- £550.00
India. (Polish Refugees in Iran and India). 1944. Registered Air Mail envelope (with seven page letter) from a Polish Refugee in Ahvaz, Iran addressed to 'Joseph Dasil, "Country Club", Polish Refugee Camp, Karachi, India' cancelled by framed 'R/ Tehran/ No (7688) with boxed bilingual 'Poste Aero' with Arabic censor tape reading 'Opened by Censorship Authority' (carmine on white) tied by 'Anglo - Soviete - Persian - Censorship/ 18' (Russian Section, circular device) and 'Anglo - Soviete - Persian - Censoeship/ 32' (British Section) on reverse, routed via Iraq with Basrah transit '9th Nov' with circular '16' censor hand-stamp in violet, forwarded from Karachi (Polish Refugee Camp) to 'c/o Jewish Agency, Bombay' with 'Opened By Examiner/ P.C. 90' label tied by framed 'Crown/ Passed DHP/ 22' censor on reverse and hand-stamp 'DHP/ 88' in violet on face (applied in Karachi) and re-directed to 'P.O. Box 92, Jerusalem, Palestine' with oval 'Jaffa - Registered' and date stamp on reverse '22nd Dec 1944.'
The children on arrival in India had been placed at the Camp in Bandry, this lasted four months. The Maharaja of Nawanagar placed 500 children in an orphanage in the town of Balachadi. A year later a permanent camp was established at Valivade, Kolhapur for women and children.
When Soviet forces entered Poland an estimated one million Poles were deported to Labour Camp Gulags in Siberia. The Polish Government in exile in London was granted amnesty for the Prisoners to make the long treks from the Gulag camps through Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and across the Caspian Sea to Iran. Many having recuperated began epic journeys via Palestine to Karachi, India and Africa.
Mail from or into the Polish Refugee's is almost impossible to find as most of the children were orphans the the women widows.
