Summary
Contents
Subject index
The Second World War presents the backdrop for this riveting account of displacement, migration and resettlement. Once the Soviet forces marched into Poland, thousands of Polish citizens were deported to slave-labor camps in the USSR. As news of their inhuman condition and ordeal spread, Jam Saheb Digvijaysinghji of Nawanagar, a Princely State in British India, opened the doors of his state and welcomed the orphaned Polish children. The Second Homeland chronicles the passage and sojourn of these young refugees.
Readers will get an authentic account of their tribulations through the first-person account of a young Polish orphans hair-raising journey to India and his experiences during the stay. The book includes a historical perspective culled out from archival documents in India, the UK and Poland.
This is a unique mix of a diary, oral history and historical viewpoint placed adjacent to a compilation of archival personal photographs. The book beautifully brings out a little-known aspect of European exiles in India during the Second World War.
Looking Back
Looking Back
Though Franek Herzog has never returned to India since 1948, several of his compatriots from Balachadi have. In April 1989, during a visit of the President of Poland to India, Weislaw Stypula, Stefan Bukowski, their children and a few other Balachadi children from Warsaw returned to install a commemorative plaque at the venue of their former camp (see Photographs 21 and 22). By that time, it was a Sainik School, run in the same military style as the camp had been. Only now, it was a fully boys' school.
The cemeteries at Jamnagar and Kolhapur were also refurbished. The complete project was undertaken by the Poles themselves. The Polish Consul at Bombay was present at both the occasions, signifying the political acceptance of this part of Polish history.
Kira Banasinska, wife of the first ...
- Loading...