And more. History and implementation 4.2. Some had to travel by land to Ashgabat. The first group of exiles arrived in Africa in late 1942-44. Some, no doubt, are still there. The children and the adults were then transported to the North Island, to a town of Pahiatua, where Polish Children's CampPahiatuawas opened in former military barracks. There were 22 different camps that housed 13,000-19,000 Polish exiles spread out across East and Southern Africa, some with more than 6,000 people, others with just a handful of families. maps. Thousands of Europeans sought sanctuary in Africa during World War II among them were many Polish people. For the 733 children and 102 adults it was the end of a long and perilous journey. IWM collections, This media is not currently available. ul. 35-959 Rzeszw http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP7.ADDENDA.HTM, The Soviets arrested and All content published on this website is covered by a. ul. papers in Archiwa IJP, Polish version, http://dione.ids.pl/~ijp/pol/aog4.html or Polish On the left, smiling and with her arms crossed that was my grandmother," says Durand. In Ahvaz, "Camp Polonia" was one of the main exit centers for Poles leaving Iran, and the last Ahvaz camp closed in 1945. Southern Rhodesia, then a self-governing colony of the United Kingdom that is located in the now-independent Zimbabwe, entered World War II along with Britain shortly after the invasion of Poland in 1939. Ukrainian Catholics and Orthodox in Poland and Czechoslovakia. Zahal'na biblioteka. This meant that all remaining Poles were re-granted Soviet citizenship and received Soviet passports. 8s. It included extortions, robberies and murders. officers, and natural "enemies of the people," like the clergy. [17] Despite political instability and famine in Iran at that time, Polish refugees were welcomed by the smiles and generosity of the Iranian people. These included 200,828 ethnic Poles, 90,662 Jews, 31,392 Ukrainians, 27,418 Belorussians, 3,421 Russians, and 2,291 persons of other nationalities. He was even more grateful at Yalta, when the Western Allies Two hostels were also established: one in Island Bay for girls, the other in Lyall Bay for boys. The local tribes provided the Poles with building materials and food and worked on the construction of Polish settlements. After the end of WWII in September 1945, the African host countries pushed to get rid of the Polish refugees. Stalin simply said that there were none -- all those surviving the war had run away13 Churchill, however, saw the true dimension of the issue. Polish evacuees had to travel by train to Krasnovodsk, where they took a ship across the Caspian Sea to Iran. While Gen. Anders' troops were subsequently transferred to Palestine and from there to Iraq, the civilians remained in Iran. At the Polish Institute in London, he found the only existing film footage from the Tanzanian refugee camp where his grandmother had lived. Eventually, they migrated mostly to Australia, Canada, and Great Britain. The State Archive in Rzeszw As for what happened to those who never got out, God only Still, thousands of distraught Poles remained there, sent to kolkhozs. Polish underground courts prosecuted traitors and criminals during the war. PHOTO | UGANDA NATIONAL ARCHIVES. My two aunts lived in Koja Camp for several years and spoke of their time there with great affection. From Persia half of them were deported to East and Southern Africa. [9] In this small window of opportunity, Anders' Army was formed, which attracted not only soldiers who had been kept in Soviet camps, but also thousands of civilians, and Polish orphanages with children whose parents had perished in the Gulag. That was when Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin signed a non-aggression pact that divided several eastern European. After twelve days, we reached the port of Beira in Mozambique. Some exiles also found asylum in India in transit camps set up in Quetta, Mount Abu, Panchgani, Bandra, and in and near Karachi (such as the Country Club Camp, Haji Pilgrims Camp, and the Malir Camp). Locals from Tengeru and the Poles even sometimes celebrated mass together, said Devlin, the head of the Center for Flight and Migration at Germany's Catholic University of Eichsttt-Ingolstadt. On November 1, 1944, USS General George M. Randall (AP-115) arrived at Wellington, with 733 children on board. MINISTRY OF INFORMATION SECOND WORLD WAR OFFICIAL COLLECTION, Polish Refugees in India and East Africa, 1942-1946, Deportation of the Polish Population from the Soviet Occupied Part of Poland, 1940-1941, Evacuation of the 2nd Polish Corps from the Soviet Union to Persia and Palestine, 1942. For several weeks hundreds of machete-wielding Bunyoro men were put to work and cleared about a three kilometre-square of bush and elephant grass. But more stable settlements also emerged such as those in Balachadi, near the city of Jamnagar, and in Valivade, near Kolhapur. http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP7.ADDENDA.HTM. Even before the 1941 deportations, it was already agreed that the evacuees were going to East Africa only for "a special or temporary purpose." Language--U. Varshava. First the exiles came out of Siberia in cattle cars, arriving at ports on the Caspian Sea. He still gets goose bumps when he looks at the footage today. T.3. [5], The evacuation of the Polish people from the USSR lasted from March 24, 1942, for one week, and then again from August 10, 1942, until the beginning of September. By. Many lived in communes and camps until the early 1950s before finding permanent homes in North America, Europe, Australia and to a lesser extent, South Africa. 4. Witness History speaks to one of them. They were surrounded by dense, wildlife-infested forest. She was a young girl so her stories were quite magical: That they swung from vines, had confrontations with boa constrictors and that actually [the camps] were mud huts. Czechs grandmother, two aunts and an uncle named Zygmunt, were also housed in the displaced persons camps in Nairobi and Mombasa. Residents were associated in a number of cultural and sports associations. The costs of maintaining the settlements were covered by the British authorities towards the debt of the Polish government and the Polish Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare reporting to the government in exile in London. After the first evacuation, Polish-Soviet relations deteriorated and the Soviet government began arresting Polish officials. Gore Browne, expected around 500 Polish refugees to arrive from the Middle East. Jewish Ghetto Police were to arrest non-Jews who made purchases in stores exclusively designated for the Jews or brought merchandise or food with them. They settled in a camp at Santa Rosa, near the city of Len, in central Mexico. Nowoisiad-Ostrowska depicted quite a sociable image with singing songs in the evening, listening together to the radio in order to be informed about the war in Europe, and doing craftwork with other women in the evenings.[14]. Care had been taken in planning the settlement to avoid giving it the look of a military barracks. Many Poles left Iran for India, thanks to the efforts of Polish consul in Bombay, Eugeniusz Banasinski. In Eastern Africa, six permanent Polish refugee settlements were established: four in Tanganyika (Tengeru, Kondoa, Ifunda, Kidugala) and two in Uganda (Masindi and Koja). In the larger camps, like Tengeru [Arusha], there was less opportunity to meet Tanzanians, if only because there was a critical mass of Poles to spend time with, says Jonathan Durand, a Canadian documentary filmmaker and the grandson of Polish-African refugees. Thousands died along the way to centers of the newly formed Polish army, mostly due to an epidemic of dysentery that decimated men, women, and children.[10]. Several camps were opened in and around Bombay, with the biggest one located at Kolhapur Valivade, where 5,000 stayed. Humanity's history of migration by sea from Troy to Lampedusa, Polish tractors plowing a furrow to Africa, 'EU must rethink its approach to migration', Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy calls for ICC Russia probe, NATO: Finland forges ahead of Sweden toward membership, More than mercenaries: Russia's Wagner Group in Africa, Russian troops step up fight to cut off Bakhmut supply lines. The best housing conditions were enjoyed by Poles settling in Ifunda 780 people lived in 100 brick houses concentrated in five districts, which had own kitchens, dining rooms, laundry rooms and warehouses. Often it was not accurate, especially as far as dates of birth. Archives in New York, English version: http://dione.ids.pl/~ijp/ang/onas.html. Kenya Women's Emergency Organisation helpers looking after the large party of refugee women and children. Wood scavenged from the surrounding wilderness was used for fuel, and a bakery was eventually established that baked over one thousand loaves of bread daily. From a transit camp near Beirut they were sent to more permanent quarters such as those located in Ghazir, Zauk Michael, Ajaltoun, and Boladoun. Political Migrations on Polish Territories (19391950). Language--U. Kholm, 1943. Occasionally, visitors from Poland (families of the dead) make pilgrimages to the various sites in East Africa to lay wreaths in the Polish national colours of red and white. With a few days, Germany invaded Poland, triggering World War 2. A protocol of the Polish-Soviet (Sikorski-Maisky) agreement of First schools were opened in Tehran, where after one year there were ten Polish educational institutions. + Copies of insurance death claims from the Polish Roman Catholic Union of In January 1944, the Polish staff in all East African camps had been reduced. But Poles were reluctant to return to their homeland, which was under staunch Soviet control. In 1940, following the invasion and annexation of large parts of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, there was a mass de-Polonisation of the occupied territory, and between 320,000 and one million Polish nationals were rounded up and deported to the Urals and Siberia. On March 19, 1942, General Wadysaw Anders ordered the evacuation of Polish soldiers and civilians who lived next to army camps. 1,400 people arrived on board ship, then they were transported to Dar es Salaam. When Canadian Jonathan Durand traveled to Africa for the first time as a 20-year-old, he experienceda strange sense of being at home, an odd feeling for a young white man. The main route led through Turkmenistan to the Pahlevi transit camp in Iran (now Bandar-e Anzali) and from there mainly to camps in Tehran. the Poland - Soviet Union Border during 1945 -1950 Crime was rampant inside and outside ghettos. In Africa, Polish schools, churches, hospitals, civic centers, and manufacturing and service cooperatives were founded and Polish culture prospered. amnesty etc. Korespondencja z rodzina (1939-1940). In Tanganyika, the largest settlement was Tengeru (4,000 refugees) and smaller camps were located in Kigoma, Kidugala, Ifunda, Kondoa, and Morogoro. Zustrichi. centr. The Polish consulates in the USSR issued in-land temporary passports for those being evacuated: These had to be presented at the border crossings in order to proceed. Panstwowe w Rzeszowie They had survived deportation to the Soviet Union, forced . Mexico. The Kondoa settlement had 430 people, who lived in twenty barracks built of clay. Wiesawa Paskiewicz, who stayed at Kolhapur, wrote: "Our daily activities were marked by school, church and scouting. Copies of Records. Marunchak, Mykhailo (1914). Dyrektor mgr Krzysztof Patek PHOTO | UGANDA NATIONAL ARCHIVES. There were definitely Jews among the evacuees. 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