The Memorial Pillar located in Valivade (a village near

Kolhapur Kolhapur () is a city on the banks of the Panchganga River in the southern part of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarter of the Kolhapur district. In, around 2 C.E. Kolapur's name was 'Kuntal'. Kolhapur is ...

, India) is in memory of over 5000 Polish refugees who escaped to India during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and were given shelter in the area. Poland''s Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz unveiled the pillar on 14 September 2019.

Background

The first group of refugees had arrived in Valivade on 11 June 1943 and stayed till 1948. Whereas in 1948, many Poles returned to their homeland, a few stayed back. Valivade was the largest settlement of Polish citizens In India during the war. There were other smaller Polish settlements in India at the time in areas such as

Balachadi Balachadi is a village in Jodiya Taluka of Jamnagar district, Gujarat, India. It is 25 kilometres east of Jamnagar, near the Gulf of Kutch. History During the British period, Balachari belonged to the Hadiana sub-division of the Jodiya ''parg ...

and Panchgani which offered settlement mainly due to the hospitality of Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji,

Maharaja Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king". A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, a ...

Jam Sahib of

Nawanagar State Nawanagar was an Indian princely state in the historical Halar region, located on the southern shores of the Gulf of Kutch. It was ruled by the Jadeja Rajput dynasty and became the part of newly formed India. The city is now known as Jamnagar. ...

. A Polish cemetery is also in Vilavade, home to 78 people who died there.

Background

See also

References

Further reading