One moment you are standing cold at the Polish-Ukrainian border to be picked up by Dutch volunteers, the next you are standing shoulder to shoulder with that same volunteer packing books. Ukrainian refugees are helping out this week from Tuesday to Thursday at the anniversary edition of the Roder Boekenmarkt. A market that cannot be viewed separately from the situation in Eastern Europe.
The book market, which started today, is a special one anyway. It is a lustrum edition. “The 25th”, says chairman Arie van Klei proudly. “It is a postponed book market, because we always keep it during the Christmas holidays. We couldn’t do that last time because of corona. We already had the books and to make room for the next market – which will hopefully be in December – we still book those now.”