An article about the great maharajah who gave refuge to almost a thousand Polish children, many of whom had been orphaned, all of whom had been displaced by the Soviets. From
Hindustan Times:
It is mid-afternoon in Jamnagar and a bus is taking a round of one of
its squares. The archway of a once-magnificent fort is in sight. Beside
it, shops selling juice, spices and visiting cards, inhale and exhale
customers from and onto the street. Roman Gutowski, 83, a retired Polish
civil engineer, pulls back the grey curtain on one of the bus windows,
and peers out. Naturally, the Jamnagar he sees 71 years after he left it
is not what he remembers of the place. His son, Tomek, a businessman,
who has brought along the third-generation Gutowski, his son Maciej, is
shooting with his camera to ensure that this time he does.
Photographs
cannot stand on their own without memories. “I know about Jamnagar and
Balachadi from my father’s stories,” says Tomek. “Maciej must see where
his grandfather comes from. Had I just shown him pictures….” Roman
Gutowski grew up alongside almost a thousand Polish children in a camp
at Balachadi, 25 km off Jamnagar – the capital of the erstwhile princely
state of Nawanagar in present-day Gujarat – in the British India of the
’40s. These were children of mainly Polish soldiers and they were
trying to somehow survive the horrors of World War II.
The German
occupation of Poland (September 1, 1939) led to the eventual
extermination of six million Polish citizens. Lists were drawn up of
teachers, clergymen, the intelligentsia and army officers for public
execution; more than two million Jews died in concentration camps. (Read more.)
