- £350.00
India. (Polish Refugees in India). 1944. Great Britain 'Registered Letter' postal stationery envelope 'three pence' green addressed to 'Szpitun Sarafina, Polish Refugee, Camp Valivade, Kolhapur, India' cancelled by 'Poczta Polowa/ 124' double ring '11th May 44' with framed hand-struck 'R/ Poczta Polowa/ No 39' and circular 'Ocenzurowano/ Examined By Censor/ 112' in violet with Gkdwna Poczta Polowa double ring on reverse '18/5', routed via Egypt with 'Base Army Post Office' dated '18th May' on face and small Egyptian censorship with Suez transit '19/5' on reverse, hand-stamped 'DHC/ 463' (Bombay) in violet and octagonal 'C/ 13' applied in Calcutta with double ring 'Experimental P.O./ B - 559' on reverse dated '20th July 44.'
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, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Mail from or into the Polish Refugee's is almost impossible to find as most of the children were orpans and the women widows.
