Poland and September 11th.

I remember September 11th very clearly. I remember waking up and turning on the television and seeing the footage of the Trade Centers. At first I only felt confusion but as the day wore on it sunk in more and more. I remember sitting in class listening to the radio, and slowly comprehending the enormity of what had just happened. I remember the shock, the slow horror, the simultaneous isolation of the self coupled with a growing national solidarity. I was quite a bit younger and a lot has changed over the past few years, but the emotional memories are still very strong. I had hoped never to feel the same again.Today I woke up and experienced the same day all over again, except this time I was an outsider looking in.

See, I've been living in Poland since October 2009 for a stint as an English Teacher in a town called Bielsko-Biała which is about an hour outside of Krakow. Shortly after moving here, I found a Polish family with which to live. It's a very similar situation to an exchange-student situation and I refer to family members as my host-parents or host-sisters. I spend a lot of time with them and I've seen them at their best and worst. Today was something so different.

When I walked into the kitchen this morning, my host-mother was just staring at the television. Normally with the ears of an owl, she hadn't even noticed my entrance. When I announced my presence, she ran over to me and started energetically relating everything to me in a disorganized and almost incoherent manner. Her widespread eyes were energetic but sad. After making sure I understood the severity of what had just happened she went back to watching the television. The news agencies started announcing the names of some of the dead while I was drinking my coffee and reading the news on my computer. Every time a new name and position was read, she whimpered a little "oh Jesus!" and shook her head.

When I was walking around the city, every television in every restaurant, store, and pub was tuned to coverage of the event. People were talking about it everywhere. People walked around the city in a slight haze. There were children playing in the square, but this was a bitter contrast to the grim faces of the adults watching them. Couples in the cafes were still holding hands while drinking their coffee, but instead of romance the only thing on their face was earnestness.

When I got back home in the evening, instead of crash coverage, the Polish news networks were all showing religious coverage. Some were interviewing Cardinals and Bishops, others were interviewing mourners congregated around a brightly lit cross. The main channel, TVN, had the graphic of the coverage saying: "Tragedy in Smolensk" written next to a giant stylized cross. This greatly alarmed me when I first saw it, but then I remembered how different of a relationship church and state have in Poland than in the US. Poland is 85% Roman Catholic and connects Polish independence with its religion. The Solidarity movement and the Roman Catholic church are the two things most commonly associated with Poland liberation from the Soviets. But even before that, Poland has always had a very strong religious association to its politics. The Polish nation has survived centuries of occupation by using the religious sphere as their place for association. "Mother Poland" and Mother Mary overlap in the Polish psyche. The idea of being Polish is always been more about being a part of a big Catholic family than about being a citizen of an independent state. This plane crash wasn't just about losing their leadership, it was a strike to being Catholic and to being Polish. Even worse was where and in what circumstance this tragedy has happened, for President Lech Kaczyński and his entourage were heading to Katyn.

After invading Poland in 1939, Stalin had many Polish civic and military leaders rounded-up and sent to prisons in Russia, just near the present Belorussian border. Once there, the order was given to kill them. In a slaughterhouse outside of Katyn, the Russians systematically killed 22,000 Polish leaders. In one act, half of the Polish officers, thousands of civic leaders, and hundreds upon hundreds of Professors and academics were massacred. Once WWII was over, Katyn was simply not discussed; the Soviets censored any talk of it. It was simply too dangerous to talk about. After Poland was able to break away, the collective memory of this tragedy burst into the forefront of the public discussion. The Russian position was for a long time that it had been a Nazi action and refused any attempts by the international community to investigate what had happened there. Finally, just two months ago, Putin invited Polish leadership to a memorial ceremony for reflecting on Katyn. This indicated a possible shift in Russo-Polish relations.

Ever since 1989, Poland has had a very tenuous relationship with their former Russian oppressors. Joining the EU stretched the relationship even further. Russian spies have been found in Poland. Polish spies have been found in Russia. The Russians and Belorussians performed a mock invasions of Poland. None of this has helped relations at all. In Polish, the Russians are a bullying neighbor who has never said sorry or admitted any guilt for any of their crimes against the Polish people, much less Katyn which stands out as a particularly egregious example.
Katyn symbolizes so much. This occasion had the possibility of being a watershed event for Polish people and their feelings towards this bully neighbor. The next few days will decide what losing a second round of Polish leadership to Katyn will mean to the Polish people.

The emotional response of the adults, the disaffection of the youth, and the national sense horror and loss all remind me so much of my own experiences with 9/11. For now, Poland is concentrating on being a victim, but it will soon have to decide of what or whom it is a victim. Who will be made out to be at fault? Was this truly just bad weather, or is there a conspiracy behind it all? What sort of results might this have on the upcoming elections? Only time will answer these questions, but it is certain in my mind that this is a paradigm changing event in Poland. It might not be as catastrophic in terms of human life or as consequential on a global scale as the US tragedy, but it will certainly be consequential here. The patterns here have already so closely mirrored the US responses to our tragedy. I stand in solidarity with Poland more now than ever and I encourage you to do as well.

I will hopefully be covering more of this event and its impact socially and culturally in the days and weeks to come.