Cemetery of Polish refugees from the USSR, photo Ambasada RP w Dar-es-Salaam, 2018
License: all rights reserved
Photo showing Cemetery of Polish refugees from the USSR
Cemetery of Polish refugees from the USSR, photo Ambasada RP w Dar-es-Salaam, 2018
License: all rights reserved
Photo showing Cemetery of Polish refugees from the USSR
Cemetery of Polish refugees from the USSR, photo Ambasada RP w Dar-es-Salaam, 2018
License: all rights reserved
Photo showing Cemetery of Polish refugees from the USSR
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ID: WOJ-000357-W/96880 (TZ-0007)

Cemetery of Polish refugees from the USSR

ID: WOJ-000357-W/96880 (TZ-0007)

Cemetery of Polish refugees from the USSR

One of the settlements created for Polish civilian refugees who left the USSR in 1942 with General Anders's Army was the Ifunda refugee camp. The settlement was inhabited by Poles between 1942 and 1948, and housed nearly 800 people. The clay houses were thatched. Schools were established - a general and vocational school and a kindergarten. A hospital was also located here, and the residents of the settlement built a large church.

The dead were buried in a small cemetery; there are names on 22 tombstones, of which three indicate that they were most likely Tanzanians. On 5 headstones the names are obliterated, perhaps in one of these graves rests Marysia Przesmycka who died on 9.05.1944 in Ifunda as a 7-day-old infant. The cemetery is surrounded by a brick wall, plastered on the outside. In the central place there is a cross, set on an obelisk in the form of a mound built of stones, with a plaque with the inscription: "BLESSED ARE THE DEAD WHO DIE IN THE LORD - MEMORIES - OF THOSE WHO WILL NOT RETURN TO THE LAND OF POLAND - IFUNDA - 1946" In front of the cemetery there is an obelisk topped with a crowned eagle with the inscription: "YET POLAND IS NOT LOST WHILE WE ARE STILL ALIVE - IN MEMORY OF THE STAY OF THE POLES IN IFUNDA YEAR ZAŁ. 16 X 1942".

Thanks to a grant from the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Remembrance, the graves in this cemetery were conserved and repaired in 1996. In recent years, however, the necropolis had been badly damaged. In 2018, a renovation was carried out with funds from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in cooperation with the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Dar-es-Salaam, which has permanent custody of the cemetery.

Information on the Ifunda settlement and the cemetery can be found in the publication "Deceased Poles on their way to their homeland. Polskie cmentarze w Afryce Wschodniej i Południowej 1942-1952" by Hubert Chudzio and Marcin Solarz, Kraków 2020 and on the website: https://polskiecmentarzewafryce.up.krakow.pl/.

Publikacja:

11.10.2022
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Cemetery of Polish refugees from the USSR Photo showing Cemetery of Polish refugees from the USSR Gallery of the object +2
Cemetery of Polish refugees from the USSR, photo Ambasada RP w Dar-es-Salaam, 2018
Cemetery of Polish refugees from the USSR Photo showing Cemetery of Polish refugees from the USSR Gallery of the object +2
Cemetery of Polish refugees from the USSR, photo Ambasada RP w Dar-es-Salaam, 2018
Cemetery of Polish refugees from the USSR Photo showing Cemetery of Polish refugees from the USSR Gallery of the object +2
Cemetery of Polish refugees from the USSR, photo Ambasada RP w Dar-es-Salaam, 2018

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