10.
The Polish Refugees' Camp at Valivade-Kolhapur
Prayer is the key of the
morning
And the bolt of the evening.
Mahatma Ghandi
We traveled from Jamnagar to Kolhapur city in India's
Maharashta State by a specially chartered passenger train, in which
I skillfully concealed my white and ginger kitten in a covered, cane
basket. I was very fond of this animal and was determined not to leave
it behind. Pets were not allowed on this train journey, but my determination
paid off and I managed successfully to smuggle my pet. On arrival
at Kolhapur we were transferred into buses for a half hour trip to
the Valivade camp, where we were to live for the next two years.
This camp was much larger than the
Balachadi camp near Jamnagar. It accommodated over 21,000 people,
including many single-parent families and an orphanage for about 2,500
children. Most families had solo mothers; their husbands were either
missing, had died In the USSR, or were serving in the Polish army
In Italy. There were very few men, only the elderly, those exempt
from military service on health grounds, and high school leavers.
The familiar army-style barracks were equipped with facilities similar
to those at Balachadi-Jamnagar and an adjacent supervisor's room.
A bonus was the waterproof tiled roof and an open verandah to enjoy
the coolness of the tropical evenings. The barracks' inner walls consisted
of bamboo frames, which supported woven flax panels. Similarly, window
openings were created by the sliding of these frames when desired.
The floors were again bare earth smoothed over by a regular plastering
with a mixture of cow dung, some straw fragments and clay mixed with
water. This generated a very strong, pungent smell on application,
but produced a lasting smooth surface devoid of any unpleasant odour
when dry.
Families occupied separate units, which
were integral parts of similarly constructed barracks. For the first
time in three years I was able to live with my mother, who continued
nursing in the much larger hospital in the Valivade camp. Her position
entailed shiftwork and this meant that I was often alone. Alek was
still at the Panchgani TB sanatorium when we arrived. At the Polish
secondary school all our Instruction was in Polish, as we still hoped
we would return to a free Poland when the war ended. The school syllabus
Included the usual core curriculum of Polish language and literature,
mathematics, elementary science, Polish history, geography, physical
education, music, art and religious instruction. Two foreign languages
were offered, English and Latin. Anglo-Indian teachers taught us English
as a second language. I made steady progress in English, but lacked
an opportunity to speak it in the camp.
The Roman Catholic church at this camp
was again the centre of Polish spirituality. It was a unifying force
and the lifeblood of all exiled refugees, whose Christian beliefs
and values were deeply rooted in the Catholic faith of their native
Poland.
Traditionally, the scout movement was
very strong among Polish youth, as it was the vehicle of patriotism
from a tender age in Poland. Accordingly, scouting was greatly encouraged
at Valivade. As a girl guide, I enjoyed many challenges and happy
times in the guide camps, which were usually set up near the Polish
camp, among the surrounding sugar cane plantations, characteristic
of this part of India. I recall with pleasure our nostalgic evenings
by a bonfire, when we listened attentively to tales about Poland and
sang sentimental, patriotic songs. I learned many useful skills, including
cooking and first-aid, and I developed initiative, perseverance, self-discipline
and self-reliance.
When we arrived at the Valivade-Kolhapur
camp in April 1944, the sugar cane harvest was in progress. The canes
were cut with large, sharp knives. Often the sugar cane leaves, which
were extremely dry towards the end of the hot season, were set fire
to. This was done to get rid of pests such as snakes and scorpions.
The sturdy green canes were sometimes smoke-stained on the outside,
but remained Intact on the inside. Bullock-driven carts carried bundles
of them to the mill in Kolhapur. In India bullocks and cows were an
essential part of the rural economy. They pulled the ploughs, helped
to puddle the rice fields, and to cart produce to market, to the sugar
cane mills and other food processing plants. They ground corn, pushing
a millstone around, and were also used for irrigation. White cows
are sacred animals of Hinduism, and are never slaughtered by the Hindus.
Their religion forbids the taking of animal life. During famines people
starve to death while cattle survive. During our visits to Kolhapur,
cows were often seen wandering in the streets, especially in the many
poor areas.
The poor of the city built their shacks
out of mud, tin and scraps of wood, usually on land occupied illegally.
Some paid rent to racketeers just to sleep on the pavement. We watched
the shanty-town people cooking their evening meals on fires fueled
by coal dust, dung, oily rags and rubbish, creating smog. Open sewers
stank and often overflowed. We soon discovered that Indian cities
such as Kolhapur and Bombay were extremely noisy also. Loud-speakers
blared music on maximum volume and shouting sellers of lottery tickets
added to the general din. Passing cars and trucks repeatedly blasted
their horns. Buses and trains also contributed to noise and smog as
their engines belched black diesel clouds in the faces of the rickshaw
pullers. We noticed some of the better-off middle-class people dashing
through the traffic on motor scooters. The educated spoke English
in addition to their own language and Hindi. They were employed by
big companies and government departments. However, the living standard
of the Indians was at that time generally low, with an average pay
of 2,000 rupees or $NZ160 per month. Thirty-six per cent of the population
was illiterate.
About two miles away from the camp
was the Krishna River where we sometimes enjoyed a swim. During the
hot, dry season this river was dammed for irrigation. Concrete pillars
were placed across the river, with slots, into which heavy wooden
beams were inserted to form a dam. Before the onset of the monsoon
rain these beams were removed to allow an even flow of water. Krishna,
the great deity of Hinduism, was worshipped as an incarnation of Vishnu.
The Krishna god had an elephant's head and six arms. Every year at
a Hindu ceremony, accompanied by the loud beating of drums, the image
of Krishna, garlanded with sweet-smelling flowers, was drowned in
the Krishna River.
When the monsoon season commenced in
May we appreciated our weatherproof dwellings. Although many people
still suffered from malaria, I was fortunate to have been cured of
this illness, which in my case never recurred. Our Valivade camp was
situated on a slight rise. We had a good view of the surrounding sugar
cane plantations. Some maize, peanuts and corn were also grown. We
could see the flooded low-lying Indian villages in the wet season.
Their straw huts were then moved to higher ground, but rebuilt on
lower land every year for the dry season. When the river Krishna was
in flood the water came to within 100 metres of the Polish camp and
we were unable to see its other bank.
After the retreat of the monsoon rain
the rich silt deposited during the floods was ploughed in to improve
the general fertility of the soil. Usually, when the water receded
in October, crops were planted on this land and village huts were
then rebuilt near these fields.
When my brother Alek recovered from
tuberculosis, Mother left for Panchgani to care for him and other
Polish orphans who had been discharged from the TB sanatorium. Panchgani
was a township located in the hills of India's Western Ghats. The
higher altitude of Panchgani ensured a cooler, mild climate much more
suited to Europeans unaccustomed to the tropics. The two-storeyed
villa which housed the convalescing Polish children was situated In
beautiful surroundings, among numerous flowering shrubs and trees,
interspersed with attractively landscaped gardens. This modern, comfortable
villa commanded excellent views of the hilly landscape of the area.
The whole setting was very different from the rather austere dwellings
of the hot lowland surrounding the Valivade-Kolhapur Polish Refugees'
Camp. At Panchgani Mother did not need to work hard. Her meals were
provided and she had a well-furnished room and more leisure. She naturally
enjoyed this new lifestyle with its associated comforts. I was left
alone at Valivade to transfer back to the orphanage, to resume my
life as an orphan all over again. I found this change disturbing and
very unsettling, but had to be reconciled to it once more.
Soon after Mother left for Panchgani
we received the belated, sad news of the Katyn Forest Massacre of
Polish officers in April 1940 in the USSR, discovered by Nazi German
invaders in the Ukraine. Although this news had been announced in
April 1943 over the German radio and relayed worldwide, we heard about
it over a year later. I wept as I knelt in prayer, overwhelmed by
sadness. The probability that our father and uncle, both inmates of
the Starobielsk prisoners-of-war camp in the USSR, had been murdered,
was a very painful realisation. However, the Polish officers massacred
at Katyn all came from another Ukrainian camp, Kozielsk.
We learned that on 9th April 1943 the
German Minister of Propaganda, Goebbels, had announced the discovery
of eight large, mass graves of Polish officers fully clad in their
military uniforms, in the Katyn Forest, 10 miles west of Smolensk.
Apparently, on the 13th April 1943 at 9.15 a.m. New York time, the
German radio had broadcast propaganda aimed at cracking the unity
of the allies fighting the Nazi German forces. It had announced to
the world that Polish officers had been brutally murdered by the Soviets.
The USSR territory of Ukraine had been seized by German troops in
the summer of 1941. In February of 1943 the mass graves had been discovered
by the German Military Field Police. They appeared as mounds of earth
in the forest, covered with freshly-planted spruce trees.
At first the Allies did not believe
this German disclosure. At that time about half a million Poles were
fighting alongside their British Allies in North Africa, in the Middle
East and in Italy. Earlier on Polish airmen had fought in the Battle
of Britain. News was heavily censored then, but the Polish Army Command
appealed throughout the Allied camp for facts. The Allies did not
want to create a rift between the USSR and the others in their concerted
effort to defeat Nazi Germany, while the Germans were anxious to discredit
the Russians and did everything possible to publicise their findings.
The International Commission, the Polish
Red Cross Commission and the German Special Medical Judiciary Commission
were designated to make an on-the-spot study of the Katyn Forest massacre.
Himmler and Goebbels spared no effort in making these atrocities public
knowledge. The International Commission was drawn from 12 countries
other than Germany. Its members were distinguished scholars and specialists
in forensic medicine. Their impartial, independent investigations
proved that the murders had been committed by the Soviets. The USSR
denied these allegations accusing the Germans of these brutal murders,
which were in contravention of the International Geneva Convention
and the internationally accepted code of ethics on treatment of prisoners-of-war.
All this we learned from the Polish Government-in-Exile in London.
Our cousin Helena Pietrzak, attached
to the Polish Army in Palestine, wrote that the International Commission
had begun its investigations in April 1943. Its members were permitted
to choose any corpse for autopsy and to interview Soviet citizens
living in the neighbourhood of Katyn Forest. The Commission exhumed,
carefully examined, and performed autopsies on 990 Polish officers'
bodies in several mass graves. At the same time a team of 12 members
of the Polish Red Cross joined these Investigations with the German
Special Medical Judiciary Commission. Members of all three Commissions
were free to independently investigate and to submit their conclusions
in reports to the world.
They all reported finding eight mass
graves ranging in depths from six to 11 feet, filled with bodies,
and two individual graves, each containing the body of a Polish General.
All victims were lying face down, hands tied to their bodies, legs
straight. They were laid one upon the other in 10-12 layers in each
mass grave. All the officers had been shot in the back of the head.
Investigators concluded that the men had been killed by revolvers
held against their heads. Their hands were tied with a white cord
in a double knot behind their backs. Their coats were tied around
their heads with the same cord around the neck. Their mouths were
either filled with sawdust or pieces of material tied with string
around their cheeks. There was evidence that some officers had struggled
until subdued by thrusts of bayonets into their bodies. Bodies were
searched carefully by members of the investigating Commissions for
any other evidence. Entries in dairies had all ceased in April 1940,
over a year before the German Invasion of the Ukraine. All investigations
ended on 3rd June and the exhumed bodies were reburied on 7th June
1943. The Nazi German Command, in an endeavour to publicise their
findings, also brought allied prisoners to Katyn Forest as well as
visitors from Poland and foreign correspondents from Sweden, Switzerland,
Spain, Norway, Belgium, Hungary and Germany. All these details were
most distressing to us.
However, the bodies were not left in
peace for very long. After the German retreat from the USSR, some
corpses were exhumed yet again by the Soviets, who published a conflicting
report of their own, again accusing the Nazis of these murders in
spite of the meticulous International findings to the contrary. Not
until 1991 did the Soviets finally admit these murders.
An air of gloom prevailed over our
camp at Valivade-Kolhapur as people tried to absorb this traumatic
news. It seemed incredible to us that we had received it so long after
the rest of the world had been informed.
Our uncle, Colonel Nikodem Sulik, was
now one of the commanders of the Polish army in Italy which was fighting
alongside the British Allies to expel the Nazi Germans from that country.
We learned that he had been promoted to the rank of Brigadier General
during that successful campaign, when the Germans were in retreat.
The Polish army sustained many casualties, notably during the battle
of Monte Cassino where they captured the German stronghold in a monastery
situated on a mountain. Uncle wrote to us whenever he could. We felt
extremely grateful to him for his help in getting us out of the USSR,
realising that without his assistance we would have remained there.
At Valivade we were constantly exposed
to the incoming news of Polish servicemen being killed in action in
Europe. This sad news had to be absorbed by the bereaved wives, children
and mothers at the camp. Everyone shared their grief. Several people
suffered mental breakdowns, unable to cope any longer with their traumatic
experiences and personal tragedies. Others sought solace and strength
in their Christian faith. Daily masses in the camp church were so
well attended that congregations overflowed into the surrounding courtyard.
Meanwhile, my brother Alek recovered
well in Panchgani, where our mother was nursing the convalescing children
after their discharge from the TB sanatorium. Mother decided to return
to Valivade-Kolhapur with Alek to re-establish our family unit and
this meant that once again, after more than three years. we were together
in a separate family flat. Mother resumed nursing at the Valivade
Camp Hospital. I carried on with my high school education, now as
a second-year student, while Alek started primary school. He found
study very difficult, having been deprived of formal education because
of his illness. I was more fortunate in that respect, as I had now
had two years of continuous school attendance and I made good progress.
However, I was affected by continuous disruptions of our family unit.
Our mother, in spite of her good intentions, was unable to closely
relate to our personal needs and to provide sustained security for
two growing individuals. Her war experiences took their toll on her
mental state. She found it difficult to accept the loss of her husband,
our father. Soon she became generally unsettled and could not cope
with the family responsibilities which motherhood entailed. She decided
once more to abandon us at Valivade and to return to Panchgani. We
returned again to the camp's orphanage. In a way we were worse off
than the orphans, who at least continued to live in a relatively stable
environment, in the knowledge that they were without parents. Some
children were indeed orphaned, others had fathers serving in the Polish
army or mothers still in the USSR. Now, in 1944 and in early 1945,
significant events were taking place in the war as Allied forces advanced
on all fronts. Polish servicemen fought bravely everywhere. Many lost
their lives, notably in places such as Narvik, Tobruk. El Alamein,
the Battle of Britain, in France, and in Italy at Monte Cassino, where
Polish blood flowed freely. These men gave their lives to overthrow
Nazism and for a free Poland, tragically a freedom which was not to
become a reality for over 50 years.
The advancing Soviet army in Eastern
Europe deprived these eastern countries of democracy. By design the
whole of Eastern Europe including East Germany fell under communist
domination behind the Iron Curtain. In the USSR prior to the expulsion
of the Germans from Warsaw, under Josef Stalin's orders a nucleus
of the new Polish puppet government was formed. This was the so-called
'Lublin Government'. which evolved from the 'Union of Polish Patriots
in Moscow', some of whom were Russian citizens of Polish origin, and
all of whom where ardent communists. This government was forcibly
imposed on Poland. It was never democratically elected by the will
of the Polish nation. The Polish Government-in-Exile remained in London.
When the war ended in Europe with the
defeat of Nazi Germany, the victorious Allied leaders met at the peace
conference in Yalta, in February 1945. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Sir
Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin decided on Poland's new boundaries.
The Western leaders agreed to Stalin's demands to incorporate most
of eastern Poland occupied by the Soviets in 1939, into the USSR.
and 200.000 square kilometres of eastern Poland became Russian. Thus,
Polish exiles in India who had originated in the Soviet-occupied Polish
territories, were now unable to return. This realisation shattered
our dreams of rehabilitation to our homes in Poland as our exile in
India continued. To compensate for this loss, the borders of Poland
were shifted over 150 miles to the west to incorporate former German
territory. In the process of these extensive territorial adjustments,
some 5.000,000 Germans and 13,000.000 Poles were displaced. Many of
these people were resettled in new territories, away from their homes
and many had little choice but to remain in what had formerly been
Polish land and was now incorporated into the USSR (see p.33). So.
with the end of the war, after the horrific bombings of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki in Japan in August 1945, our elation was tempered by
the sad knowledge that we would probably never be able to return home
to Poland. World War II officially ended with Japan's surrender on
the 14th August, 1945.
In July 1945 Britain and USA withdrew
their official recognition of the Polish Government-in-exile in London
having accepted the Soviet-imposed Communist government in Warsaw.
Former Polish Consulates were liquidated. ‘An Interim Treasury Committee
for the Polish Question’ was set up to deal with Polish refugees scattered
throughout the world. The Polish army led by General W. Anders in
Italy was demobillsed in Britain. Very few Poles returned to the Communist-dominated
Poland. most chose exile and reset-tlement in the free world.
In August 1946 United Nations
Relief & Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) took over the financial
responsibility for maintaining Polish Refugees’ Camps in India and
Africa. At the end of 1946 Polish residents from Panchgani and Balachadi-Jamnagar
were transferred to Vallvade-Kolhapur.
|
