Karla Rasmussen, the education and public programs co-ordinator at the Western Development Museum Moose Jaw, won a free trip to Poland in May of 2021 and took the opportunity to take some spectacular photographs and dive into history.
“It was my third trip, my husband’s second,” Rasmussen said. Her mother’s side of the family is Polish, and she has enjoyed visiting the country and getting to know her relatives there. They had meant to go again in 2020, but worldwide travel was mildly disrupted that year.
“In May of 2021, there was a contest on the Polish tourism organization’s Facebook page,” she explained. “If you wrote an essay, you were entered for a trip — two tickets from Toronto to Poland. So, I entered that and ended up winning it.”
The tickets were required to be booked in 2021, and for the trip to be completed by the end of 2022. Karla and her husband Chris spent two weeks from May 21 to June 4, 2022.
The family story goes that Rasmussen’s great-grandfather and his brother smuggled themselves out of Poland on a cotton barge.
“There were a lot of conflicts. Times were tough. And they said, you know, we need to do something better for our family,” she said. “So, he and his brother came to Canada and ended up settling in Neepawa, Manitoba.”
The brothers would send money and gifts back to their family, but eventually the two sides drifted out of touch. Around 2005, Rasmussen’s uncle, who still has the original Polish last name, received a letter with photos and questions — “Do you know these people? Are we family?” — and a relationship was restored.
Poland and the war in Ukraine
Rasmussen said she was unsure about travelling after the Russian invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February, but her second cousin in Gdansk reassured her.
“They were quite scared when things first started, when Russia invaded. However, when they saw that Ukraine put up resistance and were able to push back, confidence returned that Poland was going to remain a safe place,” Radek, her cousin, told her. “He said, you know, Poland is a member of the EU and NATO, it is safe.
“It’s a big point of pride right now for them to be able to offer this assistance, because of what they went through in the Second World War,” Rasmussen continued. “To be the safe haven … The Polish people came together … to offer shelter for people fleeing that situation.”
Being a tourist in wartime is not something anyone wants, Rasmussen noted. She and her husband kept in mind during their trip that history was happening around them.
It’s often strange to see life going on essentially as normal while terrible things are happening not far away. The couple saw some refugee tents, and demonstrations and rallies for Ukraine. There are signs, graffiti, and protests everywhere — no one is unaware of the tension. Nevertheless, life goes on, with people going to work and school, buying groceries, and enjoying recreational activities.
“To be there, at this point in time, when history is still unfolding… It was good to go, for sure.”
