Evacuation of Polish civilians from the USSR in World War II

Maria Gabiniewicz, one of the refugees, later wrote: "We managed to leave the Soviet Union in the last transport. Still, thousands of distraught Poles remained there, sent to kolkhozs. I will never forget the journey on trucks through the mountains from Ashgabat to Tehran. After the hell that we survived, Tehran was a different world. Camp life was organized, there was a school, scouts, and religious life. Tehran was a gate, through which we were sent, in groups, to different parts of the world. My mother refused the tempting offer of going to Santa Rosa in Mexico. She wanted us to go either to India or Africa, as it was closer to Europe. She hoped we would return to Poland some day. We were transported on board a warship, through Persian Gulf (...) After twelve days, we reached the port of Beira in Mozambique. The adults were uneasy and afraid of the unknown, but us, the children, were happy for an adventure. We were not first the Poles in Africa. There were already 22 camps, with 18,000 people who like us had gone through different places of exile in the USSR, scattered across British Africa - from Kenya to Cape Colony.[12]

The Polish refugees who were going to East Africa were shipped from Iran, or brought from Iran to India and shipped from an Indian port, to different African destinations. The Kenyan port Mombasa, the Tanganyikan ports Tanga and Dar es Salaam and the Mozambican ports Beira and Laurenҫo Marques, which is today's Maputo, were the first African stops for the Polish refugees.

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. In August 1945 the number of Polish refugees in Northern Rhodesia was 3,419 of which 1,227 stayed in camps in the capital Lusaka, 1,431 in Bwana Mkubwa at the Copperbelt,164 in Fort Jameson at the border with Nyasaland and 597 in Abercorn in the Northern Province.

The last camp that was built in Northern Rhodesia at Abercorn, today's Mbala, Zambia. It was set up in 1942. Approximately 600 Polish refugees were brought to Abercorn in contingents. They came by ship to Dar es Salaam and via Kigoma to Mpulunga on Lake Tanganyika and subsequently they went in groups to Abercorn by lorry. Wanda Nowoisiad-Ostrowska quoted by historian Tadeusz Piotrowski (The Polish Deportees of World War II) remembered that Abercorn camp was divided into six sections of single room houses, a washing area, a laundry, a church and four school buildings with seven classes. The cooking was done in a large kitchen situated in the middle. One of the administrators lived in a building that also had a community centre where films were shown. She 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 craft work with other women in the evenings.[14]

Polish refugee colony operated by the Red Cross has a colorful setting in the outskirts of the Tehran

Living in Africa was very difficult for the Poles who were unfamiliar with local customs and languages and were not used to tropical weather. In Uganda, the biggest camps, which housed some 6,400 people, including 3,000 children, were at Koja (Mukono District by Lake Victoria), and Masindi, Western Uganda. Each camp had its own school, club-room, theatre. The housing was primitive with dwellings made of clay, with roofs made of grass and banana leaves.

Bogdan Harbuz stayed at Koja camp: "We did not receive any money for food, we only got 5 shillings a month for our expenses. The food was delivered: rice, flour, meat, salt, sugar, tea, and some coffee. People kept their own gardens, with vegetables. We were very poor, there were no jobs, kids had their classes in the open, there were no books." Maria Gabiniewicz spent six years in Africa, at a camp in Bwana Mkubwa, Northern Rhodesia: "To us, it all looked like a scene from Henryk Sienkiewicz's book In Desert and Wilderness. Houses made of clay, in the heart of Africa. Nothing looked like Poland, but adults in our camp did their best to emphasize our roots. There was a mast with a huge Polish flag, and the White Eagle on the gate."[12]

In January 1944 the Polish staff in all East African camps had been reduced. In an official letter from the British Authorities it was said. "It has been agreed that the welfare work in the Polish settlements must continue and the minimum staff stays to ensure this must be retained." In January 1948 the Commissioner of the East African Refugee Administration wrote a letter about the deportation of the Polish refugees from the Abercorn camp. They were going from Kigoma to Dar es Salaam and from there by ship to the United Kingdom where their next of kin – often husbands and sons who had been fighting in the war – were getting courses and training for civilian jobs. The resettlement from Abercorn was called Operation Polejump.

The British did not have the intention of keeping the Polish refugees in East Africa when it was decided to bring them there. Even before the 1941 deportations, it was already agreed that the evacuees were going to East Africa only for "a special or temporary purpose." 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. In Northern Rhodesia 245 evacuees were accepted for permanent residence. From Abercorn a single woman with a daughter and a son, whose father went missing in the war in Europe, and one male were allowed to stay.[15] The single man has not been traced, the woman, Josefa Bieronska, moved to South Africa with her children. Her son died young due to an accident, her daughter still lives in South Africa with her grand children.[16]

Polish child refugees and war orphans in Balachadi, India, 1941

Many Poles left Iran for India, thanks to the efforts of Polish consul in Bombay, Eugeniusz Banasinski. Indian government agreed to host 10,000 Polish refugees, including 5,000 orphans. Children were taken care of by Polish Red Cross and residents of Bombay. At first, they were transported to the town of Bandra, in the suburbs of Bombay, where Hanka Ordonówna took care of the kids. Then a special camp for Polish children was built near the village of Balachadi in Jamnagar, Kathiawar, thanks to help of the Maharaja Jam Sahib of Nawanagar (see also Help of Maharaja of Nawanagar for Polish refugees). Further Polish transports came to India by sea, from the port of Ahvaz to Bombay. Several camps were opened in and around Bombay, with the biggest one located at Kolhapur Valivade, where 5,000 stayed. Among people who stayed there was Bogdan Czaykowski.

Wiesława Paskiewicz, who stayed at Kolhapur, wrote: "Our daily activities were marked by school, church and scouting. We were mentally shaped by such organizations, as Sodality of Our Lady, and The Eucharistic Crusade. There were sports teams, a choir and activities groups."[12]

Polish women in Tehran

In 1942, about 120,000 refugees from Poland began their exodus to Iran from remote parts of the Soviet Union.[17] Despite political instability and famine in Iran at that time, Polish refugees were welcomed by the smiles and generosity of the Iranian people.[18] In late 1942 and early 1943, Polish camps in Iran were located at Tehran, Isfahan, Mashhad and Ahvaz. First schools were opened in Tehran, where after one year there were ten Polish educational institutions. At Isfahan Polish orphanage a children's camp was opened, where 2,300 children and 300 adults stayed and eight elementary schools were created. In Ahvaz "Camp Polonia" was one of the main exit centers for Poles leaving Iran, and the last Ahvaz camp closed in 1945.[19]

The first Polish refugees came to Palestine in summer 1942. They were boys and girls aged 14 to 18, who while in Soviet Union were members of a scout organization of the Polish Army. Transports of scouts, which came to Palestine, were directed to Camp Bashit. There, all were divided into several groups, and began their education. In August 1942, two schools were created - for younger (aged 8 –15) and older scouts. Classes began on September 1, 1942. Altogether, between 1942 and 1947, Polish schools in Palestine had 1632 students. Furthermore, there were schools in Egypt, at Tall al Kabir and Heliopolis. Altogether, in 1943 - 44 there were 26 schools for Polish refugees in the Near East.[12]

In 1944, Prime Minister of New Zealand, Peter Fraser agreed to take a limited number of Polish orphans and half-orphans, whose parents had died either in Soviet Union or Tehran, or whose fathers fought at the front. While still in Isfahan, 105 teachers, doctors and administrative workers were selected, plus one priest, Father Michał Wilniewczyc and two Roman Catholic nuns. On November 1, 1944, USS General George M. Randall (AP-115) arrived at Wellington, with 733 children on board.

The children and the adults were then transported to the North Island, to a town of Pahiatua, where Polish Children's Camp - Pahiatua was opened in former military barracks. It had a club-room, a hospital and a gym. Main street of the camp was named after general Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski. There was a kindergarten, men's school, women's school and a middle school. Later on, scouting teams were organized. Polish Children's Camp was financed by the government of New Zealand, with help from Polish Government in Exile, based in London.

Upon agreement between prime minister Władysław Sikorski and the government of Mexico, some 10,000 Polish refugees settled there as well. The government of Mexico did not finance their stay, money came from the funds of a special Polish - British - American committee. Poles in Mexico were not allowed to leave their camps. They worked as farmers, and their first transport came through India in October 1943, with 720 people, most of them women and children. They settled in a camp at Santa Rosa, near the city of Leon, in central Mexico. Additional Polish transports came in late 1943.