4.12.2020 Polish Children of India

CELEBRATIONS IN JAMNAGAR

In 2018, ceremonies were held to commemorate the Polish camp in Balachadi, organized by the Polish Institute and the Polish Embassy in New Delhi. The ceremony was titled “Generation to Generation”, which emphasized the essence of passing the memory of Poles in the Indian hospitality to the next generations. At the invitation of the Polish Institute, a group of Poles who lived in the Balachadi camp during World War II as children returned to India. The delegation visited the grounds of the former Balachadi Camp, which now houses the Sainik School. The visitors who returned to India for the first time since 1947 looked with curiosity at the changes that had taken place in Jamnagar and on Balachadi Hill over the last 70 years. A moving moment of the visit was the private meeting of Poles with Princess Hershad Kumari, daughter of Maharaja Jam Sahib ​Digvijaysinhji​. During the war, the princess was also a little girl and visited the Polish Children’s Camp many times with her father.

An important moment was the holy mass that took place in the cemetery where three Polish children who died after their arrival at the camp were buried. During their shared memories, camp colleagues paid tribute to their memory.

Scheduled Polish Children of India