Polish ambassador joins WW2 plaque unveiling

A blue plaque has been unveiled at a pub in Oxfordshire in memory of polish soldiers and their families that settled nearby after the second world war.

The Black Horse Pub in Checkendon was a hub for hundreds of Poles who lived in woodland refugee camps in Checkendon, Nettlebed and Highmoor from 1946-1961.

After the war the Soviets had occupied Poland, so many Poles that fought alongside the British started new lives in Oxfordshire because they were unable to return home.

Speaking at the unveiling on 2 October, Polish Ambassador to the UK Rafał Wiśniewski said the "hospitality and solidarity" shown here needed to be remembered today as "we are now again exposed to military conflict" in Europe.

Many of the attendees grew up on the camp and were the children of soldiers from the Polish 2nd Corps, who fought at the deadly battle of Monte Cassino in Italy where some 55,000 allied troops lost their lives.

Stanislawa Szpak remembers the "idyllic" feel to the camp and the "freedom" of going "anywhere they liked", despite the basic accommodation within Nissen huts with no running water.

"It was hard for the adults. But it was home. They could just get on with life after so many years of uncertainty, cruelty, malnutrition. They had bread on the table", she said.

The Black Horse has been in the same family for more than a century and where Polish and British troops drank.

Earlier this year an event celebrated the profound bonds formed between the Polish community and local villagers.

Mr Wiśniewski said it is "a very symbolic place both for the past and for the present" and of Polish-British friendship.

In his speech to the event he emphasised the need for the British audience to remember the annexation of parts of Poland by Russia.

And the journey many polish families had made through two or three continents to get here, while others died after being forced to work in Gulags and treated as "slaves".

When asked whether Britain takes the threat from Russia seriously, he said it's important to take into account the "geographical distance".

"It's easier for societies which are literally next door to understand it, also emotionally, but I think the United Kingdom is very much engaged."

"I think that it is also thanks to events and stories like this one today that this approach is still very strong and very alive."