The Pahiatua Polish Children's camp in 1945. Photo / NZ Archives.
The Pahiatua Polish Children's camp in 1945. Photo / NZ Archives.
A connection between Pahiatua and a Polish town and its link to Ukraine is one of the things behind a fundraiser for the war-torn country.
The Tararua township once hosted hundreds of Polish children orphaned during World War Two.
A film, Overcoming Fate, was released in 2015 by award-winning director Marek Lechowicz.
It documents the story of those children who were deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan before being invited by the New Zealand government in 1944 to stay until the end of the war.
According to a history on the Wellington City Council website, 733 children came with 105 caregivers and settled in a camp at Pahiatua.
The film used archival footage and material filmed in New Zealand and Poland and was going to be screened at both the Pahiatua and Dannevirke cinemas as a fundraiser for the Ukraine.
Tararua Mayor Tracey Collis: Everyone wants to help the Ukraine in some way. Photo / NZME
Tararua District Council mayor Tracey Collis said Pahiatua had a twin town in Poland called Kasimierz Dolny.
She said the town was supporting women and children from Ukraine.
A person in Pahiatua was in communication with one of the teachers in the town.
"Everyone wants to help in some way but how do you do that?" Collis said.
She said it would be great to support the town that Pahiatua had a relationship with.
"Then we know it's supported directly. In a roundabout way, it's exactly the same as what New Zealand did and what Pahiatua did in Poland. Which was a really cool story."
The film will be shown at the Regent Pahiatua on June 4 and 5 and at the Regent Dannevirke on June 11.
"It's a great way of supporting and showing people the theatres," Collis said.
There was also a photographic collection that went with the Polish children's stories and she thought these could be placed in the foyers of each of the theatres.
The council was also holding an online auction, which would open on June 13 and some of the items offered would be from Poland.
People would also get to experience the history of the Polish Pahiatua Children with a virtual tour of the site of the children's camp and explore the history and culture projected at the museum.
Collis said the tour would be done through Digital Spaces, a co-working facility in Woodville which gave access to computers and Wifi for small businesses.
She said they would shoot a video and create a virtual tour that people could pay to do, similar to what Pukaha/Mt Bruce had introduced earlier this year.
The site of the former Polish Children's Camp, 2km south of Pahiatua, where a memorial now stands. Photo / Mark Mitchell
A memorial to the Polish children now stands at a rest stop south of Pahiatua on State Highway 2 near where the camp used to be.
