Wojtek the Bear [paperback] by Orr Aileen;

Author:Orr, Aileen; [Orr, Aileen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 709863
Publisher: Birlinn

10

Bears Galore Send a Message of Hope

And that should have been the end of the story. Time passed, and I feared that even Wojtek would be forgotten. Today most of his army contemporaries are a dwindling band of former servicemen in their 80s and 90s. Even the official custodians of Poland’s history can be forgetful. One of the earliest statues ever made of Wojtek, today housed in the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, London, is used as a doorstop. It is to be found propping open the door of a small, rather stuffy private reading room used by visiting researchers – a salutary reminder of the fleeting nature of fame.

Yet the legend of Wojtek continues to reach down through Poland’s generations. On the afternoon of Remembrance Sunday in November 2008, a memorial service for Polish servicemen who had fought with the Allies in World War II took place in a new garden of remembrance created for the Polish residents living in Redbraes by PC Simon Daley and officers of Leith Police, near Leith Walk, Edinburgh. With the Polish flag fluttering in a brisk November breeze, and watched by a substantial crowd, it was a moving ceremony, some of it conducted in Polish. At its conclusion, completely unexpectedly, children, some with their mothers and fathers, came forward to lay tiny teddy bears around a small model of Wojtek, a maquette created by Scottish sculptor Alan Beattie Herriot. Some of the teddies had tiny red-and-white armbands, Poland’s national colours, others carried miniature Polish flags. Watching the children lay their gifts beside the bear was a beautiful moment, a gesture of great simplicity and purity that completely overwhelmed me. I was not alone; there were tears in the eyes of all who witnessed it. I knew then with certainty that Wojtek was destined to be remembered and would continue to enrich peoples’ lives.

Long after they were parted, Wojtek offered his old comrades emotional release; the Polish veterans often found it well nigh impossible to talk to their own kin about the privations they had endured during the war years, yet in relating stories about Wojtek they took the first steps towards unburdening themselves of their experiences. At that ceremony I recalled the letters I was receiving from complete strangers who felt compelled to write. One was from a Polish woman living in London, who said: ‘I am writing to you because I read about your campaign to create a memorial for Wojtek . . . As a child the only war stories my grandfather told me were about Wojtek the bear. I think that Wojtek really helped to keep him sane during one of the most difficult periods of his life and he had a great deal of affection and love for him. If I can help your campaign in any way, despite being based in London, I would be very happy to do so as I feel that a memorial to Wojtek would also be a memorial to those who loved him and the troops who served with him, including my late grandfather.

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