New Zealanders opened their hearts and took in more than 700 Polish children who lost their parents during World War II. How did it happen that they arrived on the other side of the world?

Based in London, the Polish Government in Exile concluded a treaty with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, also known as the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement, on 30 July 1941. Its aim was to restore diplomatic relations between the two countries and to fight jointly against the Third German Reich. It should be recalled that the USSR, together with the Nazis, attacked Poland in September 1939, contributing to the disintegration of the Polish state and the unleashing of the Second World War. The leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, only changed his mind after being attacked by Adolf Hitler’s troops. The treaty with the USSR was pressured by the British on the Poles.

The grievous fate of war orphans

The cooperation resulted in the formation of an army from Poles imprisoned by Stalin in the Soviet Union. The troops were formed by General Władysław Anders, who soon became the commander of the units officially named the 2nd Polish Corps. Not only future servicemen, but also women and children gathered around the army. The latter were often war orphans.

General Anders’s army soon left the borders of the USSR. It headed to the Middle East to move from there to fight the German Nazis. About 2,500 Polish children, who had lost their parents, remained in several camps in Iran. Exhausted by hard life in the Soviet Union and disease, some of them died. The Polish Government in Exile appealed to the League of Nations in their case to find a place for Polish orphans. One of the countries that responded positively was New Zealand.

Direction: Pahiatua, New Zealand

The work of the Polish consul in New Zealand, Kazimierz Wodzicki, his wife, Maria, and the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Peter Fraser, and his wife, Janet, succeeded in transporting 733 Polish children to the Pahiatua campus in late October and early November 1944. The young Poles first got to India on a British merchant ship and later on an American warship to New Zealand.

Many of the children stayed in New Zealand permanently. They became embedded in the society there, but never forgot their native country.