"I've already packed a bag, ready to escape. Just in case ..."
I was catching up with my neighbour, and the war in Ukraine and the huge amount of Ukrainian refugees in Poland was dominating our conversation. From the age of four, she has known the location of the local bunker. Just in case.
In a country where the WW2 sufferings are a part of both family history and the national(istic) narrative, the scepticism towards the Russian State is obvious on most levels. Poland wants to lean against the way of life of Western Europe and keep the pride of being a strong representative of Central European culture at the same time. Throughout history Poland has - among many other things - been labelled 'The Bulwark of Christianity' towards the Eastern part of the continent. Being a bulwark had not only religious connotations, but also - in more recent history - a more political meaning. When critical voices of Poland - both domestic and international - speak out, a part of the Polish answer is to point to the sacrifices the nation has made and the wrongdoings they've suffered. Don't be mistaken, though, there are plenty of voices in less radical parts of public life here, that don't have that inclination.
However, it's worth remembering. Especially now, when we have seen Ukraine's president Zelensky pleading NATO to engage and protect Ukraine. His strategy has had little effect so far (let's hope that WW3 is still possible to avoid), but the image of a heroic David fighting a brutal Goliath breaking one rule of war after the other, while the world seeks more conventional, diplomatic solutions, is vivid. The Poles recognises this feeling of despair, I think. They can relate. They sympathise. They feel a strong solidarity with the Ukranian nation because of not only the vast amount of familiy ties across the border, but also because they identify with the fate of the many displaced and fleeing people - mostly women and children.
In a most peculiar way, Putin has managed to do, what no-one else have succeeded in: re-uniting the Polish political spectrum in standing up for and taking care of the refugees coming across the border. As of today, Poland has received app. 1,5 millions refugees. The number surpasses the population of cities like Chicago, Barcelona, Munic, Prague, Copenhagen, Birmingham. Private donations are rocketing, the number of volunteers both at the border and in major cities is amazing, the number of private persons contributing with money, clothing, accommodation seems infinite. The public opinion is positive and empathetic. Some major Polish cities are on the brink of their limits to help financially, and infrastructure is under pressure. Yet, there is no fatigue to be found in the conversations about the many refugees.
On the contrary. The local TV station has spots teaching the Poles (and Ukrainians) a few useful phrases to help along. Large venues are turned into shelters for those, who have no family or friends to turn to in Poland (Ukrainians have for several years been a major part of the immigrant workforce here). Mothers and Babcias are clutching the hands of the younger children as they stroll through Poznan in the spring sun. Nowhere to go, nothing to do, trying to explore with the kids, as if they were playing house on trip to somewhere else. In a major street in the city, a politician has turned her election office around to a collecting point for relief work, and the shop next door is turned into a hand out facility with Ukrainian families waiting patiently in line to go in and find some clothes to supply the little they could escape with. Poles are wearing blue-yellow ribbons as sign of solidarity.
It's a very surreal experience watching the many refugees arriving, the solidarity and of so many local people, and the spring passing on as if nothing unusual is going on. Residents are still going out for lunch, still go shopping, still go about their daily lives. On the surface it may resemble the scenes in the Polish poet Czesław Miłosz's poem Campo dei Fiori written in 1943, when the Warsaw Ghetto was annihillated. Without comparison, as you say when you are in fact making a comparison.
Nevertheless, these are different times (I say with a poisonous beam of scepticism and doubt in my heart), and the Poles have both patience and a big heart when it comes to tragedy and helping neighbours caught in the merciless grind of history.
