Polish Refugees in India 1942-1948

The Polish Children’s Camp was at Balachadi, near Jamnagar on the Kathiawar Peninsula, Bombay Presidency. The Polish Refugees’ Camp was at Valivade in Kolhapur State, Bombay Presidency

Records at the British Library

• Polish Refugee Camp files, mainly of the Government of India IOR/L/AG/40/1/167-182 No date

External links

• "Polish Refugees in India During and After the Second World War" by Anuradha Bhattacharjee The Sarmatian Review April 2013 pages 1743-1756 html version pdf. Retrieved 12 October 2014. The author has written a Ph D thesis Polish Refugees in India 1942-48 University of Pune, 2006.
• An unforgettable journey by Maria van der Linden (1992) (online) The story of a child Polish refugee who spent five years in India from December 1942-1947. She spent a period in the main Polish Refugees' Camp at Valivade-Kolhapur. For a period she attended Kimmins Girls' High School, an Anglican missionary college , at Panchgani inland from Poona where her mother was the school nurse.
• The General Langfitt Story: Polish Refugees Recount Their Experiences of Exile, Dispersal and Resettlement by Maryon Allbrook and Helen Cattalini 1995. Australian Government publication, now archived.

In 1950 a group of displaced persons arrived in Fremantle, Western Australia, from refugee camps in East Africa aboard a United States Army transport carrier the USAT General W. C. Langfitt. They became known as the 'General Langfitt Group'. Many had spent years in India, prior to going to East Africa.

• "The Polish Settlements in India", part of "Chapter 5 - Dispersal"

• Article The Times Of India 17 September 2006 about the camp for Polish refugee children at Balachadi
• Seeking Kin: A maharajah comes to the rescue by Hillel Kuttler June 27, 2012. www.jta.org . There were some Jewish children among the refugees.
• "From the Reich to the Raj: Uncovering the story of German refugees in India" by Meylekh Viswanath April 13, 2017. New Jersey Jewish Standard. Includes comment that 12 of the Balachadi children were Jewish.
• Little Warsaw Of Kathiawar with comments outlookindia.com
• "A Reunion for War Survivors Who Escaped to India" by Naresh Fernandes July 29, 2013 New York Times
• Part Two: Stories of the deportations to Siberia by Teresa Oszurko. Scroll down the page to the commencement of this article, and further scroll (about 80%) to the time spent in India.
• Polish Students In Panchgani Schools dancingheartpanchgani.blogspot
• Dr. Khare Visits Polish Refugee Camp at Kolhapur. 1944 May 6 You Tube
• Karachi: City Secret – Polish Connection with photographs September 6, 2011 thekarachiwalla.com
• "The graveyard of tolerance" by Rafia Zakaria 22nd February, 2013 Dawn.com blog. The Polish Refugees in Karachi
• Film to chronicle Polish WWII refugees in India 18 July 2012 Radio Poland
• Prior to arrival in India
  • Evacuation of Polish civilians from the USSR in World War II Wikipedia.
  • "Uzbekistan: The Forgotten Polish Divisions of Central Asia" eurasianet.org
  • "Polish Refugees In Iran During World War II" ushmm.org
  • "Forgotten Polish Exodus to Persia" by Anwar Faruqi November 23, 2000 library.cornell.edu, now an archived webpage.
  • "Iran and the Polish Exodus from Russia 1942" by Ryszard Antolak. parstimes.com. Alternative version with images
  • "The City of Polish Children" 12 October 2017 British Library Untold lives blog. How Isfahan in Iran became the City of Polish Children during the Second World War.
  • Kresy Siberia Reference Centre: Books & Films