The refugees finally left Iran after a few months, and were transported to a number of countries, such as
Lebanon,
Mandatory Palestine,
India,
Uganda,
Kenya,
Tanganyika,
Northern and
Southern Rhodesia,
South Africa,
New Zealand, and
Mexico.
British Africa Maria Gabiniewicz, one of the refugees, later wrote: "We managed to leave the Soviet Union in the last transport. Still, thousands of distraught Poles remained there, sent to
kolkhozs. I will never forget the journey on trucks through the mountains from Ashgabat to Tehran. After the hell that we survived, Tehran was a different world. Camp life was organized, there was a school, scouts, and religious life. Tehran was a gate, through which we were sent, in groups, to different parts of the world. My mother refused the tempting offer of going to Santa Rosa in Mexico. She wanted us to go either to
India or
Africa, as it was closer to
Europe. She hoped we would return to Poland some day. We were transported on board a
warship, through
Persian Gulf. . . . After twelve days, we reached the port of
Beira in
Mozambique. The adults were uneasy and afraid of the unknown, but us, the children, were happy for an adventure. We were not first the Poles in Africa. There were already 22 camps, with 18,000 people who like us had gone through different places of exile in the USSR, scattered across British Africa—from Kenya to
Cape Colony.
Northern Rhodesia In October 1942, the Director of War Evacuees and Camps of
Northern Rhodesia, Gore Browne, expected around 500 Polish refugees to arrive from the Middle East. In August 1945, the number of Polish refugees in Northern Rhodesia was 3,419, of which 1,227 stayed in camps in the capital Lusaka, 1,431 in Bwana Mkubwa at the Copperbelt,164 in Fort Jameson at the border with Nyasaland, and 597 in Abercorn in the Northern Province. The last camp that was built in
Northern Rhodesia at Abercorn (today's
Mbala, Zambia). It was set up in 1942. Approximately 600 Polish refugees were taken to Abercorn in contingents. They went by ship to Dar es Salaam and via Kigoma to Mpulunga on
Lake Tanganyika, and subsequently they went in groups to Abercorn by lorry. Wanda Nowoisiad-Ostrowska, quoted by historian
Tadeusz Piotrowski (
The Polish Deportees of World War II), remembered that Abercorn camp was divided into six sections of single-room houses, a washing area, a laundry, a church, and four school buildings with seven classes. The cooking was done in a large kitchen situated in the middle. One of the administrators lived in a building that also had a community centre where films were shown. Nowoisiad-Ostrowska depicted quite a sociable image with singing songs in the evening, listening together to the radio in order to be informed about the war in Europe, and doing craftwork with other women in the evenings.
Living conditions Living in Africa was very difficult for the Poles who were unfamiliar with local customs and languages and were not used to tropical weather. In
Uganda, the biggest camps—which housed some 6,400 people, including 3,000 children—were at Koja (
Mukono District by
Lake Victoria) and
Masindi,
Western Uganda. Each camp had its own school, clubroom, and theatre. The housing was primitive: dwellings made of clay, with roofs made of grass and banana leaves. Bogdan Harbuz stayed at Koja camp: "We did not receive any money for food, we only got 5 shillings a month for our expenses. The food was delivered: rice, flour, meat, salt, sugar, tea, and some coffee. People kept their own gardens, with vegetables. We were very poor, there were no jobs, kids had their classes in the open, there were no books." Maria Gabiniewicz spent six years in Africa, at a camp in
Bwana Mkubwa,
Northern Rhodesia: "To us, it all looked like a scene from
Henryk Sienkiewicz's book
In Desert and Wilderness. Houses made of clay, in the heart of Africa. Nothing looked like Poland, but adults in our camp did their best to emphasize our roots. There was a mast with a huge Polish flag, and the
White Eagle on the gate." The single man has not been traced; the woman, Josefa Bieronska, moved to
South Africa with her children. Her son died young due to an accident; her daughter still lives in
South Africa with her grandchildren.
India , India, 1941 Many Poles left Iran for India, thanks to the efforts of Polish consul in
Bombay, Eugeniusz Banasinski. The Indian government agreed to host 10,000 Polish refugees, including 5,000 orphans. Children were taken care of by the
Polish Red Cross and residents of Bombay. At first, they were transported to the town of
Bandra, in the suburbs of Bombay, where
Hanka Ordonówna took care of the kids. Then a special camp for Polish children was built near the village of
Balachadi in
Jamnagar,
Kathiawar, thanks to help of the Maharaja
Jam Sahib of
Nawanagar (see also
Help of Maharaja of Nawanagar for Polish refugees). Further Polish transports went to India by sea, from the port of
Ahvaz to Bombay. Several camps were opened in and around Bombay, with the biggest one located at
Kolhapur Valivade, where 5,000 stayed. Among people who stayed there was
Bogdan Czaykowski. Wiesława Paskiewicz, who stayed at Kolhapur, wrote: "Our daily activities were marked by school, church and scouting. We were mentally shaped by such organizations, as
Sodality of Our Lady, and The Eucharistic Crusade. There were sports teams, a choir and activities groups."
Iran and the Middle East In 1942, about 120,000 refugees from Poland began their exodus to Iran from remote parts of the Soviet Union. Despite
political instability and
famine in Iran at that time, Polish refugees were welcomed by the smiles and generosity of the Iranian people. In late 1942 and early 1943, Polish camps in Iran were located at
Tehran,
Isfahan,
Mashhad, and
Ahvaz. First schools were opened in Tehran, where after one year there were ten Polish educational institutions. At Isfahan Polish orphanage, a children's camp was opened, where 2,300 children and 300 adults stayed and eight elementary schools were created. In Ahvaz, "
Camp Polonia" was one of the main exit centers for Poles leaving Iran, and the last Ahvaz camp closed in 1945. The first Polish refugees came to Palestine in summer 1942. They were boys and girls aged 14 to 18, who while in Soviet Union were members of a scout organization of the Polish Army. Transports of scouts, which went to Palestine, were directed to Camp Bashit. There, all were divided into several groups and began their education. In August 1942, two schools were created, for younger (aged 8–15) and older scouts. Classes began on September 1, 1942. Altogether, between 1942 and 1947, Polish schools in Palestine had 1,632 students. Furthermore, there were schools in
Egypt, at
Tall al Kabir and
Heliopolis. Altogether, in 1943-44 there were 26 schools for Polish refugees in the Near East.
New Zealand , New Zealand, 1944 In 1944, the prime minister of
New Zealand,
Peter Fraser, agreed to take a limited number of Polish orphans and half-orphans, whose parents had died either in Soviet Union or Tehran, or whose fathers had fought at the front. While still in Isfahan, 105 teachers, doctors, and administrative workers were selected, plus one priest, Father Michał Wilniewczyc, and two Roman Catholic nuns. On November 1, 1944, arrived at
Wellington, with 733 children on board. The children and the adults were then transported to the
North Island town of
Pahiatua, where Polish Children's Camp—Pahiatua—was opened in former military barracks. It had a clubroom, a hospital, and a gym. The main street of the camp was named after General
Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski. There was a kindergarten, a men's school, a women's school, and a middle school. Later on, scouting teams were organized. Polish Children's Camp was financed by the government of New Zealand, with help from
Polish Government in Exile, based in
London.
Mexico Upon agreement between Prime Minister
Władysław Sikorski and the government of
Mexico, some 10,000 Polish refugees settled in Mexico. The government of Mexico did not finance their stay—money came from the funds of a special Polish-British-American committee. Poles in Mexico were not allowed to leave their camps. They worked as farmers, and their first transport came through India in October 1943 with 720 people, most of them women and children. They settled in a camp at Santa Rosa, near the city of León, in central Mexico. Additional Polish transports arrived in late 1943. == Poles who remained in the Soviet Union ==