A 10 year Karol Wojtyla in the 1930’s in Poland, has dreams, many dreams. One by one they are shattered. First, by the loss of his mother and brother. Then by the outbreak of war and the death-fleeing exodus that ensued. And finally by the first sign of Jewish persecution.

These events will mark Karol’s long journey from worker, to poet and to teacher. A journey full of encounters that eventually leads him to become the man we all knew. A man who has marked an era. A man who has made history.

Karol Wojtyla, whose tireless fight for humanity and basic fundamental rights begins with the German invasion of his native Poland in 1939.

Appalled at the brutal treatment afforded his Jewish friends, Karol turns to his religion as a means of making a difference in the world, and with the help of several other like-minded individuals mounts a non-violent, but extremely effective, anti-Nazi resistance.

Ordained as a priest at war’s end, Karol finds himself fighting another form of Godless totalitarianism, this one from the Communists who have overtaken his country.

Ultimately, Father Karol Wojtyla’s noble mission culminates in his being elected as Pope John Paul II in 1978 and it was surely no coincidence that Poland’s liberation was now but a matter of time.

Polish Museum, 125 Elliot St, Howick phone 09 533 3530.

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