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   XPost: alt.politics, talk.politics.misc, soc.culture.india   
   From: alt.fan.jai-maharaj@googlegroups.com   
      
   Forwarded post:   
      
   How the 'Indian Oskar Schindler' took in 1,000 Polish   
   children during WWII   
      
   An event that does not receive any attention from those in   
   the mainstream institutes which are financed by the Samaj.   
   The even in New York did not receive any attention from the   
   representatives of the Indian media, or the news agencies   
   who have clients in India.  After all, such events negate   
   the false image that they want to project about India, and   
   so have to be buried as deeply as possible.   
      
   Namaste.   
   Ashok Chowgule   
   May 23, 2018   
      
   How the 'Indian Oskar Schindler' took in 1,000 Polish   
   children during WWII   
      
   By Manik Mehta   
   The Times of India   
   July 17, 2017   
      
   The elegant ballroom of the Indian consulate general in New   
   York has been the venue for many cultural and other events   
   attended by Indian and American audiences. But on June 29 a   
   special event brought two communities, Indians and Jews,   
   together to witness a hitherto unknown chapter of history,   
   captured in a documentary film called "Little Poland in   
   India."   
      
   The docufilm, which had a special screening in New York   
   with the support of the Indian consulate general and the   
   American Jewish Committee, looks back to the dark chapter   
   of history during World War II when Hitler's deadly war   
   machinery rolled over Europe, spreading terror and   
   destruction on the continent.   
      
   Orphaned Polish children -- Jews and Catholics alike --   
   faced an uncertain future, but in the midst of the gloom a   
   ray of hope appeared when a kindhearted Maharaja (member of   
   Indian nobility) in a princely state in Gujarat agreed to   
   accept the Polish children and look after them.   
      
   The emotionally charged subject of children finding refuge   
   in an alien culture is deftly handled in "Little Poland in   
   India," produced by enterprising Delhi-based female Indian   
   filmmaker Anu Radha whose films generally deal with   
   children's issues.   
      
   As the horrors of the Holocaust and WWII unfolded in   
   Europe, General Wladyslaw Sikorski -- the first prime   
   minister of the Polish Government in Exile and Commander in   
   Chief of the Polish armed forces -- wrote to British prime   
   minister Winston Churchill to plead for the safety and   
   protection of the starving young children, the "treasure of   
   Poland," as he called them.   
      
   Though India was in the midst of an independence struggle   
   against colonial British rule and faced a famine, the "Jam   
   Sahib" (a nickname stemming from the words for "king" and   
   "owner"), as Maharaja Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji Jadeja of   
   Nawanagar was affectionately called, stepped in to help in   
   the dire situation.   
      
   The Polish consulate in Bombay at the time had launched a   
   drive to raise awareness in India about Jewish refugees,   
   and had been arranging for their travel to India during the   
   Holocaust.   
      
   A group of about 1,000 Polish children departed for India   
   in 1942 from Siberia, where, lost and orphaned in the midst   
   of death and destruction caused by WWII, they had been   
   shifted after the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland. The   
   children were welcomed by their benefactor, the Jam Sahib,   
   but only after a tortuous journey.   
      
   The ships carrying Polish refugees from the former Soviet   
   Union, including a large number of children aged two   
   through 17, were denied entry when they called on ports   
   while sailing through Iran to Bombay (Mumbai), then under   
   British colonial rule. When the Maharaja, who was a member   
   of the Imperial War Council, was made aware of the plight   
   of the children in the gulags, he became concerned and   
   established a camp in Balachadi, about 25 km (15 miles)   
   from the capital city Jamnagar, for the Polish arrivals.   
      
   The camp existed until early 1946; subsequently, the   
   children were transferred to the Valivade camp in Kolhapur.   
      
   "Little Poland in India" is the product of a joint Indo-   
   Polish collaboration, and is the first documentary film   
   based on the lives of WWII survivors who were given   
   protection in India by the Jam Sahib. The film was jointly   
   produced by Doordashan (India's state TV channel), the   
   Government of Gujarat and the National Audio-Visual   
   Institute and Polish TV.   
      
   While the Red Cross, the Polish Army in exile and the   
   colonial administration jointly helped set up the camps, it   
   was the Maharaja who played the crucial role in the   
   children's welfare.   
      
   Professor Piotr Klodkowski, a former Polish ambassador to   
   India, has gone on record as saying, "A fairly large school   
   was established for the children at Balachadi, and the   
   Maharaja is well remembered."   
      
   'You may not have your parents, but I am your father now'   
      
   Indeed, according to Polish sources, the Maharaja told the   
   children, "You may not have your parents, but I am your   
   father now." The children, in turn, called him "our Bapu"   
   ("father").   
      
   Poland has shown its gratitude to the Maharaja in various   
   forms. Warsaw has a "Good Maharaja Square" named after the   
   Maharaja. Poland also named a school after the Maharaja,   
   who was passionate about children's education. The   
   Maharajah was awarded the President's Medal, Poland's   
   highest honor; filmmaker Radha was conferred Poland's Bene   
   Merito award.   
      
   At the consulate's film screening, some of the Jewish   
   guests were privately discussing that Israel could   
   posthumously honor the Maharaja as it had done with Oskar   
   Schindler, the German industrialist who had helped save the   
   lives of some 1,200 Jews in Nazi Germany.   
      
   The Maharaja's help is all the more noteworthy considering   
   that while the world was at war, India was fighting its own   
   battle -- a non-violent battle for self-determination and   
   independence from British colonialism, even as a severe   
   famine and drought ravaged India at the time.   
      
   "Little Poland in India" appeals to the heart and head. In   
   an interview in New York, Radha explained how she became   
   interested in the subject for her film.   
      
   "I was having a conversation a few years back with then-   
   Indian ambassador to Poland, Monika Kapil Mohta, who asked   
   me, 'Why don't you do this interesting story about an   
   Indian Maharaja protecting Polish children?'" said Radha.   
      
   Seized by the idea, Radha began researching the subject.   
      
   "Having worked with cable television earlier, I had learned   
   the ropes of the trade. The idea of making a film about   
   Polish refugee children in India had set me thinking…   
   cinema is my obsession, my passion. Being a screen writer   
   is an added advantage because it enhances the creative   
   power for the film," she said.   
      
   But she acknowledged the help she received from the Polish   
   embassy in New Delhi, which helped her get a hold of a book   
   called "Poles in India: 1942-1948." The book turned out to   
   be a treasure trove of information about how the Poles   
   exiled in Siberia made their way to safety and protection   
   in India.   
      
   And she is "ever grateful" for the active support she   
   received from "Jam Sahib's" family.   
      
   "The doors to the palace were opened by Jam Sahib's son…   
      
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