European Adventure- An Article by Russell Suthern, Chief Instructor WCMA
When most people witness all the terrible things happening in the world, they often feel powerless to help.
But not Shaf!
Desperate to help with the Ukrainian refugee situation, Shaf first organised a coffee morning, raising over £800, & then, if that wasn’t enough, planned a driving trip around Europe, with the aim of delivering much needed supplies to a Ukrainian refugee camp in Poland.
Despite being initially a little nervous about driving across Europe & getting potentially quite near a war zone, I became increasingly excited as our departure date loomed ever closer.
As usual, all our students, as well as friends, relatives & some of the organizations we do work for, were all incredibly generous in their support, donating money & supplies to help with the trip. (Particularly St Botolph’s Church & Greystoke Care Home.)
Soon the car was loaded & completely packed with sheets, towels, nappies & sanitary products- ready to go!
The first leg of our journey involved taking the ferry from Harwich over to the Hook of Holland.
The night before we had just watched the Lionesses beat Germany in the European cup final- which we took to be a good omen!
The whole trip was over 2,500 miles driving across The Netherlands, all the way through Germany & into Poland, right into the centre of Warsaw.
To cut costs we stayed in camp sites, using a tent kindly lent to us by Joe Jones. I was a bit worried that Shaf might not take to roughing it, but my fears were unfounded. Shaf threw herself into the camping adventure like a trooper. She even added a touch of glamping glamour to the proceedings. Everyone else was just wearing t shirts & shorts, but very morning Shaf made the effort to put her make up & a pretty summer dress on. She certainly stood out to be sure!
In Poland the population did have the grim, worried look of a people who had a war on their doorstep. We saw lots of troop movements, with soldiers being ferried to & fro, as well as huge convoys of Red Cross trucks. It seemed so strange to be in a country next to a war zone.
Kudos must go to the Polish people, who have really stepped up to the plate, housing & looking after literally thousands & thousands of displaced refugees crossing over their boarder.
When we finally got to Warsaw, we located the refugee camp which was behind Warsaw East station. In a huge park were hundreds of tents stretching as far as they eye could see. It was a shocking & heart-breaking image.
It took a while to find an English speaking volunteer, & once we did, they informed us that this was not the correct place for dropping off supplies, but gave us the address of a warehouse about 30 minutes away.
Dropping this stuff off was proving to be more difficult than we had at first thought…
When we got to the second address, we saw that it was more than just another warehouse. It was, in fact, a second, even larger camp, hastily constructed from a huge warehouse/factory complex called the Global Expo centre. We were later to discover that this centre processed up to 1,500 refugees every day. A truly shocking & upsetting figure.
It was a scene of organized chaos, with volunteers & refugees milling around like ants. They did look quite overwhelmed but were grimly & steadfastly getting on with the job at hand, which was helping these people.
We finally managed to find an English speaking volunteer, who got a large trolley for us so we could unload our bags of supplies & wheel them into the centre. On the way to the warehouse area, we were led through the living dorm area. Once again, this was a shocking sight.
A huge room, like a football pitch, or aircraft-hanger, filled with row after row of camp beds. Each bed housing a refugee, all of them looking bewildered & stunned, as if they couldn’t believe what was happening to them. Each person just had one small bag, like a airport wheelie bag, which was all they were able to bring with them. We just kept thinking what if the tanks were rolling down our high street? What would we take with us? What would we leave? It really does not bear thinking about.
I get the feeling that they wanted us to see this sight. They wanted us to be shocked, so we could take our outrage back to the UK & tell people what we saw. The war has been going for about six months & slowly but surely it stops being front page news, other stories replacing it. People’s shock & outrage starts to wane & the situation almost starts to normalize. I think they want us to come back & shout the message to anyone who will listen that this is still happening!
The unthinkable is happening! War in Europe- literally on our doorstep.
In any war it is always the innocent who suffer the most & this is stark evidence of that fact. Once past the sleeping area, we entered the huge warehouse storing the vital supplies for these poor people. We were very pleased that we had got the donations to them & we they were very happy to hear that people in the UK were still thinking of them. Once we had dropped off the supplies, we departed swiftly, as this was not a place to hang around sightseeing.
The rest of the trip was planned to be a holiday, providing some much needed down time.
While in Poland, we had decided that we needed to visit Auschwitz & Birkenau concentration camps. This visit could not be described as “fun”, but it was something we felt was important. These camps are supposed to be a warning against the horrors of war, so it never happens again, & yet, it is happening again, just across the border. It seems human beings are unable or unwilling to learn from the mistakes of the past. I won’t go into too much graphic detail about what we saw but will say it was a deeply moving & profound experience. It is something people should witness if they get the chance. One thing that will remain with me is the weather. All week we had blisteringly hot temperatures & blue skies. However, on the day we visited Auschwitz, it was overcast, chilly, windy & drizzly. I have to say, it felt “right” to visit such a place with these weather conditions. Auschwitz just wouldn’t look right under sunny, balmy skies.
From then on, things did get a lot more cheerful. We visited the beautiful city of Dresden. This city had some incredible buildings, much of which had been rebuilt sine the city had been flattened during the Second World War.
The highlight of this day was the Royal Palace which was breath taking. The Royal Armoury was housed here which was simply awesome. Housed over two huge floors, it contained over 10,000 swords alone, let alone all the amazing suits of armour & other apparatus of medieval warfare. My love of swords is well known, so I’ll cover the Dresden armoury with a separate article, with lots of photos, of course!
Next we stopped off at Colditz Castle, made famous through numerous films & TV series. Mind you, the castle was nowhere near as grim or foreboding as it was on the telly, mostly as they had painted it a jolly white & gold with a pretty red roof. I think they did this so it would better fit in with it’s surrounds. Did make it less ominous & imposing, but an interesting visit never the less.
Our final day was spent in the lovely city centre of Rotterdam, just relaxing, sipping coffee & unwinding.
Before we knew it, we were back on the ferry & back home. The whole trip was such a whirlwind, it all seemed like a dream. But I feel so proud of our adventures & what we achieved.
Once again, thanks to all who helped us make the trip possible, we couldn’t have done it without you!
The Featured Image is the Global Expo Centre.
Russell Suthern
Chief Instructor