Dear culprit(s),

How wrong was your action this weekend to vandalize our guestbook with both painful and sad words and the symbol of Nazi evil!

Twice you wrote the swearword ‘cancer’ in capital letters. Did you know that only a few days before your despicable act, the world paused to remember children with cancer – during World Children’s Cancer Day on 15th February?
And did you know that in 2021 alone, 45,000 people died from it and a multiple were directly or indirectly affected by this terrible disease?

Dear culprit, in his book ‘Mein Kampf’, Hitler describes the swastika as a symbol of “the mission and struggle for the victory of Aryan man”. This concept of the ‘übermensch’ with its unparalleled dehumanisation of large groups of people ensured that a vibrant Jewish community was minimised less than 10 kilometres from our beautiful village. Did you know that?
When you entrusted your foul pen to the paper of the guest book, you turned your back on the message in favour of humanity. Had you looked around first, looked around and let the stories of the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade sink in? Because it is these fighters we tell about in our information center, who lived through the humanitarian effort, courage and responsibility – for our freedom. Where was your responsibility when you took the liberty? Was it ignorance, stupidity, a surge of anger or thoughtful evil?

Still, dear culprit, our door will be open to you. We will gladly look you in the eye to engage in conversation together. Then we will tell you about the story of Driel and our Polish friends. Please consider this an invitation, then we will leave the declaration behind.

Please know: we cannot erase the pitch-black page of our history and the great light of our Polish friends. The pages you smeared we do. We have cut those out of the guestbook. For us, your action is a reaffirmation of what we already knew: freedom needs continued commitment and responsibility – this is what we, as the Driel-Poland Foundation, with all our volunteers, will continue to do with full conviction.

Kind regards,
Board of Driel-Poland Foundation

PS. If you know anything or have seen anything suspicious at the Information Center in Driel (during the day), please report it to the police.
You can reach the police at 0900-8844.