A Tale of Good People

With a lump in his throat, the exhausted Ukrainian president says at a press conference: “I don’t know who could be doing more than the Poles are.” And about the Polish president, he adds: “This is strength, Andrzej [Duda] and I are very close to each other. We are true friends. ” Volodymyr Zelenskiy hears accounts from Ukrainians fleeing to Poland that they are being welcomed as fellow countrymen. In the midst of this great tragedy, he must a least feel some relief that his people have somewhere to go where they are truly welcome.

The Poles will benefit from this help they are offering too. In future, if someone asks “what is the “Polish soul”, we will be able to remind them of these days. We Poles argue with each other, sometimes we argue about unimportant things. We also have a varied and complicated relationship with the Ukrainians. We are, for instance, still divided by our approach to the difficult history of “Kresy” (the Eastern borderlands, which were Poland until 1945 and are now Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania), but for now this is set aside. We are united by a single goal and we have shown that we can work hand-in-hand.

Who could have foreseen that so many Poles would, of their own accord, travel to the border to try and do something? No one asked them to come, but they went anyway, without a plan, but with their hearts on their sleeves. Because someone will need a lift somewhere, because they will have left their lives and belongings abroad. Because they will be hungry or need clothes, or maybe they will just need somewhere to rest. In times like these, there are no invalid gestures. 

Those who cannot go to the border, contribute in a different way, sometimes simply with a prayer. Hundreds of men and women took part in a special rosary prayer last week. They fell on their knees in the centre of Warsaw, on the royal road, to demonstrate their solidarity with the Ukrainians and to ask for the end of the war. Many came because they saw the terrible destruction in Mariupol, which is, after all, the city of Mary, the mother of God.

My fellow Poles have impressed me with their creativity. What we are doing now for Ukrainians is the most demanding form of charity. It is not just a coin thrown into the tin as we go about our business. This is thousands of people fed, brought to their relatives somewhere in Poland, but also invited to the homes of ordinary Poles. It is also worth emphasising that we help wisely. Groups, smaller or larger, organise themselves on the internet, mainly to exchange information about what is needed, so that help is targeted and doesn’t overlap.

This personal, grass-roots help is the most moving, but Poland as a whole has more than risen to the challenge. Trains that transport refugees deep into the country are still being placed at the borders. We hear about an orphanage evacuated from near Lviv, from which children are safely brought to Poland. Provincial governors, presidents, mayors and councillors are preparing places to host hundreds of thousands and maybe even millions of Ukrainians. Polish schools are already accepting students from Ukraine, and sports clubs are offering free classes for newcomers from the East. Telewizja Polska (Polish state television) and Polish public radio are preparing a whole package of programs in Ukrainian, especially for children who will be soothed by the sound of their own language in a foreign place.

People keep asking why we have so much empathy. I suppose it is because we understand war, and in this case we really know the attacker and the victim, our neighbours. The situation is diametrically different from the crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border a few months ago, when the Lukashenka regime tried to push thousands of people into Poland to destabilise the situation in Europe. The screams and accusations that Poles did not want to help was terrible then. Today’s situation turns this hostile propaganda to dust. At that time, Poles felt subcutaneously that someone was playing with them and trying to force concessions. Today, when the need is real, we are ready to help.

What we are witnessing today is a kind of festival of charity. I don’t know how long it will last and it causes a lot of fear. For now, these voices are still quiet, but we know that soon the initial emotions will subside and anti-Ukrainian feeling may appear. President Andrzej Duda has already referred to this at an unofficial meeting with journalists at the Presidential Palace. “Never in our history have a million people entered Poland in just 10 days. It is to be expected that conflicts will arise as a result. I am asking you to take special responsibility for what you say and write at this time. Be vigilant in providing reliable information and do not spread fake news ”. 

This meeting and this request still haven’t sunk in. Voices which say that this help will implode on us, that it will cost us, that we already have enough Ukrainians are quite isolated. But they are there nonetheless, and it is better not to pretend that they aren’t. Most of us, however, know that an insurgency on this scale will cost us, but we have already agreed to the consequences.

Difficult times like these expose man’s true colours and I am proud that we are the way we are. The tale of good people is a tale about us. Really. 

Marcin Wikło is a Polish writer and broadcaster based in Warsaw. He has asked that his fee for writing this article is donated to Ukrainian refugees. (Translated from Polish by Olenka Hamilton)

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