The Mayoress of Overbetuwe: Mrs. E. Tuijnman
The poem entitled “Ending and Beginning” by Wisława Szymborska, the Polish poet who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1996, starts off with the words:
After every war
somebody has to clean up.
In other words, in the end
things will not get cleaned themselves up.
She recounts, in a beautiful and very depictive manner how people set about doing so. And then she continues:
However, all around me
there are soon people popping up
who start getting annoyed by this.
Sometimes, someone will
dig up a bunch of
corroded arguments
and bring them to the trash.
Those who know
why it should go there
should retreat from those
who know very little.
And those who know less than little.
And, last but not least, from those who know as good as nothing.
If we did not have any commemoration, if we did not reflect on those dark days in September 1994 every year here on the Polenplein, if we did not reflect on General Sosabowski and his men from the 1st Polish Independent Parachutist Brigade, then that history would fade from our memory.
We will not retreat from those who know little.
Nor from those who know less than little.
Or, last but not least, from those who know as good as nothing.
However, in 2012 – 68 years later – that history is still clearly imprinted on the minds of the residents of this village of Driel.
Full of warmth, they commemorate their Polish men, who gave their lives for our freedom.
The children are told the story time and again.
Not like a bad dream but to make it clear to them that freedom, as we know it in our country, is not something to be taken for granted.
To learn to take partial responsibility, even as young people, for working on our democracy.
To pass on this message later on, to bridge the past with the future.
Realising that everyone has the right to freedom and safety, the right to food and education, the right to freedom of ideas.
That is why our community can never forget the 1st Polish Independent Parachutist Brigade.
We will not retreat from those who know little.
Nor from those who know less than little.
Or, last but not least, from those who know as good as nothing.
That is why we are grateful once again this year to reflect on the contribution made by the Polish and to commemorate those who died.