Banasinska and supported by the Archbishop of
Delhi, the Mother Superior of the convent of
Jesus and Mary, raising funds among private
donors including the philanthropic Indian fam-
ily, the Tatas. A British official, Captain A.W.T.
Webb, administered the funds and also left be-
hind an invaluable historical record.
At first there was some notion of placing the
children in foster homes but the Polish govern-
ment was opposed to separating the already
traumatized children. Other options such as In-
dia was then still ruled by Britain so obvi-
ously the Polish authorities turned to them
for assistance, but imperial rule does not al-
ways allow for quick decisions. However,
some princely states still enjoyed a level of
autonomy and it was from one of these that
the first offer of help – unencumbered by bu-
reaucratic considerations and imperial pri-
orities – came from the Maharaja Jam Saheb
of Nawanagar. On hearing of the plight of the
children he immediately offered to take in
500 – a figure he soon raised to 1000 – and
built a camp for them on his seaside summer
estate because he wanted the children to en-
joy the pleasures of a beach. When the chil-
dren arrived he greeted them saying he was
“Bapu,” their father.
request to have the young maharaja of Kol-
hapur officially open the camp was turned
down, while the consul-general was denied
admission in his official capacity. One sus-
pected visit resulted in a memo stating: “We
must draw his attention at once to the rules
debarring States from corresponding directly
with Foreign countries or inviting foreign
consuls to the State without the P.D.’s
(Political Department) approval.”
The youngest children at the Balachadi camp
Courtesy of the Kresy-Siberia Virtual Museum
Valivade, though established by the Govern-
ment of India, was funded by the legation of
the Ministry of Labour and Social Services of
the Polish government in London. It soon
turned into a thriving community: the refu-
gees planted gardens, put up Polish street
When the war ended, “Bapu” adopted the
children to prevent their forcible return to a signs, and established schools and a hospital.
An Indian shopping syndicate set up several
Communist Poland ruled by Moscow, the
very same regime that had deported them to businesses providing groceries, fish and
meat, cloth, stationery and, in time, even a
Siberia in the first place.
The princely state of Kolhapur was the next cinema that screened one show daily.
to offer a site where a family camp, Valivade,
was set up for some 5,000 people, mainly
women and children. Bhattacharjee reports
that several other sites were offered by other
princely states but were turned down by the
British who did not want the autonomous
princely states to have any dealings with for-
eign governments. Indeed, Mrs. Banasinska’s