We have just come back from our last stop for the Remapping Europe ateliers. For 7 days we were working in Lublin – a town situated 100 km from the Polish-Ukrainian border. We met a group of young people, living on the borderlands, interested in Polish-Ukrainian relations and the imagery of Ukrainian migrants in Polish society.
On the first day of our workshops we were visited by a journalist from a local radio station. She came to conduct a short interview about the workshops and participants involved. After 2 minutes of conversation she interrupted us, asking “You must understand, that it is impossible to speak about Polish-Ukrainian relations without mentioning the murders committed by Ukrainian nationalists on Poles in Wolyn between 1943 and 1944”! Is it..?
Poland and Ukraine have a difficult common history. Or maybe we should say – this difficult common history is related mostly to the Polish-Ukrainian border. During World War II civilians were attacked and murdered by armed soldiers on both sides. After 60 years this memory is still alive, especially in older generations. On the other hand – young people seem to be separated from this discourse.
Placed near the Eastern border of the EU and the Shengen zone, Lublin is inhabited by many foreigners, coming here to study at universities – many of them come from Ukraine. This is why we decided to finish the Polish Remapping Europe chapter there. We tried to look closer, to our neighbors, and focus on the prevailing imagery of them in Poland.
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