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Past events

The Wartime Odyssey of Polish Children and the Good Maharaja - the photo exhibition

Friday, September 23, 2016

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September 23-24 - the Kosciuszko Foundation will host " Passage to India: The Wartime Odyssey of Polish Children and the Good Maharaja", the photo exhibition.

Please feel free to visit us. Open to the public Friday, September 23, 12 am - 9 pm, Saturday, September 24, 10 am -4 pm

Sept. 23 at 5.30 pm - refreshments will be served.

No reservation required.

The exhibition has been designed by Polish historian Robert Kostro, director of the Polish History Museum.

India's mission in New York headed by Syed Akbarsddin prepared an exhibition titled — Passage to India: The Wartime Odyssey of Polish Children and the Good Maharaja.

The exhibition depicts a touching story from World War II of more than 1,000 Polish children, mostly orphans, deported from Poland to Siberia. These children, when allowed to leave Siberia in 1941-42, travelled all the way to India, where Maharaja Jam Saheb Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji of erstwhile Nawanagar created a new home for them in Balachadi, 25 km from his capital Jamnagar.

Wartime Odyssey of Polish Children and good Maharaja

The Polish government has always been extremely appreciative of the fact that the Maharaja went out of his way to host the children at a time when India was struggling for its own independence. The Polish camps in Balachadi and Valivade (now in Maharashtra) flourished until the last of the Polish families left India in 1948.

The Maharaja, who was nephew of renowned Indian cricketer Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji Jadeja, while adopting the Polish children, had famously said, "Do not consider yourself orphans. You are now Nawnagaris and I am Bapu, father of all the people of Nawanagar, so also yours''.

This exhibition is also available online on Google Arts & Culture

Organizer: Polish History Museum

Author: Ewa Wojcicka

Factual consultation: Professor Janusz Wróbel

Collaborators: Wiesław Stypuła (Balachadi settlement), Teresa Glazer and Danuta Pniewska (Valivade settlement)