The Roads to Freedom....

Chris again here, ILP and YES member.

Firstly, apologies to stick this in the middle of the fantastic blogs coming in this week from Strasbourg… I think that ILP members branching out into other YMCA groups and events great for our group as a whole.

My blog today focuses on the trip the YES Group made to Gdansk last Wednesday (27 November). We made the short journey from Gdynia to the ‘Road to Freedom’ museum.

We first knew we had reached the underground exhibition when we were greeted by three pieces of the Berlin Wall, with multi-language “road to freedom” directions on the pavement. I felt quite embarrassed that I knew so little about Communism in general across Eastern Europe before the trip, especially with so many participators from affected countries.

The first piece we seen of the tour was a typical shop under a communist regime. The few items such as bread, cheese and milk that were available were in very short supply. Across the hall was a mock up of a toilet block, and the first thing to notice was that newspaper lay where a toilet roll should. It was not just food that was barely sought.

We moved through the small walkways and one thing I immediately recognised was that a lot of the exhibits were not behind glass like you see in so many other museums, you could touch practically everything which gave me a realisation that this was still in the recent memory for so many people.

Several videos and multimedia resources aided the flow. Colour videos of high quality… videos of the public of all ages getting beaten by police, just for wanting, pleading for a voice.

The final part of the museum was an educating video outlining the timeframe of which the dozen countries broke free. What really hit me here is that Ukraine only achieved this in 2004, just ten years ago. There were people I was walking around with who had experienced these times themselves. This was real. This was their life.

Outside a short walk away from the museum now stand three huge pillars in the middle of a square to represent Gdynia, Gdansk and Sopot where the revolution began. There are plans well under way to build a huge education centre right by the memorial that will give users a freedom to learn and progress for years to come, while still well aware of the sacrifices that were made to make this a possibility.