Does the Past Teach Us to Act Today?

by Nadiia Mykhalevych, HIA Fellow

People who don’t know their history properly are often destined to repeat it. The knowledge of the past gives us the answers for many questions and to some extent prevents us from the same mistakes. The part of our history that we saw in the extermination camp Treblinka on Friday is like a book page which you want to tear out and throw away, but it’s the easiest way – to erase it from our memory and don’t come back to it any more. We should, no actually, we must remember and speak out loud about such history even though it’s painful and bitter.

Our site visit to Treblinka became for all of us an emotional challenge and a difficult lesson showing the scale of cruelty and hatred that a human being is capable of. It was difficult to imagine and impossible to put up with the words the tour guide Tomasz Cebulski told us.  For some of us this was the first time in such place, for some the second or even fourth, but this trip became a very important step for everyone. “The power of Treblinka is in its voidness. Maybe, I would like to interact with more visible things here, but on the other side, maybe, because of the absence of these things, I’ve got such experience”, - Sudip Bhandari , HIA Poland fellow, described his feelings about the visit to the death camp.

  During our discussion we touched on various issues, but the main questions were “What can we do, personally and as a community, to prevent the genocide? What would be our concrete steps to solve this problem?” These questions remain without one universal answer, but for sure we need to raise awareness among people, look deeper into the reasons why it was so, educate, share and promote our ideas. Genocide is repeatable. When you look at what is happening now in South Sudan, you ask yourself, what pushes people to commit such crime against each other, when would be a stopping point for people’s violence? Don’t we learn from our past? It’s in our power, step by step, to prevent the extermination of ourselves wherever it happens. Each action can be “a small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”.

This day was also special, especially for me, as beside the deep reflection upon the ways of genocide prevention, we also had an opportunity to visit the Euromaidan Museum and get to know about Ukrainian community in Warsaw. When I entered the Museum and saw the exhibits, posters and inscriptions on the walls, the memories suddenly flooded my mind. I want to emphasize once again that we don’t have to forget our history and know the price which was paid for our welfare. Today is already our yesterday. We should live our today so as we wouldn’t be ashamed of our past.

Yulia Gogol, HIA Senior Fellow and Ukrainian activist in Poland shared with us her personal experience, how one day she became HIA fellow and from that very moment the topic of human rights became a part of her everyday life. She participates actively in the life of Ukrainians in Warsaw and uses every possible way to help Ukraine in its struggle for freedom. “It’s very important to convey the message so as the needed people hear it”, - Yulia says. Very bright example of conveying the message was the protest of Ukrainians in front of the French Embassy. They brought a small pool, filled it with the red paint and put the toy ships into it. By such action the protesters wanted to say that France shouldn’t sell the military ships to Russia, as the latter is leading a war against Ukraine. Every time the Ukrainians in Warsaw create a new way of rendering the message so as the world community hears their voices.

Yulia Gogol is an example of an agent of change, who once became a part of HIA program and it became a turning point in her life.  Yulia is not the only person who inspired us with her actions, as we also met other HIA Senior Fellows who are working in different NGOs, institutions, in European Parliament, who with their day by day steps make the life of others better. I hope that in the nearest future, all of us as the Senior Fellows will meet together and inspire the “younger generation” of HIA Fellows with our actions in the human rights sphere.

The first week flew by, but still we have time to learn more and seek for the ways which would help to change our community, country and world for the better. Such diverse atmosphere is a nest for creative and viral ideas. We’ve already become a one big family.  24/7 together , a lot of emotions, experience sharing, visits to different  NGOs,  very emotional site visit to the Treblinka extermination camp…all this left behind, but what we gained is the unforgettable experience, knowledge and moments which only 24 people will have in common.