Some of those who came to New Zealand as children visiting the memorial at the site of the old camp on the 70th anniversary.
Some of those who came to New Zealand as children visiting the memorial at the site of the old camp on the 70th anniversary.
There were many stories that came from World War II.
Stories of horrors that can only be imagined today. Stories of survival against the odds.
But the tale of hundreds of children who came to New Zealand to escape the ravages of the war still going on in Europe is one that remains special for many in Pahīatua, yet relatively unknown to some outside the community.
It was 1944 when then-Prime Minister Peter Fraser invited a group of Polish refugees to stay in New Zealand.
His wife Janet had got to know Countess Maria Wodzicka, the wife of Kazimierz Wodzicki - the man who would serve as Consul-General to the Polish Government in New Zealand.
The pair arranged for the 733 children and 105 adults who would be their caregivers to come by ship to New Zealand.
The children had been through horrors most New Zealanders would not be able to imagine today as many had lost parents due to the war – some through being killed by soldiers and others taken away with the children not knowing what had happened to them.
Some children, like Jadwiga Jarka and her brother Janek, were deported to many areas of what was then the USSR following the German and Russian invasions of Poland.
When the USSR joined the allied forces against Germany, the exiles were granted amnesty, but while they had the freedom to leave, they had to make their own way across Eastern Europe.
Many ended up in camps in Iran but even there, conditions were harsh.
Coming to New Zealand, with its green pastures and wide-open spaces, untouched by bombs and artillery, would have been so different.
As written by teacher Krystyna Skwarko in her book The Invited, after the dry countryside or the Middle East, “New Zealand appeared a real fairyland”.
Polish refugees arriving in Wellington on board the General Randall. Photo / Pascoe, John Dobree, 1908-1972: Photographic albums, prints and negatives. Ref: 1/2-003640-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/32058563
They arrived on a ship to Wellington Harbour on November 1, 1944 and were then transported by train north, stopping at Palmerston North before their final destination at Pahīatua railway station.
They were welcomed by scores of children from the local schools, with enthusiastic greetings, a vast difference from the hostile environment they came from.
A view of the Polish children's camp in Pahīatua. Photo / Tourist and Publicity. Ref: 1/2-020986-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23248975
Their new home was to be a camp in Pahīatua, roughly 2km from the township and many recalled being embraced by the town’s residents.
In an article in the Whanganui Chronicle, November 1944, the author stated it was the former site of the Pahīatua Racing Club, but it was taken over by the Government in 1942 to house “enemy aliens”.
Since the numbers of the new occupants were far greater than those of the internees, contractors had been sent to build dormitories and classrooms to accommodate the arrivals.
Each dormitory would house 90 children and six adults.
Fraser had also formed a hospitality committee with members of local organisations who would work with the camp’s commandant, Major Peter Foxley.
Many of the children would stay at the camp until the end of the war and most would never return to their native Poland, going on to build new lives in New Zealand.
Some of those who came to New Zealand as children visiting the memorial at the site of the old camp on the 70th anniversary.
Pahīatua remains a special place in the memories of those who remain from that time and the town’s link to Poland has been marked in two ways: one with a sister town in Poland, Kazimierz Dolny, and the other, last year’s naming of a kiwi at Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre. His name, Pōrana, is a transliteration of Poland in Māori.
