- £150.00
India. (Polish Refugees in India). 1946. Great Britain 'Air Letter' headed 'On Active Service' written from 'Polish Forces C.M.F. Nr 302' (Polish Camp, Amesbury Abbey, Amesbury, Wiltshire), bearing SG 490, 3d pale violet tied by 'Poczta Polowa/ 113' double ring dated '5th July 45' addressed to 'Szafranek Halina, St. Joseph's Convent, Panchgani, via Poona, India' with arrival in Panchgani double ring '16th Jly 46' on reverse.
The children on arrival in India had been placed at the Camp in Baldry, 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. Some children were moved to Panchgani (where they were taken in by the nuns of St. Joseph's Convent).
When Soviet forces entered Poland an estimated one million Poles were deported to Labour Camp Gulags in Siberia, Kazakhstan and Uzebekistan.
Mail from or into the Polish Refugee's is almost impossible to find as most of the children were orphans and the women widows.
