Pahiatua is a town in the southeastern part of New Zealand's North Island, in the Tararua territorial authority, 60 km north of the city of Masterton.
In the Maori language, Pahiatua can mean "god’s resting place". The first settlers arrived in Pahiatua in 1881; the city developed further after it was connected by a railway line with other parts of the country.
Together with the soldiers of General Anders’ army, tens of thousands of civilians, victims of Soviet deportations from the occupied Borderlands, were led out of the Soviet Union to the Middle East. Among them were more than ten thousand children, including many orphans. The children were mostly placed in British-run refugee camps in Persia (Iran). After an appeal for help by the Polish Government-in-Exile through the League of Nations, New Zealand was among the places offering to take the Polish child-wanderers and their guardians.
The actions of two women, Maria Wodzicka, wife of Count Kazimierz Wodzicki, consul of the Republic of Poland in Wellington, and Janet Fraser, wife of Prime Minister Peter Fraser, led the Prime Minister of New Zealand to offer to take the Polish refugees and to declare: "The New Zealand government will make all the preparations concerning the supply of the camps and will provide the necessary resources such as beds, bedding, furniture, kitchen supplies, etc. [...] The New Zealand government will take responsibility for the maintenance of the camp, renovations, meals, and clothing for the children, under the conditions set out upon an agreement with the Polish Government". The Prime Minister designated an abandoned internment camp for foreigners in Pahiatua on the North Island as the place of residence.
Polish children and their caregivers set off on a trip to New Zealand from Iran's Istafahan on board the American USS General George M. Randall troopship. The ship arrived in Wellington on 1 November 1944, and 838 Polish refugees, including 733 children, were greeted by Prime Minister Fraser and Consul Wodzicki with his wife. On the same day, the Polish refugees set off on two special trains to Pahiatua. Thereafter, thirty-three military trucks transported the newcomers from Pahiatua station to the old internment camp. Its official name was changed to The Polish Children's Camp in Pahiatua.
The camp was administered by the New Zealand army under the command of the camp commandant, Major Foxley. The Polish delegate, Jan Śledziński, became the head of the Polish administration. Education took place in Polish, as it was assumed that the children would return to the country after the war. However, faced with the takeover of power in Poland by the communists, the New Zealand authorities offered the children and staff the opportunity to stay in the antipodes. As a result, by the time the camp was closed in 1949, many of the children were working or attending schools in New Zealand.
The last group of Polish children left the camp on 15 April 1949. The youngest girls were transferred to the Ngaroma House of Polish Girls in Wellington. Until 1952, the older boys were accommodated in the Polish Boys' Hostel in Wellington, and the youngest group of boys was looked after at the Polish Boys' House on Princess Street in Hawera until 1954.
Interesting pages:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhwFfFvASsQ (The movie was made for the Polish Embassy in Wellington by CraftInc Films run by Wanda Lepionka and David Strong)
https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE41005299 (Archives of NZ)