In the
year 1939, when Nazi Germany and Communist USSR, attacked their
common neighbour Poland, improvised Polish army was no match for the
invading armies and soon the polish nation surrendered. Nazi Germany
and USSR decided to divide Poland between them. Germany holding on to
west Poland and USSR on to east Poland. Both the Nazis and Soviets
sent huge numbers of Poland’s elite, like military families,
police, doctors, teachers, and anyone else suspected of patriotic
feelings to prisons and labour camps. Soviet Union later went a step
further. They decided and deported more than 1.5 Million Polish
citizens to deep interior points like Siberia and Kazakhstan. The
purpose of these deportations were two fold. Firstly it was thought
that it would simplify the polish integration into Soviet empire.
Secondly it provided a supply of labour for Soviet Union's collective
farms. Entire families were packed into railway goods wagons in
Poland and were confined in them for six weeks as the trains rolled
east towards Kazakhstan. Anyone trying to escape was just shot. The
deportations soon got converted into a massacre as starting from
April, 1940, the Soviets killed an estimated 18,000 Polish army
officers and professionals in an event that has come to be known as
the Katyn Forest massacre, after the region in Russia in which the
executions were conducted.
However,
as things turned out later, the same deportations became a
deliverance for the deportees from the Nazi concentration camps and
the subsequent genocide. In 1941, Hitler suddenly attacked Soviet
Russia with a blitzkrieg. This made the Soviets change their strategy
towards the Polish deportees. At that time, thousands of Polish
deportees were in prisons in Russia. It was thought that an army
could be created out of these deportees, who could fight the Nazi's.
A general amnesty was declared to all polish deportees. An exiled
Polish Government in London readily agreed to formation of this army
and an agreement was signed with Soviets. This army was supposed to
fight in North Africa with the British and was to be assembled at
just north of the USSR border with Iran, on its way to middle east
through Iran.
The
soldiers were supposed to gather together in bases in Turkmenistan
and Uzbekistan before proceeding further. All the polish deportees
saw this mass transit of soldiers as an opportunity to escape from
harsh life in USSR and an epic journey of thousands of Polish
families began towards Turkmenistan from all over USSR, who hoped to
join the soldiers and eventually cross over to Iran.
To
take up this journey, many families had to escape from the community
farms (many farm bosses simply refused to allow them to leave.), have
money to buy train tickets and travel for months from Siberia to
south. They had to change trains frequently, sleep on bare floors.
Conditions were filthy with no proper washing facilities at stations.
People were infested with lice and infections spread like wild
flowers. Many of them died just waiting for the train tickets.
Polish
army, along with migrant families, crossed into Iran by ship across
the Caspian Sea or by road at the end of 1942. Some 37000 adults and
18000 children made it. After this, the soviet border was closed and
another Million Polish citizens remained trapped inside forever.
Iranian's were sympathetic towards the polish and treated them
kindly. Some of them stayed in Iran but majority moved towards
Afghanistan and finally to India in April, 1942.
In
1943, work started on a camp in Valivade, in Kolhapur, another
princely state,(now part of Maharshtra state) that was intended to
provide war-time domicile for 5,000 Polish older people, women and
children from the Soviet Union. It was designed to be “a Polish
village on an Indian riverbank.” The Valivade, also known as
Gandhinagar, near the city in 1942-43. Valivade, camp, named as
'Gandhinagar,' turned out to be the largest refugee camp for Polish
migrants in India.
Last
week, after a gap of almost 71 years, a large group of Polish
citizens including two ministers arrived in Mumbai to make a
sentimental visit to Kolhapur city. Jan Stanislaw Ciechanowski,
minister for war veterans and victims of oppression, and Andrzej
Krzysztof Kunert, minister for council for protection of struggle and
martyrdom, are accompanying the delegation. The Polish delegation
have special memories about the city, where they were protected and
attended school. They wanted to pay homage to the people who died
during their stay in Kolhapur. Before reaching this city late in the
night, the delegation visited Panchgani near Mahabaleshwar, where
the Polish refugees stayed between 1943 and 1947. They visited in
Panchgani, St Joseph convent school and TB sanatorium. Where some of
the Polish refugees had lived 70 years ago in rented homes.
Vijaysinh
Gaikwad, a retired Indian colonel and president of the ex-servicemen
welfare association of Kolhapur, is involved in the preparations for
the reunion. He says that his father had a shop at the camp and he
still remember its residents. He adds: "For
the past two decades, we are in touch and they desperately wanted to
visit this place. Most of them are in their eighties and are very
excited to relive their childhood.” Polish
Consul General in Mumbai Leszek Brenda echoed the feelings and said:
“We have a very strong bond with this city and its people, they
protected our children and families during the most tragic period for
our country.”
The
delegation spent two nights and three days in Kolhapur, when they
visited St Francis Xavier's Church, War Memorial at Mahavir garden
and cemetery in the city. The most sentimental and touching part of
the visit however was, when the delegation visited the cemetery near
Tararani Chowk. It was here that 78 of their former near and dear
were laid to rest. Several events were also organized for the
delegation.
For
many of the delegates, the visit was something, they have been waiting
for many years; something that connected directly to their past.
10th
March 2014
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