The war in Ukraine has triggered a humanitarian crisis. An estimated Two million Ukrainian refugees have already arrived in the EU amid the illegal Russian invasion, the vast majority of them in Poland. In response to that, in their official accounts, the representatives of the Polish government stress that aid is coordinated, financed and managed in Poland from the national level and that public national authorities are at the forefront of the health crisis management.
This is simply not true!
Many Polish NGOs, looking from the perspective of helping at Polish border crossings, railway stations and night shelters for the past two weeks; can say only one thing: it is the people of Poland and the Ukrainian community that live here, supported by NGOs, who all rushed to help those fleeing the illegal war in Ukraine. Polish NGOs mobilized all possible resources and are the ones providing direct humanitarian aid at the border, in the warzone and inside Polish cities and villages and NOT the Polish Government!
In face of the deadly threat to the independence, territorial integrity and sovereign statehood of Ukraine – we stand with You.
We are well aware that the actions of the Russian Federation and its presidentaimingatUkrainearedirectedatthefundamentalrulesof international law which form the grounds for a peaceful world order: an order established at the cost of millions who perished during the World War and millions who fell victim to totalitarianisms.
Through its actions and declarations on Ukraine, Russia is placing itself outside international law, it is distancing itself from the norms laid down in the United Nations Charter and Human Rights Treaties. In violation of its own obligations, whether of the Budapest Memorandum from December 1994 or the of Minsk Agreements – the Russian Federation has renounced any rules of diplomatic law. Judging from the statements made by its president, it is replacing the framework of law with a vision ofpermanent warring. Heroism has no place inside this vision, it is simply a cynical vision of a lawless world.
We are well aware of the perils this deadly threat to Ukraine poses also to Poland, Europe and the world. We are well aware that today Your fate and our fate is being decided on Ukrainian soil, as well as the future of the world.
Tomorrow, when we set the table for Christmas Eve dinner, we will put a traditional plate for a lost wanderer.
Let us keep in mind that on the same Christmas Eve evening, in the forests at the Polish-Belarussian border, there wander people who need warmth, food and shelter, who need our help.
Do not be indifferent! Save people on the border! Let the good win!
Stanisław Barańczak’s poem “Never really” and Marek Edelman’s statements were read by Maria and Jan Peszek.
Outdoor Light and Sound Projection: The Virtual Reconstruction of the Siegen Synagogue
Projected in Siegen (Germany) on the exterior wall of the Bunker on November 9, 2021. The Siegen synagogue stood on this property from 1904 until 1939/40.
Presented by the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation Siegerland e.V. within the framework of the anniversary year „1700 Years of Jewish Life in Germany“.
May our love and memory overcome destruction and death.
The Open Republic was among the signatories of an open letter against the Russian prosecutors’ decision to disband the international association “Memorial”. The letter, calling “Memorial” a global treasure, emphasizes its fundamental role in uncovering the truth about the mass murder of Polish officers in Katyn during the Second World War and other mass communist repressions. The letter also calls the “Memorial”, the conscience of contemporary Russia, and describes attempts to disband it as an act of political aggression.
The Open Republic has made two official reports concerning the events in the city of Kalisz on 11 November 2021. On that day, Wojciech Olszanski and Piotr Rybak exhorted the participants of an Independence Day rally in Market Square to commit a crime, espoused fascism and ethnic hatred. The Open Republic addressed one of the reports of a suspected crime to the local prosecutor’s office, and the other – considering the gravity of the matter – to the office of the Prosecutor General.
The International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism is marked on November 9 to commemorate the victims of Nazism and nationalist, racist and antisemitic terror.
On November 9, 1938, a series of Jewish pogroms, called Kristallnacht, was organized and carried out by the Nazis. Kristallnacht pogroms became the Third Reich’s first act of mass violence against Jews. On that day, the Nazis killed over 90 people, and according to other sources, up to 2,000 people. Between 3,500 and 30,000 Jews were seized and sent to concentration camps. From 300 to 1,500 synagogues were set on fire, while thousands of Jewish shops had their windows smashed, which gave rise to the name “Kristallnacht” or “Crystal Night.”
Please find below an open letter from four winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature – Svetlana Alexievich, Elfriede Jelinek, Herta Müller and Olga Tokarczuk – addressed to the European Council and the European Parliament and concerning the humanitarian disaster that is taking place on the eastern border of the European Union (the border between Poland and Belarus). Please distribute it to the addressees.
To the President of the European Council Charles Michel
To the President of the European Parliament David Sassoli
To the Members of the European Parliament
The Polish government has introduced a state of emergency within the border zone between Poland and Belarus, on the strength of which no medical aid is being allowed in to help those who are sick and dying on the border, and blocks media access to the tragedy that is unfolding there. However, even the incomplete, fragmentary information that is coming through provides insight into the vast scale of the humanitarian disaster that is taking place on the border of the European Union: we know that the people there are being subjected to a merciless push-back procedure, condemning them to hypothermia, starvation and exhaustion in forests and marshes.
Belarusian travel agencies controlled by the Lukashenka regime are promising desperate people transit into the European Union in exchange for a high fee. Lured by this means to Minsk, they are then taken by organised transportation to the forests on the border. There an attempt is made to push them into Poland by force, while the Polish border guards and troops also use force to turn them back into Belarus. In the worst cases this ends in death. Some of the people who have died are known to us by name, others are dying anonymously.
ASSOCIATION AGAINST
ANTISEMITISM AND XENOPHOBIA
Office hours:
Tuesday, Thursday: 12.00 – 14.00
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: closed