Polish Cemetery in Bandar-e Anzali is a cemetery in

Bandar-e Anzali Bandar-e Anzali ( fa, بندرانزلی, also Romanized as Bandar-e Anzalī; renamed as Bandar-e Pahlavi during the Pahlavi dynasty) is a city of Gilan Province, Iran. At the 2011 census, its population was 144,664. Anzali is one of the mos ...

northern

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. It was made during

Evacuation of Polish civilians from the USSR in World War II Following the Soviet invasion of Poland at the onset of World War II, in accordance with the Nazi-Soviet Pact against Poland, the Soviet Union acquired more than half of the territory of the Second Polish Republic or about inhabited by more tha ...

. This war cemetery contains the remains of 163 graves of the Polish soldiers of the

Anders' Army Anders' Army was the informal yet common name of the Polish Armed Forces in the East in the 1941–42 period, in recognition of its commander Władysław Anders. The army was created in the Soviet Union but, in March 1942, based on an understandi ...

and 476 graves of the Polish civilians who perished due to sickness during their transport to the Middle East, for a total of 639 graves.

is the port where the Polish

disembarked, in an operation that lasted from April 1, 1942 until October 1942, after evacuating from the USSR.

Overview

At the center of the cemetery stands a high rectangular column of white marble which is engraved with a Polish eagle. Below it, in English and Polish, are inscribed the words: ''{{Quote, This is the resting place of 639 Poles, the soldiers of the Polish Army of the East, of General Władysław Anders and civilians, the prisoners of war, and captives of the Soviet camps who died in 1942 on the way to their homeland. Peace to their memory.'' The cemetery also has a street gate, with the large inscription ''CMENTARZ POLSKI,'' but it is closed with a padlock. On the gate, a worn Persian–language plaque announces that burials took place here between 1939 and 1945. It can be accessed only from the Armenian graveyard, and a low wall separates the two cemeteries. Rows of graves are lined up on both sides of the monument, each with 18 concrete headstones showing the names of the deceased, their dates of birth and death, and also the ranks of the soldiers. If they were unknown, they were marked as "Nieznany" (Polish: "unknown,") of whom only the date of death was known.

Gallery

File:Anzali_cemetery_Barry_Kent.jpg, Main gate of the cemetery File:Anzali cementery2 Barry Kent.jpg, Monument & Memorial Plaque File:Anzali_cementery3_Barry_Kent.jpg, Main part of the Polish Cemetery

References

External links

Location Map of the Polish Cemetery @ Bandar-e Anzali

* ttp://teheran.msz.gov.pl/en/bilateral_cooperation/polish_cemeteries Polish Cemeteries in Iran@ Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Tehran, Iran Website.
An Article about the Polish Cemetery @ Bandar-e Anzali
called "Polish Cemetery on the Caspian Shore" World War II cemeteries Cemeteries in Iran Poland in World War II Iran–Poland relations Gilan Province

Overview

Gallery

See also

References

External links