Maharaja Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji Jadeja hosted 1,000 Polish children in India

Maharaja Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji Jadeja, the ruler of the Nawanagar princely state in India, welcomed nearly 1,000 Polish children to his land during World War II.

Between 1942 and 1946, the ruler provided a refuge for children aged 2 to 15 who had been displaced from Poland. Many of these children had survived Soviet labor camps in Siberia and Kazakhstan before traveling through Iran to reach India.

The maharaja built a community in Balachadi near his summer palace on the Kathiawar Peninsula. This settlement included barracks, a school, a library, a kitchen, and a Catholic church. He ensured the children maintained their cultural identity by hiring Polish teachers to conduct lessons in their native language. The camp also hosted religious services and celebrated holidays like Christmas to help the children maintain a sense of normalcy.

The ruler treated the children as his own and encouraged them to view him as a father figure. He insisted that the Polish flag be raised daily and that the children sing their national anthem. These efforts helped the children recover from the trauma of war by providing a space where they could focus on homework and play. Poland later honored the maharaja with the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit in 2011.