ul. . About 700,000 Poles were sent to Germany for forced labor,6 many to die there. 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. The Polish Examination Board established examinations for students. The second world war was not fought to save the Jews. It triggered an amnesty for the Poles in the USSR. One of the largest refugee groups in Africa was some twenty thousand Polish people, who stayed from 1942 to 1950 in 20 refugee camps spread over Britain's African colonies. At the peak period, 4,018 people lived in it. She hoped we would return to Poland some day. Additional Polish transports arrived in late 1943. But those the Soviets only arrested and inprisoned were lucky. Among people who stayed there was Bogdan Czaykowski. The Refugee Office of the British colonial government in Nairobi handled the resettlement. Subject: UKRAINIANS IN POLAND In addition to the permanent settlements, several temporary camps were created, including in Morogoro, Kigoma, Dar es Salaam, Iringa and Tosamaganga in Tanganyika. The majority of applications were citizens of the former Soviet Union (in particular, Chechnya and Ukraine).. As a history student, he was surprised about the lack of information about Poles seeking sanctuary in Africa his professor had never heard of Polish refugee camps on the continent. At the Polish Institute in London, he found the only existing film footage from the Tanzanian refugee camp where his grandmother had lived. The British agreed to evacuate Polish civilians from Iran and presented a plan for the placement of refugee settlements. During the second evacuation, 69,247 persons left the Soviet Union, including 25,501 civilians (9,633 children). "[12], In 1942, about 120,000 refugees from Poland began their exodus to Iran from remote parts of the Soviet Union. By the end of September 1942, 1,044 people were located in the Ugandan settlement in Masindi, and 510 and 401 respectively in Morogoro and Kondoa in Tanganyika. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February . Advertisement Polish underground courts prosecuted traitors and criminals during the war. T.4. Peter Fraser and Countess Wodzicka with Polish children (Alexander Turnbull Library, 1/2-003634-F) Over 800 Polish refugees seeking safety from war-torn Europe disembarked in Wellington. Together, they immigrated to Canada. Language--U. Krakiv, 1995. A Polish Child's WWII Journey. The Polish migration to Africa has its roots in an event from August 1939. [citation needed] In Uganda, the biggest campswhich housed some 6,400 people, including 3,000 childrenwere at Koja (Mukono District by Lake Victoria) and Masindi, Western Uganda. Zjednoczonych (1941-1942). Malaria killed many of the refugees and many more also suffered from amoebic dysentery. Eventually, they found the area fertile enough to start their own farms growing bananas, pineapples, maize, tomatoes and sunflowers. PHOTO | UGANDA NATIONAL ARCHIVES. The Soviet Red Army had taken the Polish officers prisoner after invading eastern Poland in September 1939. Unlike elsewhere, upon graduation the teens were placed either in schools operated by religious orders or in technical colleges. Classes began on September 1, 1942. camp) Poland, Archives: But that was not In Uganda, the camps were located in Masindi and Koya on Lake Victoria. Language--U. Varshava. Further Polish transports went to India by sea, from the port of Ahvaz to Bombay. Show more. The main wave of Polish refugees sailed away from Iran to Africa. Finally, 733 Polish children with their 105 caretakers arrived in New Zealand on November 1, 1944. They shot former politicians, and government, cultural, professional, and intellectual leaders, or sent them to die in concentration camps. US membership $20; Canadian membership is $25. Nothing looked like Poland, but adults in our camp did their best to emphasize our roots. Language--U. Varshava, 1997. Another report that Van Vliet made a few days later in Washington is considered missing. The next transfer took place in 195559, after Stalin's death.[21]. PHOTO | UGANDA NATIONAL ARCHIVES. http://www.mapywig.org/m/wig500k/MAPA_POLSKI_1_500_000_KRAKOW_11.jpg, From Statistics Of Poland's Democide: Addenda* By R.J. Rummel z Wac?awem Potockim w Montresor, From Persia half of them were deported to East and Southern Africa. Polish Genealogical society of America http://www.pgsa.org/. One of the administrators lived in a building that also had a community centre where films were shown. South Africa, South Rhodesia, and North Rhodesia also became the home of Poles. However, during first years of war the rate of German and Soviet murder of the Poles was much higher than that of the Jews. Bolicza 2, Addresses of Ukrainian 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. His grandmother's testimonies about her life in the small town of Tengeru in northern Tanzania motivated the filmmaker to embark on an emotionally charged nine-year journey that took him to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. 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. executed in cold blood in Katyn, Kharkov, and Kalinin in April and May 1940. Some, no doubt, are still there. (16.06.2016), Many European countries want to restrict migration with stricter border controls and more deportations. M23 has been accusing the DRC of ignoring a promise to integrate its fighters into the army. Still, thousands of distraught Poles remained there, sent to kolkhozs. All content published on this website is covered by a. The resettlement from Abercorn was called Operation Polejump. centr. of hostages, reprisal raids, forced labor, "euthanasia," starvation, exposure, amnesty etc. 65s. A commandant usually a British official stood at the head of the administration of each of the settlements. However, in October 1946, the Secretary of State in London pronounced that refugees who could get a job in the area for at least 6 months, or had a sum of money sufficient to sustain themselves, could stay. T.6. Both settlements had hospital facilities run by Polish doctors and nurses. LUDNO CYWILNA I SIEROTY POLSKIE PO AMNESTII 12 SIERPNIA 1941 ROKU. 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. came to be known as the "City of Polish Children." 22, 1941. In order to ensure the highest quality of our services, we use small files called cookies. There was also a simple apprenticeship system for the youth. Records. They worked as farmers, and their first transport came through India in October 1943 with 720 people, most of them women and children. Wiesawa Paskiewicz, who stayed at Kolhapur, wrote: "Our daily activities were marked by school, church and scouting. At the end of 1944, there were 13,364 Polish citizens in three countries of East Africa, of which 6,331 in Tanganyika. Metiuk, Hryhorii. Dluga 6 The details concerning processing of personal data by each unit can be found in their respective policies concerning the processing of personal data. The State Archive in Rzeszw ; ; ; [][][]; (); 1/2; Polish Children's Camp was financed by the government of New Zealand, with help from Polish Government in Exile, based in London. After the hell that we survived, Tehran was a different world. Children were taken care of by the Polish Red Cross and residents of Bombay. the deportees until the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany on June Korespondencja z rodzina (1939-1940). Korespondencja z w?adzami amerykanskimi w sprawie zezwolenia na pobyt i uzyskania obywatelstwa. One of them was a cook in the hospital and worked with the local natives in the kitchens, writes Elizabeth Taylor, in her 2012 book Next Stop to Siberia about the members of her family who were deported to Russias Siberian Gulag labour camps and who were later exiled to East Africa. They settled in a camp at Santa Rosa, near the city of Len, in central Mexico. This utter lack of concern brought about a crisis of unimaginable proportions. Another transport arrived at the Mombasa port in Kenya on September 19. well as for the formation of a Polish army on Soviet soil. It is not only near Poland's 500-kilometre border with Ukraine where citizens are keen to show their solidarity with the refugees. Thus ended the saga Polish evacuees had to travel by train to Krasnovodsk, where they took a ship across the Caspian Sea to Iran. But Poles were reluctant to return to their homeland, which was under staunch Soviet control. http://lemko.org/genealogy/addresses.htm, Records from the Central Balachadi became a refuge for some 1,000 Polish children. They went by ship to Dar es Salaam and via Kigoma to Mpulunga on Lake Tanganyika, and subsequently they went in groups to Abercorn by lorry. Crime was rampant inside and outside ghettos. Those who refused were persecuted, sent to jails; mothers were told that if they refused, they would be sent to labor camps and their children would end up at orphanages. They were surrounded by dense, wildlife-infested forest. The settlements were divided into sections and groups, and the heads of departments of education, pastoral care, health care, culture and work were appointed. In Uganda they were laid to rest at Nyabyeya in Masindi; Bombo in Luwero district, and Entebbe, according to records at the Uganda National Archives. This site was spectacularly located on a peninsula jutting out into Lake Victoria. 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]. During and afterWorld War II, his Polish grandmother Kazia Gerech had lived in a refugee camp in what is present-day Tanzania the stories of her childhood near the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro had burned into his soul. The Jewish population of 8,700,000 was trapped under the control of the Berlin government; at least sixty percent (or about 5,100,000) were exterminated by the Germans during World War II. 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. order.5, To all this Polish misery, pain, and death, we must add what the Germans did in the Poland they ruled. Having unloaded H.M. Troopship Nevasa at Karachi, then in India, now West Pakistan they were tasked to sail to Khorramshahr, in Persia, now Iran on the 17th of March 1944. When using our website, the cookie files are downloaded onto your device. The Polish representative to the Potsdam conference claimed there were only 1,500,000, the United States estimated 2,000,000. Alternatively, search more than 1 million objects from As soon as their train drew in to Nairobi station they were met by members of the Polish Red Cross, the Polish Delegation, the Kenya Women's Emergency Organisation, and other officials, and were given refreshments. [3] Thanks to a remarkable reversal of fortune well over 110,000 Poles, including 36,000 women and children, managed to leave the Soviet Union with Anders' Army. Their home became a deserted hacienda in Santa Rosa, near Leen. The first group of an estimated 17,000-19,000 Polish refugees arrived in Africa around 1942. Polish exiles at a camp in Uganda. Sea transports were sent to the transit camps in British India (the port of Karachi in todays Pakistan) and from there to the settlements in India, Africa, Mexico and New Zealand. I will never forget the journey on trucks through the mountains from Ashgabat to Tehran. Often it was not accurate, especially as far as dates Language--U. Vinnipeh, 1969. The majority refused to return to the country. Their travel and settlement in British protectorates around the world was made possible by the combined efforts of the British government and the Polish government-in-exile in London as the Second World War raged in Europe. "African countries were on their way to independence and didn't want reminders of colonial rule," said Devlin. [19], The first Polish refugees came to Palestine in summer 1942. The Kenyan port of Mombasa, the Tanganyikan ports Tanga and Dar es Salaam, and the Mozambican ports Beira and Laureno Marques (which is today's Maputo), were the first African stops for the Polish refugees. [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. Korespondencja, m.in. We were not first the Poles in Africa. 3 prymirnyky. (0-22) 831-32-06 do 08 Some had to travel by land to Ashgabat. They had survived deportation to the Soviet Union, forced . camps, the Nazis murdered from 15,003,000 to 31,595,000 people, most likely 20,946,000 men, women, handicapped, aged, sick, prisoners of war, forced laborers, camp inmates, critics, homosexuals, Jews, Slavs, Serbs, Germans, Czechs, Italians, Poles, French, Ukrainians, and many others. Altogether, between 1942 and 1947, Polish schools in Palestine had 1,632 students. The arrival of the Polish 4.3 . ch.1-4, 1988; ch.1-2, 1989; ch.1-2, 5-6, 1990; 8, 1994. America. The contract was Ursus' third deal in Africa, a market that many Polish entrepreneurs are looking to boost. THE TRUTH ABOUT JEDWABNE AND HEROIC DEEDS OF THE POLISH NATION IN THE 20TH CENTURY by Prof. Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski, See full text in: http://www.iyp.org/polish/history/antypolonizmy/jedwabne_en_124.html. Podlesice Zivilarbeiterlager (public servants Hitler's orders issued at this crucial moment had nothing to do with the extermination of Jews, however these orders were a retaliation for derailment by the Poles of Hitler's strategy to conquer the Euro-Asian Heartland.. Most Poles were forced to stay in the Soviet Union. Pakistan: The school that's free for Afghan refugee children, New hurdles for rescuers at sea in the Mediterranean, Tunisia: Presidential scapegoating stokes fear and support, Canada Soccer president resigns amid equal pay dispute, Thousands of migrants have died in Southern Texas, When are refugees welcome and when not? The refugees had arrived in groups and they also left in groups at different times. http://www.poland.pl/articles/index.htm?c=421 This operation was complicated, time-consuming and cost-intensive, especially in the conditions of the ongoing war. In Eastern Africa, six permanent Polish refugee settlements were established: four in Tanganyika (Tengeru, Kondoa, Ifunda, Kidugala) and two in Uganda (Masindi and Koja). There were also teachers, so schools were built. PHOTO | UGANDA NATIONAL ARCHIVES. 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 government of Mexico did not finance their staymoney came from the funds of a special Polish-British-American committee. maps. Ukrainian Studies Fund. Korespondencja w sprawie pomocy charytatywnej, zaproszenia In smaller camps, there was much more reaching out to the local communities on the part of the Poles., READ: Tengeru: A long lost Polish history. officers, and natural "enemies of the people," like the clergy. No wonder then that the estimates among Germans themselves for the human cost of the expulsion from the German eastern territories varies from 800,000 to 3,200,000 dead.29 Even lower figures are available. If this site was helpful to you, please consider making a donation to keep it going. Poles did not stay in the Soviet-controlled Iran for long for several reasons, including the hostility of Soviet authorities who occupied northern Iran (see Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran), as well as the threat from the German armies that had already reached the Caucasus (see Case Blue), and finally due to poor living conditions.[13]. . First schools were opened in Tehran, where after one year there were ten Polish educational institutions. 492s. [15] The single man has not been traced; the woman, Josefa Bieronska, moved to South Africa with her children. The second wave of deportations by the Soviet occupational forces across the Kresy macroregion, affected 300,000 to 330,000 Poles, sent primarily to Kazakhstan. In Palestine, the camps for the over 5,000 refugees transferred there were located in Nazareth, Rehovot, Ain-Karem,and Barbara. 00-950 Warszawa skr poczt 1005 The aim was a contented and reasonably self-contained community: the Poles had to be given a sense of purpose, wrote Rennie Montague Bere, a Cambridge University-educated colonial officer in Uganda who was in charge of the two refugee camps. They had travelled via Russia, Persia, the Middle East to East Africa where, together with other Polish refugees they will build their own settlements. Polish refugees in Africa. Moreover, several Polish periodicals were published, Polish amateur theaters were founded, and Polish business enterprises flourished. Ukrains'kyi arkhiv. 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. Korespondencja - sprawy prywatne i rodzinne (1949-1950, 1957). 02-103 Warszawa obituaries and death notices found in the Dziennik Chicagoski, 1890-1971. During World War Two, close to 20,000 Polish people found refuge in African countries. Korespondencja do cz?onkw rodziny (1945-1946). 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. The coastline of Lake Victoria consisted of papyrus reeds, scrubby bush and dense forest, ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes and tsetse fly. All the camps and settlements established in Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, India, Africa, Mexico, and New Zealand were meant to be temporary quarters for the Polish refugees until the end of the war and the expected liberation of their country. Because Among the deportees 52 percent were Poles, 30 percent were Jews, and 18 percent were Ukrainians and Byelorussians. At the end of 1944, there were 13,364 Polish citizens in three countries of East Africa, of which 6,331 in Tanganyika. They also kept some small livestock such as chicken. Two hostels were also established: one in Island Bay for girls, the other in Lyall Bay for boys. The last Pole, Mr. Edward Wjtowicz, was buried in Tengeru in 2015. She wanted us to go either to India or Africa, as it was closer to Europe. 23sm. How a displaced Polish family found refuge in Tanzania, Tanzania joins projects financier Africa50, Bola Tinubu: Nigeria's political 'godfather', Tinubu declared Nigeria's president-elect. Ukrainian Catholics and Orthodox in Poland and Czechoslovakia. (1942-48) 7c Polish refugees in Africa (1942-50) 7d Polish refugees in Mexico (1943-47) 7e Polish refugees in New Zealand (1944-51) 8 Soviet Counterstrike. Abercorn camp 4.1. Such was the lot of By the end of 1945, another 4,300 were evacuated to Lebanon; by 1946, that number rose to 6,000. Records Approximately 600 Polish refugees were taken to Abercorn in contingents. Ukraintsi v Pol'shi pislia Druhoi Svitovoi Viiny 1944-1984. Poles in Mexico were not allowed to leave their camps. Roma J. Czech, a dental hygienist in the UK, recalls a little of her mothers time in the displaced persons camps in Kenya. They were housed in the Polish Children's Camp located in Pahiatua. Zaproszenia ze strony Komitetu Narodowego Amerykanw Polskiego Pochodzenia, Ko?a Oficerw Rezerwy w Nowym Jorku. Like the Nazis in the west of the country, the Soviet Union began to carry out ethnic cleansing. 1,400 people arrived on board ship, then they were transported to Dar es Salaam. 8a Soviet reoccupation of the Borderlands (1944-45) 8b Repatriation (1944-47) 35-959 Rzeszw Warszawa Poland, The Head Office of State Archives Valivade housed 5,000 Polish refugees; there, they had their own self-government and succeeded in establishing four elementary schools, a high school, a junior college, and a trade school. There were sports teams, a choir and activities groups. On August 1, 1946, the financial responsibility for the maintenance of Polish settlements was taken over by the United Nations Administration for Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and from July 1947 by the International Refugees Organization (IRO). Pages available in the www.gov.pl domain may contain e-mail addresses. We were mentally shaped by such organizations, as Sodality of Our Lady, and The Eucharistic Crusade. Eighty percent of the food consumed by the Jews was smuggled into the ghettos by Poles. 00-202 Warszawa Children and adolescents were provided with pre-school and school care at various levels of education. Why didn't America open its doors, and open them wide, to the Polish refugees? Ukrainian Gadam. After disembarking at the San Pedro naval dock near Los Angeles, the women and children under 14 years of age were placed in the Griffith Park Internment Camp in Burbank and the men in the Alien Camp in Tuna Canyon. Archiwum Panstowe w Przemyslu The second camp was established at Koja in Mukuno district about 100 kilometres east of Kampala, the Ugandan capital and about 35 kilometres from Mukono railway station. Przemyslu Poland, The State Archive in Rzeszow Archiwum In Tengeru in Tanzania, which was the largest of the camps, they lay wreaths on the single memorial stone that bears one hundred names of people who were interred here. In all, 16 Polish schools were attended by some 2,300 Polish children in India. A large Polish settlement was also founded in Mexico. Copies of Haller's Army In 1941, the tables were turned when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, forcing Russia to join the Allies. And from 1939 to 1941, they deported en mass about 1,6000,000 Poles, including 400,000 Jews. When the Polish community The Polish population, both civilian and military, was evacuated to Iran from the Soviet Union in two stages from March to September 1942. Scouting was popular. The Polish refugees also have a positive memory of the locals, says Durand. Of all the research Durand undertook, one discovery made a great impression. POLISH REFUGEES IN EAST AFRICA, 1942-1946 description Object description Kenya Women's Emergency Organisation helpers looking after the large party of refugee women and children. Political Migrations on Polish Territories (19391950). The date is May 2000 and it comes They ended up in Iran, India, Palestine, New Zealand, and British Africa, as well as in Mexico. From Poland, over Russia and Iran, to Africa. 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. Organisation and regulations of the camps in East Africa . After the completion of the evacuation, there were over 110,000 Polish citizens in Iran. They were coming from the Middle East. They also murdered about 65,000 Poles in this terror.2, In one notorious massacre, in incredibly cold calculation, the NKVD-the Soviet secret police--systematically executed possibly 14,471 former polish officers, including political leaders, government officials, "It was a friendly existence, side by side," she told DW. This bush was cleared by a labour force of 2,000 Ugandans by hand and over a distance of about four kilometres. Each camp had its own school, clubroom, and theatre. Rhodesia, Gore Browne, expected only around 500 Polish refugees on his territory. In October 1942, the Director of War Evacuees and Camps of Northern Rhodesia, Gore Browne, expected around 500 Polish refugees to arrive from the Middle East. Gdansk: http://www.ap.gdansk.pl/english/linki/poland.php, The Archives of New Records In August 1942, two schools were created, for younger (aged 8-15) and older scouts. Here's a map that shows Since 1989, the number of people applying for refugee status in Poland has risen from about 1,000 to 10,000 each year; about 1-2% of the applications were approved. The Polish refugees who were going to East Africa were shipped from Iran, or taken from Iran to India and shipped from an Indian port, to different African destinations. Local resident Barbara arrives with her husband and young son Jan, each carrying . Exiled to Siberia. But Iran proved unable to care for such large numbers of refugees, causing the British government to move Polish civilians to other British colonies. Iran and the Polish Exodus from Russia 1942. Thousands of Europeans sought sanctuary in Africa during World War II among them were many Polish people. African radio stations ran programs in the Polish language and there waseven a Polish press. 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. Records Young Polish women living in exile in Uganda in the 1940s, as the Second World War raged in Europe. The Koja settlement covered an area measuring over 700 acres and was located on several hills overlooking the lake. They settled in transit and permanent camps in the British colonies of Uganda, Kenya, and Tanganyika. Here is the other matching map to the West. Check with Polish Archives for birth records, Polish army records. Ul. 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.