WARSAW: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday laid a wreath at Jam Saheb of Nawanagar Memorial in Warsaw, a place that commemorates shared history between India and Poland.
The Prime Minister went to the memorial soon after his arrival in Poland, on a two-day visit.
The memorial is dedicated to Jam Saheb Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji, a former Maharaja of Nawanagar (now Jamnagar). In 1942, the Maharaja established the Polish Children’s Camp in Jamnagar for refugee Polish children who were brought out of the USSR during World War II.
Prime Minister was earlier greeted by members of Indian diaspora in Poland.
This is the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Poland in the past 45 years.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal said that PM Modi will pay tributse at Good Maharaja Square, Monte Cassino Memorial and at Memorial to Kolhapur Family.
He will be the first prime minister to pay his respects at all these three memorials.
“He will shortly be visiting three memorials, paying tribute at Good Maharaja Square, Monte Cassino Memorial and at Memorial to Kolhapur Family. The history behind these memorials connects Poland and India in a very special way. The people of India and Poland in a very special way,” he added.
During the Second World War, Maharaja Jam Sahib of Nawanagar – now in Gujarat – not only saved the lives of several Jewish children by bringing them to India from Poland but also took care of them as a guardian. The Maharaja of Nawanagar opened his summer palace to displaced children.
Warsaw’s ‘Good Maharaja Square’ pays tribute to Jam Saheb Digvijaysinhji. A group of about 1,000 Polish children departed for India in 1942 from Siberia, where, lost and orphaned amid death and destruction caused by WWII, they had been shifted after the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland. The children were welcomed by their benefactor, the Jam Sahib, but only after a tortuous journey.
The ships carrying Polish refugees from the former Soviet Union, including a large number of children aged two through 17, were denied entry when they called on ports while sailing through Iran to Bombay (Mumbai), then under British colonial rule.
When the Maharaja, who was a member of the Imperial War Council, was made aware of the plight of the children in the gulags, he became concerned and established a camp in Balachadi, about 25 km (15 miles) from the capital city Jamnagar, for the Polish arrivals.PM Modi is also set to visit the Monte Cassino Memorial.
The monument commemorates the victory of the soldiers of the Second Polish Corps at the Battle of Monte Cassino during the Second World War in 1944. The Second Polish Corps conquered the hill and the monastery on it. More than 900 Polish soldiers were killed in this battle.
