In the New Zealand town of Pahīatua there is a chapel with an image of Our Lady of Czestochowa. It marked the symbolic border of a 'Little Poland' created for a group of over 700 Polish children and their 105 guardians. The anguish-filled wandering from the Soviet Union led through Iran.

They ended up here in search of a better home, accompanying the Siberians and the units of the Polish Armed Forces in the USSR (1941-1942), later formations of the Polish Army in the East and the 2nd Polish Corps (known as the Anders Army).

Polish children in Pahīatua, New Zealand
In the late summer of 1944, the New Zealand press published an appeal by Red Cross representatives for everyone who could, to bring gifts and sweets for children "who had neither toys nor books for years". This was to be "a great help in restoring them to a normal, happy childhood after the terrible deprivation and fear they had suffered since the beginning of the war". The announcements did not need to be repeated; donations came in a wide stream. The small and larger Polish exiles found a peaceful haven in the antipodes and still recalled many years after the war: 'We were always frozen and hungry. There were worms and lice everywhere, and many people died of hunger and disease. [...] We fell [in Pahīatua - author's note] into a routine where we knew we would get three meals a day and everything we wanted. That's when we started to really regenerate".

The more than 700 children were mostly orphans from Polish Siberian families. They came here after a five-year wandering at the invitation of the New Zealand government, together with 105 guardians. They included their parents, nuns, a clergyman and others. They were all here to find a better home and, as it later turned out, a second homeland.

The actions of Maria Wodzicka and Kazimierz Antoni Wodzicki
Who knows how their fate would have turned out had it not been for the involvement of Countess Maria Wodzicka 'Wodjeeska', wife of Kazimierz Antoni Wodzicki, an eminent zoologist who served as the Polish consul general in New Zealand (1941-1945). They both spent a lot of time with Anders Army troops and Polish exiles.

On the ship sailing to Iran, Wodzicka was most moved by the fate of children, often orphaned. Although the Trail of Hope, to use Norman Davies' phrase, on its way out of the Siberian gulags was remarkably well organised - it was not a suitable place for children. What is more, it seemed to everyone that the camps for Polish refugees, set up, for example, in Iran, India, British colonies in East Africa or Palestine, were only temporary and that when the war ended, their inhabitants would be able to return to Poland.

The charismatic Wodzicka convinced the wife of the then Prime Minister of New Zealand, Janet Fraser, that the authorities in that country would agree to take in a group of more than 700 children together with their guardians. A centre was to be established for this purpose, with Polish language instruction and the teaching of Polish customs and native traditions.

Our Lady of Czestochowa in Pahīatua
. The youngest children were placed in the town of Pahīatua located in the southern part of the North Island, on the edge of Lake Wairarapa. There had previously been a camp for Axis nationals here. However, the internees were moved to another location and the buildings were prepared to accommodate the children. "Here, Little Poland was created for us, with a school, a church, medical care, Polish scouting," reported a now adult participant. Spiritual care for the children was provided by Father Michał Wilniewczyc, a Siberian priest, and the Grey Nuns - Maria Aleksandrowicz and Anna Tobolska.

The symbolic boundary of the settlement was marked by a white grotto with a statue of Mary. It was built of stone quarried from the Mangatainoka River and since then the place has become an informal but lively religious centre. When the shrine became corroded years later, in the 1970s. The Polish Children's Memorial Committee called for the design of a new memorial and adopted an idea proposed by New Zealand sculptor, Tanya Ashken. The historic remains were incorporated into the new monument and the Polish flag adorning it can still be seen today.

Our Lady of Czestochowa also arrived in New Zealand as a painting from Italy. The author of the work - painter, prisoner of the gulags and soldier of the 2nd Corps - senior sergeant Feliks Krzewiński created it after the liberation of Loreto in the summer of 1944. A copy of the icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa found its way to the settlement of Polish children in Pahīatua together with soldiers of the 3rd Carpathian Rifle Division of the 2nd Corps of the Polish Armed Forces in the West. They took the painting to the Antipodes like a precious relic. In doing so, it joined dozens of other copies of the image of the Black Madonna scattered throughout the world.

In New Zealand, the icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa was the patron saint of children who were doubly orphaned - by their parents and their country - and their educators. Also the New Zealanders employed in the camp, interestingly enough often war veterans, attended services either under the chapel or under the Marian icon, which in 2010, on the 70th anniversary of the deportation of Poles deep into the USSR, the Polish people donated to the local parish of St Brigid. A commemorative plaque at the entrance to the church informs us of this. Since then, a feast dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary of Częstochowa has been celebrated every year on 26 August.

Poles in New Zealand after the Second World War
Healthy, fed and cared for, the children were supposed to return from Pahīatua to free Poland as soon as the ominous echoes of war had died down. However, this did not happen. The camp was closed between 1949 and 1952 (dates vary), when Poland, formally independent, remained in the Soviet sphere of influence. Not all refugees were willing or able to return to the People's Republic of Poland. Some of the former soldiers of the 2nd Polish Corps (Anders Army) decided to join their relatives in Aotearoa, as New Zealand is called in Maori.

A succession of Pahīatuan underlings grew into beautiful and smart young people. They graduated from local schools and became part of not only the Polish diaspora, but also legal residents of the friendly land. This was also guaranteed to them by law, with Prime Minister Fraser reiterating: "The New Zealand authorities have always considered and will continue to consider that Polish children are their guests in this country. [...] It is the wish of our government that these young people have unlimited freedom of choice and that their choice is based solely on their future happiness'.

Not everyone was comfortable with such a policy. The voices of embittered indigenous people were also heard complaining about the over-generosity of those in power. In response, there was the argument that the stay of Polish children in New Zealand was, to a large extent, a project financed by the Polish government-in-exile. What is certain, however, is that without the kind support of the locals, their heartfelt commitment and material assistance, nothing would have succeeded. And the Poles repaid their new homeland as best they could. This is where they married, including mixed marriages, and where the next generation was born. Many former refugees went on to become renowned engineers, economists or lawyers. However, they never forgot either their country of birth or Pahīatua's Little Poland.

Polish chapel and museum in Pahīatua
After the campus was closed, a farm was established in Pahīatua, and the only reminder of the presence of Polish children during the war years is a stone chapel. Today, there is a Polish community centre with a small museum where you can see, among other things, a model of the camp and listed in the plan "streets" with familiar-sounding names, such as Warszawska.

There is also a commemorative plaque in St Brigid's Church, hung in 1969 by the now adult camp residents, who thanked the camp for its support 25 years earlier.

Amidst the green New Zealand grass, an unusual monument was erected in 1975 to commemorate the location of the campus. Made of white stone, the statue was intended to cast a shadow in the shape of a mother holding a child in her arms when the sunlight was just right. Unfortunately, the workers erecting the monument were not forewarned of this and mounted the prepared sculpture at a rather haphazard angle. Hence, the interpretation of the chiaroscuro is left to the viewer.

Almost 80 years have passed since the events described and most of the exiles are no longer in the world. It is therefore not surprising that the memories of those bittersweet years - one of the children from Pahīatua recalled that it was in the camp that he tasted sweets for the first time in his life - are fading. We can only believe, however, that once good things are done, they come back and now perhaps we can do the same for someone else.