Kate Jewell’s Experience in Poland

In March, I interviewed Kate Jewell about her upcoming trip to help Ukrainian refugees in Poland.

She has returned, and I asked if she would write about her experiences in her own words:

My reason for going to Poland was to work with Ukrainians displaced by Putin’s War. Upon my arrival in Osweicim, Poland, my first reaction was disappointment when I realized the place I thought I would be working with refugees was not even close to opening. In fact, its renovation had just begun! 

The next and lasting feeling was frustration as I tried to find a place to be useful. Poland was (and I think still is) very well organized for helping the refugees. Their warehouses were well stocked and the organizations at the border were set up to cover basically everything a person could need. Most refugees I met at the hotel (refugees could stay 3-5 days for free as they figured out where to go next) were wearing new sweat sets and sneakers. 

But their stories were dark, upsetting, and heartbreaking. Tales of those trapped in Mariupol still haunt me. One American who rescued children and brought them to Poland painted a picture of atrocities those young ones had survived – stories so horrible I can’t repeat them.

However, I had to concentrate on the living – those women and children who needed a place to live, food to eat, clothes to wear, and a way to survive. So, I helped with the renovation as I could, worked on food drives for the warehouse, and sorted through boxes of clothing donated by the Netherlands.  

One day, a group of us went to Medyka, the busiest border-crossing area between Poland and Ukraine. It was a Sunday, and on that particular day, more Ukrainians were going back to their country than coming into Poland! The group brought teddy bears to give to children. I was walking around with a black garbage bag filled with bears when a lovely young woman approached me, asking if I would like to go to Germany. The quizzical look I gave her prompted her to inquire, “Aren’t you a refugee?”

After the border, we went to the sports-arena-turned-registration-center where there were thousands of cots placed side by side. While the rest of the group went out with bears to give to children, I concentrated on the older people. I found them sitting on their cots staring blankly into space with empty eyes. I started leaving the Angels Of Hope – Love is Real cards (see below; the card says: “Don’t Be Afraid, You are not Alone” in Ukrainian) by their sides if they were sleeping – or handing them to those that were sitting. Katcia (below in a pink jacket) was forlornly sitting by her husband who was asleep on a cot. I gave her a teddy bear just to see her smile. Then I attempted to talk with her and learned (I think) that her house had been destroyed by a missile. She did not know where she was going or what her future held. I gave her an Angel card…and saw her heart smile. Moments like this make my heart smile.

One of my friends gave me $500 to give to Ukrainians who had no money. I knew exactly who to give that money to when I met Krzysztof Moll. Kryz had gone to the Krakow railway station a few days after the war began and had found two women and four children in need of a place to live. He brought them to his home where they still live with Kryz, his wife Justyna, and daughter Amelia. Then Kryz took a house he planned to sell off the market and moved seven Ukrainians into it.

Kryz also took me to hotels and churches where 50 or 60 refugees were staying so I could give them the donations I had carried over – adorable T-shirts from Angels of Hope – Love is Real and reusable menstrual kits from Days for Girls. Kryz personally brought fresh meat, fruits, and vegetables to supplement the basic food the refugees had been given. Those were happy trips!

As I got to know Kryz, I found he had another property he wanted to turn into flats someday. IF he could work on it now, he could house 20 Ukrainians.  

About this time, my friend Jose Redondo from Airline Ambassadors came to Poland. He heard about my frustrations with the original project and about the amazing work Kryz was doing. He chose to start working with Kryz and put in days of hard volunteer labor, and a vision of a Home 4 Hope began to form.

Kryz took Jose and me to Auschwitz – one of the darkest, saddest, most heart-breaking places I’ve ever been. The unthinkable, unspeakable cruelty of that death camp hurt my soul, particularly knowing some of the atrocities happening NOW in Ukraine. Yes, Putin’s War continues, even though it is off the mainstream news cycle.

I share a few photos here:

The lined-up cots must have been the luxury section compared to the tiny three-layer boxes I saw that held five to a layer…with just a small hole for air circulation. The photo of the toilets certainly was “the Ritz” compared to the large hole in the ground that served as a toilet for most, and a death pit for those too weak to balance.

The large cases of eyeglasses…luggage…crutches…and shoes…particularly the one shoe that fell off the pile, from a woman who thought she would go dancing again.

The place where prisoners disembarked from the train and one high-ranking Nazi looked at each man, woman, and child, selecting who would go to the barracks where they were registered and would be slave labor for three months before they were killed, and who would be marched immediately to the showers and death. The latter were never even registered; they died nameless.

And yet today, we have holocaust deniers. We have people who wear Auschwitz shirts while they storm the Capitol. We have a Russian dictator who thinks he should own Ukraine just because he wants to, and he will not stop there.

A few days later, I visited a monastery just outside Oswiecim, a place the Poles call the “real” Auschwitz: Klisze Pamieci. Labirynty. Marian Kołodziej miraculously survived five years in Auschwitz as prisoner #432. He remained silent about his experience for 50 years, and then he had a stroke and couldn’t speak. But he could draw. All the horrific memories of his years in the death camp, and 300 of these memories fill the labyrinth – a cold, dark place filled with the horror of Kolodziej’s depiction of the people he knew in Auschwitz. The terror and despair I felt broke my heart. In the drawing where Kolodziej is carrying someone, #179, that someone was his best friend. He carried him out of the “shower,” the last honor he could bestow on a human being he cared about.

Each of the 300 drawings in the labyrinth is terrifying, particularly in light of the horror one man endured to be able to produce these images. How does this compare to the horrors suffered by thousands who lived and died in Auschwitz-Birkenau? And how does this compare to horrors being inflicted right now in Ukraine? WILL WE EVER LEARN?

Since my return to Orcas, I have organized a collaboration of Airline Ambassadors and Angels of Hope – Love is Real to raise money for the Home 4 Hope. You can find out more here and here.

Sales of the Ukrainian bracelets that are available at Tidepool Coffee/Salish Sea Yarn for a suggested $10 donation will go to the Home 4 Hope. These bracelets represent Ukrainian colors and their sunflower, and are made in Nepal by women saved from trafficking.

Putin’s War will continue. I pray Ukraine will be victorious as, if not, Putin will not stop with Ukraine. He wants the old Soviet Union back in one piece. I had a short visit with my cousins in Nastatten, Germany and every night on the news, they were broadcasting the need for people to have at least 10 days of food and water available in case they needed to go underground in the event that Putin “goes nuclear.”

Please contact me, Kate Jewell (drkatejewell@yahoo.com), for more information. If you would like to physically help, I will assist you with arrangements. What an adventure to work on a project in Poland and interact with Polish and Ukrainian folks.  

Donations of time, money, and prayers for peace are all greatly appreciated as we build the Home 4 Hope and bring continuing, much-needed help to displaced Ukrainians.

Thank you immensely, Kate, for taking the time to write about your experiences.