 100,000 pairs of shoes of those who lost their lives. A set of baby shoes sitting in the corner, I cried. I connected with the Polish people there and then. I suppose the reality hit me right in the face, as a mother of two children myself, I just felt deep despair not only for that young baby which lost it’s life but the hundreds of thousands who followed behind him or her.

I learned  of the suffering, the hardship, the pain. I read account after account of Holocaust survivors and I felt a connection with home. The connection for me was how one human could inflict on another, how human beings can react in times in conflict and war to their “enemy”.  What I found was no matter where in the world you are one thing is for sure, human suffering is the same, human pain is the same.

What I did come away with was a renewed sense of admiration for the Polish community. Resilient, that is the only word I can describe them, incredibly resilient. I now have nothing but respect for them as a community and as a society. To come from total destruction to building a city like Warsaw which was completely demolished, and I mean completely demolished in 60 years, takes nothing but sheer determination, guts, sweat and tears.

What I came home with was a renewed sense of commonality between NI people and the Polish community. These programmes have a great way of quickly letting you see you are not too far apart from each other, given all we have both gone through atrocities. We have connections in relation to conflict and war, in connection to suffering and pain, connections in how post conflict we try to build a society where people can live together in peace.

We went far here in NI in relation to hatred and we destroyed each other and demonised each other in the process. In Poland they did that on a much larger scale and the unthinkable Holocaust was the result. We all need to work at peace to ensure lessons are learnt and history is not repeated.

We have so much to learn from each other and I will be continuing to help communities make links in whatever way possible personally and professionally following my experience.

It is one programme and one visit I will never forget for the rest of my life.