When the city of Breda celebrated the 80th anniversary of its liberation from the Nazis this year, it had a debt of gratitude that might surprise some people – to Poland.

“It’s really amazing for us that the Dutch people remember the Polish soldiers, that every year they pay tribute to them in the cities and villages which were liberated by Poles. There is probably no other place where it is so celebrated as it is in the Netherlands,” says Margareta Kassangana, ambassador of the Republic of Poland to the Netherlands.

“Participating in the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands was a truly moving experience,” she says.

The celebrations also provided an opportunity to strengthen ties between the two countries. “We had very important and fruitful meetings between our foreign ministers as well as senior officials covering political, economic, and social affairs,” the ambassador says.

People links

But even more important are the people-to-people links. In October, football club NAC Breda played an extraordinary match against RKC Waalwijk. “They wore t-shirts with the emblems of the Polish soldiers and the game stopped at 19.44, the year of liberation, to pay tribute to Polish soldiers” Kassangana says.

The signal to start the game with a symbolic kick of the ball was given by captain Eugeniusz Niedzielski, who took part in the liberation of Breda 80 years ago and at 101 years old is the last surviving soldier of the Maczek Division. “It was a very uplifting moment,” the ambassador remembers.

Poland’s links to the Netherlands are not just its role in the Allied forces liberating the country from Nazi oppression. The ties between the Dutch and Poles stretch back centuries, and today there are more than 250,000 Polish people officially registered here – success stories with an important personal and economic impact.

Bożena Kopczyńska, a prize-winning cellist and chair of Polish Culture NL, points out that not only is Polish thought to be the fourth language minority in the country: Amsterdam is quite literally built on Polish wood.

“Most of the Dutch think that all the tree trunks came from Sweden and Norway, but a lot of houses in Amsterdam are built on Polish tree trunks, from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth,” she says. “To build one war ship, you need a thousand oak trees, and 50% of Amsterdam’s income came from the trade in timber and grain from Poland until the 17th century. Without it, there wouldn’t have been any VOC East India Company!”

Baltic Sea

In a new book and short film, Kopczyńska has investigated the ancient links between Amsterdam and her homeland, which until 1569 was a multi-ethnic, mixed-faith commonwealth and one of the largest countries in Europe. Trade across the Baltic Sea region was critical.

“There were close connections between Amsterdam and Gdansk [then Dantzig],” she says. “Houses in Gdansk are built from Dutch bricks, and they came with 300 ships twice a year to buy grain and timber. The first contacts were in fish: the Dutch until the end of the 16th century were paying more for Polish herring because the level of saltiness in the Baltic sea was lower and it was sweeter. It’s a deeply entwined past.”

There are traces of this still in the cityscape of Amsterdam – from the Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky and Koninklijk Theater Tuschinski to emblems of ancient, enterprising Poles on Amsterdam buildings and former grain warehouses. (Even Rembrandt’s brother-in-law, says Kopczyńska, was Polish theology professor Johannes Macciovius, and two of his portraits depict important Poles.)

Poles have a strong presence in the Netherlands today too. There was an influx of people after Brexit and as well as the established population of a quarter of a million, some 200,000 Polish people are thought to travel to work temporarily in industries such as agriculture each year.

Highly skilled

“We have also provided all the countries with highly skilled professionals,” the ambassador says. “We are talented when it comes to languages and mathematics, so a huge number of Poles come to do really valued work here.”

Monika Siudek, chairwomen of the management board of Polish Professional Women in the Netherlands, points out that Polish women expect to work full time and have an entrepreneurial spirit.

Devastated by World War II, Poland was until 1989 part of the Soviet Union – a period she believes forged a real resilience. “For many, many, many years we had to struggle with Soviet occupation,” she says. “Thirty years ago, when we finally were absolutely free, small companies exploded. I have this feeling that we are actually doing quite similar things here: a lot of entrepreneurs who started their own businesses, their own brands here, are quite successful. We are resistant people and we are hard workers.”

Radoslaw Pronczuk, director of FIRE STOP Holland, an expert in sprinkler systems and fire detection, said that one of the strengths of Polish firms is their access to a highly qualified workforce back home as well as a direct, can-do attitude.

“I’ve lived in the Netherlands for 18 years, I have a Polish wife, I know the culture pretty well,” he says. “The Dutch are very good at building structures, communicating before decisions are made, and Polish people are innovative, flexible… and they aren’t sick so often.”

European presidency

He employs 90 people, half Dutch, half Polish, and said the cultures have enough similarities to work well together. “In the Netherlands, an agreement is an agreement,” he says. “It’s not always the same in Belgium, France and Italy.”

At a political level – as Poland takes on the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union in January – there is close collaboration between the Netherlands and Poland, says the ambassador.

She was recently at the 33rd Utrecht Conference to strengthen bilateral political, economic and social cooperation between the countries. “When we started the accession process [before joining the European Union in 2004], the Dutch government wanted to help us,” says Kassangana. “We were a candidate country and they wanted to help us understand better the EU. It created this working consultation at an expert level, and we continue with that.”

Like the structures of Amsterdam built on Polish wood, many Polish people have successfully joined the Dutch society through the ages. Pronczuk, who sees demand for fire safety only growing as the country tries to build 100,000 homes a year, has no plans to go anywhere. “I have Polish roots, I’m 100% Polish,” he says. “But now I’m maybe 30% Dutch too!”