I arrived in Warsaw last Thursday morning immediately expecting to feel the effects of a war next door. It was not so, if I didn’t already know what was going on, I wouldn’t know. Before I left, if I mentioned my trip, eyebrows raised as though I were going into the war zone itself, a woman on my flight thought they’d discontinued flights into Poland, and the plane from DC to Amsterdam was blissfully empty which I thought foretold of people’s skittishness about Europe in general right now. Not so. The Amsterdam airport was packed as was my flight into Warsaw, not full of civilian soldiers or NGO workers but rather with boisterous businessmen.
In Warsaw, I heard the Ukrainian language spoken more than I’ve probably ever noticed it being spoken before and it was not with sadness or anxiety, women were laughing- there is a lightness to their tone. Talking to relatives and others about it, there may be a couple of reasons for this- these could consist of the first wave of refugees, before the war truly started and before death was a reality, people who already had homes and relatives in Poland who maybe had migration on the mind for a while and took the leap with the advent of war.
I am now in Krakow, I arrived a day later and so far my time has mostly consisted of trolling the train station, the major hub for refugee activity. I have pretty nearly given up on wearing a mask, not speaking Ukrainian or Russian I can’t imagine what it’s like to have someone try to take a photo of you in what might be the darkest moment of your life while they’re wearing a mask and also can’t explain their intentions. The mood is varied, shock and some light chatter, many people with animals. These have been some of the easiest to photograph just because they’d rather the focus be on their animals rather than their sorrow. I have since moved on from the train station to an NGO set up in Kazimierz in an old salt storage warehouse that is now an artists work space called Soup for Ukraine.
My studio block in Krakow.
Ira and Swieta, mother and daughter and there was one more daughter who wasn’t there at the moment. They were spending one night in Krakow before going to family in Germany. They are from Kyiv and will go back if their home is still there.
Johnson, from Belfast. Volunteer soldier. Veteran. While helping him locate the track from which his train heading East was leaving, he had a panic attack. PTSD. We found a medic and I stayed with him for a while to help translate. Needless to say, his daughter bought him a return trip to Ireland a couple of days later after two nights at the Veterans Hospital psychiatric ward.
Anton and his wife. They have two daughters and are from Kyiv. They leave behind three homes and were hiding out in a cellar until they decided their young daughters couldn’t continue to live that way. They were heading to Lodz where they have contacts. I was unclear how he made it out of the country but it seems he is a veteran who fought before and may be exempt. I’m not sure- he pointed to various scars on his body as indication. He has two brothers who stayed behind and are fighting.
Ola and her daughter. She brought two cats and was heading to Lodz to stay for two nights but didn’t know what would be next.
Krzys and his partner Asa dressed up to hand out candy at the train station. Someone asked them to pick up a Ukrainian family from Przemysl (border town between Ukraine and Poland), and when they delivered the family, in thanks the person who’d asked them to help out turned out to work for a candy factory and sent them pounds of candy as thanks. They passed it back on by coming to the train station to distribute it to the children.
I spoke with this woman as she waited to pick up parents of her brother’s Ukrainian girlfriend. We had a long conversation as she waited from their train from Przeymsl to arrive. She is Polish and described to me her initial fear about the war and how it would affect Poland. She just bought a house and couldn’t even continue with moving in because of the uncertainty. Eventually, like most people here, she tucked it away and has forced herself to keep going and do what she can to help.
A blurry image and I cropped it because the father was staring directly at me, but the gesture of relief and gratitude between the two women says it all.
A mother and daughter with their dog.
Many people wait at the train station for refugees, everyone trying to help. Various people from various countries, like Austria and Estonia and even Jehova’s Witnesses. There has been some issue with people showing up at train stations, while predominantly well intentioned, there is no regulation and there are now a very few stories circulating about young girls being picked up and finding themselves in a human trafficking situation. But mostly, it’s people who want to do anything they can do to help and with a quickly created NGO show up in buses to take refugees to their country. My understanding is, too, that many Ukrainians are reluctant to go beyond Poland if they don’t have to, because they expect to return Ukraine.
Mihal and his daughter. Mihal has been living in Poland and working, his wife and daughter just arrived. He says he will be going back to fight.
Children wait as their parents get necessities from a free shop set up in the train station, or arrange for connecting trains. In Poland, all travel by rail is free for Ukrainians, and Poles get 40zl/day if they host a Urkainian. The shop in the train station is filled with basic necessities and is set up by an NGO called Caritas.
Scenes from the shop of necessities.
We didn’t have a language in common, but she let me take a picture of her dog.
There is a group set up to help animals.
Anna and Leon the dog. Anna just came from Ukraine and is going to Prague to stay with her mom now.