Posted on 07/15/2008 5:40:35 AM PDT by nuconvert
Poland commemorates her refugees in Iran
by Ryszard Antolak
24-Jun-2008
The Polish Postal Service has commemorated the role Isfahan played during World War 2 in caring for Polish orphans.
The new stamp, "Isfahan - the City of Polish Children", went on sale earlier this month. It depicts a pupil at School No. 15 near Isfahan (Stanislaw Stojakowski), standing in front of a Persian carpet woven at the city's Carpet School in 1944.
In 1942, Isfahan housed thousands of Polish orphans released from the Soviet work camps of Siberia and Kazakhstan. At its peak, twenty one areas of the city were exclusively allocated to the welfare of the ragged and emaciated orphans who had been sent there from reception centres in Anzali, Tehran and Mashad. Many of them remained in the city for up to three years, earning it the title "City of Polish children", the name which also appears (in Polish) on the stamp's First Day Commemorative Cover. In addition, the cover (envelope) sports a design showing hundreds of the Polish names fading illegibly into oblivion.
Between 1942 and 1945, Iran played host to almost 150,000 men, women and children of the "Polish Exodus from Russia". The majority of the children ended up in Isfahan.
The stamp, issued on 10th June 2008, has a face value of 2 zloty 40 groszy, and is already proving extremely popular with the Polish public.
Thanks for posting. This is another of those tragedies during the war that is lost in a sea of tragedies. It is well that the Poles remember.
The Polish officers and soldiers were well liked by their Iranian counterparts who sympathized with their fate (both countries having been invaded by the Soviets). Unlike the British and Soviets the Poles saluted Iranian officers of higher rank.
Beside the Polish refugees also several thousand Jewish children from Poland were transited through Iran to Palestine.
BTW the common Polish boy name “Dariusz”, which comes from the Persian Kings Darius is a legacy of the Poles in Iran during WW2.
Lots of photos.
Some of these Polish refugees were also received in Beirut via Teheran.
I never knew of this.
Poignant.
I wondered what a Persian town know for it’s master workshop densely knotted rugs would have to do with Polish kids.
Thanks for the link and your comments.
Needless to say, a number of the refugees married Iranians, so you have young people now in Iran who had/have a Polish grandparent.
My Dad’s family was part of the exodus. Dad and two brothers ended up in Afican orphanages, Grandma and two of his sisters ended up in Mexico, Granddad and the older boys ended in UK where they joined in the attack on D-Day.
Thank you for posting this information. I have never heard of this before.
“Although Iran (formerly Persia) is a far away country, since renaissance the Polish rulers tried to establish the closer military ties with Persian shahs, in particular to enter with them into alliance against Turkey. Those plans, however, had never came into realization but at least they helped to develop quite animated trade exchange, and indeed, the Persian carpets and weapons were truly worthy of royal treasuries.
Moreover, the Polish missionaries used to be active in Persia, and in the 19th century many of Polish emigrants: scientists, engineers, doctors and officers have found their homes in that country; in 1926 the Association of Poles in Persia “Polonia” has been established in Tehran.
The Period of World War II
During the World War II to Iran together with the created in the USSR Gen. W. Anders’ army have come thousands of exiles, including great number of little children, mostly orphans from the former Polish eastern territories. For some 13 000 of them who had not died of emaciation or illnesses that country became for a few years their temporary home and most of all a refuge to survive the war-time. In Esfahan the years 1942-1945 have spent 2590 Polish children below 7, for whom were arranged various educational institutions, such as nurseries and primary schools, and even a sanatorium. By the end of the war the children had been evacuated in groups together with their protectors to many different countries: New Zealand, Lebanon, India, Mexico, Palestine, or British African colonies, from where most of them have never come back again to their homeland.
The vicissitudes of the Polish exiles have been recalled in 2005 by the IPN (Institute of National Remembrance) exhibition “Rescued from the >inhuman land<”. The fates of Polish exiles from the USSR in 1942-1950”, and by the collective book “Esfahan - the City of Polish Children”, published in London. Their stay in Iran is also commemorated on the local cemeteries and commemorative plaques.”
http://www.poczta-polska.pl/znaczki/en/index.php
The only peoples from that part of the world who settled in Poland were the Tatars hundreds of years ago. Poland had Muslim immigrants long before most other European countries. Many of them assimilated after three generations, so most Polish Muslims these days are converts.
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