The opening of the exhibition was attended by representatives of the veterans' families, including the 10th Dragoons Regiment soldier Dominik Podgorski's son and daughter, students of the local elementary school, representatives of the Who Dares Wins association, which, among other things, preserves memorabilia, as well as replicas of General Maczek's soldiers' uniforms.

During the ceremony, a letter by the IPN President was read out.

The letter recalled the history of the 1st Armored Division's struggle for the liberation of the Netherlands, including places like Borger, and outlined the significance of the "Trails of Hope. The Odyssey of Freedom” project.

 The IPN President thanked the mayor and councilors of Borger for their efforts to spread the message of our common struggle against totalitarianism:

Let me express my warm gratitude to the Municipality of Borger for their very kind invitation to present  the “Trails of Hope. The Odyssey of Freedom” exhibition here in Protestantse Gemeinde Borger. I extend my special thanks to Mr Mayor for his effort aimed at disseminating the message of our common fight against totalitarianism. I am grateful to all of you who make the memory of the Polish soldiers alive. I would also like to express my thanks to Mr Harry Venema for everything he is doing to commemorate those days. Last but not least, I would like to thank Mr Peter Krans of the Community of Borger with whom we have cooperated from the very beginning and who initiated this exhibition in this place.

The exhibition was opened by Jan Seton, mayor of Borger, who stressed that the liberation of the city was accomplished thanks to the strength and sacrifice of Polish soldiers:

We must constantly remember the history of Polish soldiers and their commitment to our freedom and pass it on to future generations. For this reason, the presence of the internationally recognized exhibition "Trails of Hope. An Odyssey of Freedom," which has been shown in New York, London and Breda, among other cities, at a time when the local community will be celebrating the 80th anniversary of the liberation, is particularly important to commemorate those times.

The exhibition in Borger will be open until 5 May 2025.

Borger and Buinen commemorated the sacrifice of Polish soldiers with a memorial and in Odoorn one of the streets was named after Bolesław Laskowski. In the morning before the opening of the exhibition, flowers were laid at the monument in Buinen on behalf of the President of the IPN.

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On 8 April 1945 the Polish 1st Armored Division under Gen. Maczek took part in the last big Allied push in the northern sector of the Western Front. The Polish unit which was part of the 21st Army Group attached to the First Canadian Army liberated the northern part of the Netherlands, crossing the German border in Goch. On 12 April 1945, the Poles were engaged in fights around Borger.

 “It is Thursday morning with beautiful spring weather. Few people will consciously experience this beautiful day, there is too much at stake. Nobody knows exactly what is going to happen, even a child can already sense this: today the decision will be made. Will this day bring the long-awaited liberation? All night and early morning, German soldiers are already busy hastily setting up a new line of defence. All bridges have been rigged with explosives. A cannon is set up in the middle of Borger, other Germans are already taking up their positions at the bottom of the countless foxholes”.

 This quote comes from Mr Harry Venema, a distinguished Dutch researcher who made a great effort in order to investigate and describe this part of joint Polish and Dutch history, with respect to the liberation of the community of Borger.

The Dutch villages of Borger and Buinen were liberated by the Poles on 12 April 1945. Among those killed in action were two Polish soldiers, Stanislaw Bieleniec and Stanislaw Kowalczyk of the 10th Dragoons Regiment, and the day before, on 11 April 1945, another Polish soldier, Boleslaw Laskowski, fell in combat in nearby Odoorn.

Shortly after the liberation of Borger, the local population informed the division about the German Stalag VI C Oberlangen POW camp, located just across the German border. The information indicated that it was primarily holding Polish female fighters who had been taken prisoner during the Warsaw Uprising in the summer of 1944. The Division immediately rushed towards Germany in several tanks and trucks. On 12 April 1945, 25 Polish soldiers from the 1st Armoured Division liberated a total of 1,728 women from the Oberlangen camp, much to the surprise of the prisoners, who had thought that only Canadian and British troops were fighting in the area.

Watch the short video from the opening of the exhibition on YouTube: https://tiny.pl/g37vhvcw

 The “Trails of Hope. The Odyssey of Freedom” should be understood as collective peregrinations of Polish citizens during WW2 of both military and civilian nature - which were motivated by the idea of restoring freedom to Poland and the world enslaved by the Third Reich and its allies, and related to the activities of the legal authorities of the Republic of Poland. The pretext for telling Polish history in so many countries around the world will be an exhibition consisting of two parts: a general one telling the odyssey of Poles during WW2 and a local one.

 More about the exhibition and the project: https://szlakinadziei.ipn.gov.pl/sne