Figure 1.--The NKVD after the Soviet invasion of Poland (September1939) set about executing and deporting preceived 'enimies of the people'. Whole families were not executed, but fathers meaning family providers were. Many died during the deportations which are believed to have totaled some 2 million people--over 5 percent of the countrty's pre war population. And remner the Soviets in 1939 only occupied half the country. The deportations included ten of thosands of children of all ages. Mamy perished and others lost parents. After the Germans invaded the Soviet Union (June 1941), Soviet policy changed and to placate the Western Allies abd gain fusting men, Stalin allowed Poles to leave, both POWs and civilians. This included tge children. This proved very difficult as thgy were located throughout Central Asia abd Siberia, but some including children made it out through Iran. The Sovirts fed and supplied only the individuals who volunteered for the Red Army or Anders Army which headed for Iran to join up with the British. Anders Army formed a Scout group of boys which they could add to their roles so they would qualify for food rations. Most of these Scouts followed Anders Army as they headed to Egypt to join up with the British. Here they are at a school set up for them in Palestine. The press caption read, "Polish boys from Russia in Palestine: After Russian occupation of Eastern Poland many Poles went to Russia [actually they were fircibky deported], and from there through Iran to Palestine. Here is a group of older boys parading to show off the military training they receive. Their fathers are forming a Polish Army in Palestine." The photograph was dated September 11. 1942. Notice how the caption covers over the Soviet invasion of Poland in cooperation with the NAZIs, the brutal deportation of Poles, and the harrowing effort to escape the Soviet Union. This is a mixture of lack of knowledge and the World War II tendencu to depict the Soviets in positive terms. A question we hve is hiw nany of these boys are Jewish. Also we would not call them ikder boye. They look to be about 13-14 years ild. Ghey are years away from being old ebough to join the fighting forces. Source: British War Office photo.

After the German invasion of the Soviet Union (June 1941), British and Polish relations with the Soviet Union changd dramatically. A Polish-Soviet Agreement change the circumstance under which Poles were being held by the Soviets. The British and Jews in Palestine began sending relief supplies to the Poles being held in the Soviet Union, often in terrible conditions and arrangements were made for Poles who desired to leave the Soviet Union. This only became possible after the Soviets and Britain intervened in Iran (August 1941). The Arabs in Palestine had no interest in assisting the Poles. The Jews did. This newspaper after an agreement was reached between the British and Soviet Governmebts February 1, 1942, describes the effort in Palestine. "The Soviet and the British governments have reached an agreement under which Palestine inhabitants will be able to send packages of food and clothing duty-free to the Polish citizens now stranded in Soviet Russia as refugees, it was learned here today. The packages will have to be transmitted through the Red Cross in Palestine and their weight is not to exceed five kilos, about twelve and a half pounds. It was also learned here today that the Soviet authorities have permitted the first group of 600 Polish and Jewish children from the parts of Poland formerly occupied by the Soviet armies to proceed to Palestine. The children have lost their parents or were separated from them during the war and were being cared for in Soviet child-welfare institutions. They are expected to reach Palestine within the coming fortnight. A report reaching Polish circles here today by cable from Moscow states that Mrs. Sommerstein, the wife of the leader of the Jewish fraction in the Polish, parliament, has been released from Soviet internment and is now in Bukhara. The whereabouts of her husband are still unknown. Similarly the whereabouts of the famous Bobover Rebbe who was interned by the Soviets as a Polish citizen, has not yet been ascertained." ['Soviet permits ...'] The article is notable for the obvious glossing over the fact that Poles were in the Soviet Union because Stalin invaded Poland as a NAZI ally and like the NAZIs brutally supressed the Polish people. While many Poles (mostly the women and girls) stayed in Iran for the duration.' Others were relocated in various British colonies (India, Palestine, New Zealand, and British Africa) as well as in Mexico. Many of the military age men and many boys wanted to join the fight against the Germans. This meant traveling from Iran to Egypt which was apparently done through Palestine. The first Polish refugees fromthe Soviet Union raeched Palestine (summer 1942). They were boys and some girls (aged 14 to 18 years) who were members of a scout organization formed by the Polish Army. This was in part a subterfuge so he children would qualigy for Soviet rations. The Scout transports reaching Palestine, were directed to Camp Bashit. They were divided into groups and began their education, including military training. The older boys could eventually transfer to Anders Army which became the reconstituted Polish Army. Two schools were established for them for instruction in Polih (August 1942). One school was for the younger children (aged 8 –15 years) and the other for the older children. Classes began (September 1, 1942). These Polish schools operated in Palestine until the British began to leave (1947). Some 1,632 students attended. Other Polish schools were opened in Egypt (Tall al Kabir and Heliopolis). There were 26 schools opened for Polish refugee children in the Near East during the War.

Brutal Soviet Occupation and Deportations (1939-41)

The NKVD after the Soviet invasion of Poland (September1939) set about executing and deporting preceived 'enimies of the people'. The shattered Polish forces fall back east and attempt to organize a new defensive line. Once certain of Polish defeat, Stalin seeing that the Polish Army was unable to resist the Germans and that the British and French were not intervening, ordered the Red Army to attack from the East (September 17). A Red Army force of 1 million men enters Poland, Soviet propaganda claims it was necessary to "protect it's Byelorussian and Ukrainian population." This was an attempt to follow the NAZI success at claiming to protect the German minority in Czexhoslovakia and Poland. The demoralized Polish Army which valiantly fought the Germans, offers little resistance to the Soviets. The Soviets take 240,000 Polish soldiers and 15,400 officers prisioner German and Russian forces met at Brest-Litovsk (September 18). World War II accounts usually focus on the NAZI invasion and occupation of Poland. In fact the Soviet occupation was also horific, although it did not include the biological genocide of the NAZI occupation. Stalin like Hitler, however, was at this stage of the War intent on destroying the Polish nation. Polish soldiers were internened in camps by the Soviets. Soviet actions in eastern Poland were extremely brutal. An estimated 0.1 million Poles were killed by the Soviets (1939-41). The most publicized killings were the Polish officers shot by the NKVD in the Katyn Forrest, but this was only a part of the wide spread executions of Poles by the Soviets. Some estimates suggest that 2.0 million Poles were deported to Siberia and other areas in the Soviet Union. Whole families were not executed, but fathers meaning family providers were. Many died during the deportations which are believed to have totaled some 2 million people--over 5 percent of the countrty's pre war population. And remember the Soviets in 1939 only occupied half the country. The deportations included ten of thosands of children of all ages.

Barbarossa (June 1941)

The Battle of Britain in many ways changed the course of the War. An invasion of Britain was impossible without air superiority. Hitler, fearing a cross-Channel invasion, decided that the only way to force the British to seek terms was to destroy the Soviet Union. He began shifting the Wehrmacht eastward to face the enemy that he had longed to fight from the onset--Soviet Russia. The nature of the War changed decisevely in the second half of 1941. The Germans invaded Russia in June 1941, launching the most collosal military campaign in all of history. It is estimated that on the eve of battle, 6.25 million men faced each other in the East. The Soviets were surprised and devestated. Stalin ignored warnings from the British who as a result of Ultra had details on the German preparations. Stalin was convinced that they were trying to draw him into the War and until the actual attack could not believe that Hitler would attack him. The German attack was an enormous tactical success. The Soviets were surprised and devestated. The Soviet Air Force was destoyed, largely on the ground in the irst week. The Germans captured 3.8 million Soviet soldiers in the first few months of the campaign. No not knowing the true size of the Red Army, they thought they had essentally won the War. German columns seized the major cities of western Russia and drove toward Leningrad and Moscow. But there the Soviets held. The Japanese decission to strike America, allowed the Soviets to shift Siberian reserves and in December 1941 launch a winter offensive stopping the Wehrmacht at the gates of Moscow--inflicting irreplaceable losses. The army that invaded the Soviet Union had by January 1942 lost a quarter of its strength. Hitler on December 11 declared war on America--the only country he ever formally declared war on. In an impassioned speech, he complained of a long list of violations of neutality and actual acts of war. [Domarus, pp. 1804-08.] The list was actually fairly accurate. His conclusion, however, that actual American entry into the War would make little difference proved to a diasterous miscalculation. The Germans who months before had faced only a battered, but unbowed Britain now was locked into mortal combat with the two most powerful nations of the world. The British now had the allies that made a German and Japanese victory virtually impossible. After the Russian offensive of December 1941 and apauling German losses--skeptics began to appear and were give the derisory term " Gröfaz ".

Polish-Soviet Raprochment (July 1941)

After the German invasion of the Soviet Union (June 1941), British and Polish relations with the Soviet Union changd dramatically. A >Polish-Soviet Agreement change the circumstance under which Poles were being held by the Soviets. The British and Jews in Palestine began sending relief supplies to the Poles being held in the Soviet Union, often in terrible conditions and arrangements were made for Poles who desired to leave the Soviet Union.

Persian-Iranian Corridor (August 1941)

The ability of captive Poles only became possible after the Soviets and Britain intervened in Iran (August 1941). Reza Shah Pahlavi's central foreign policy of playing the Soviet Union off against the British worked for a while, especially when the Soviets and Germans as a result of the NAZI-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact (August 1939) became Worls War II allies. This changed abruptly after the NAZIs invaded the Soviet Union (June 1941). With the Soviets and British Allies, Reza Shah's neutral regime with pro-Axis leanings was isolated. Even with huge German advances in the Soviet Union and the Afrika Korps success in the Western Desert, Iran was exposed and had no way of receiving NAZI assistance. And also because of geography, Iran became critical to the Allied war effort. Getting war supplies to the beagered Red Army became a high priority for not only the Soviets and British, but the Americans as well who passed the Lend Lease program even before entering the War. The British had only limited aud to offer the the Soviets. The United States on the otyher hand was mobilizing its vast economy for war and massive shipments were being organized. The most direct route to the Soviet Union for both th British and the Americans was the Arctic convoys, but the Germans throuh U-boats, surface ships, and Norwegian air bases made that the deadliest run in the entire war. Shipping through Iran was longer and thus required more shipping per ton of supplies delivered. It was, however, much safer. And one of Reza Shah's development projects, the new Trans-Iranian Railroad, provided the means of getting war supplies to the Soviet Union. It connected Persian Gulf ports to the Soviet border. Shipping war supplies through Iran, however, would violate Iranian neutrality and Reza Shah refused to grant permission. This proved to be his undoing. The British issued another demand that Reza Shah expel German technicians. When he refused, this time they acted. The British and Soviets launched a coordinated intervention (August 26, 1941). The Soviets invaded from the north. The British from Iraq where they had defeated a pro-Axis rebellion and by troops landed along the Persian Gulf. There was only limited Iranian resistance. The Soviets and British quickly took control of Iran's communications and coveted railroad.

Siutuation in British Mandatory Palestine

The Arabs in Palestine had no interest in assisting the Polesm nit the Chrustian Poles and especially not the Jewish Poles. The Jews in contrast did. >amy Jews in Palestine were pf Polish origins. And since the out brak of the War theybwere not hearing from their reklatives. They were desperate for any news from Poland. A newspaper article after an agreement was reached between the British and Soviet Governments (February 1, 1942), describes the effort in Palestine. "The Soviet and the British governments have reached an agreement under which Palestine inhabitants will be able to send packages of food and clothing duty-free to the Polish citizens now stranded in Soviet Russia as refugees, it was learned here today. The packages will have to be transmitted through the Red Cross in Palestine and their weight is not to exceed five kilos, about twelve and a half pounds. It was also learned here today that the Soviet authorities have permitted the first group of 600 Polish and Jewish children from the parts of Poland formerly occupied by the Soviet armies to proceed to Palestine. The children have lost their parents or were separated from them during the war and were being cared for in Soviet child-welfare institutions. They are expected to reach Palestine within the coming fortnight. A report reaching Polish circles here today by cable from Moscow states that Mrs. Sommerstein, the wife of the leader of the Jewish fraction in the Polish, parliament, has been released from Soviet internment and is now in Bukhara. The whereabouts of her husband are still unknown. Similarly the whereabouts of the famous Bobover Rebbe who was interned by the Soviets as a Polish citizen, has not yet been ascertained." ['Soviet permits ...'] The article is notable for the obvious glossing over the fact that Poles were in the Soviet Union because Stalin invaded Poland as a NAZI ally and like the NAZIs brutally supressed the Polish people.

Disposition of the Children

While many Poles (mostly the women and girls) stayed in Iran for the duration.' Others were relocated in various British colonies (India, Palestine, New Zealand, and British Africa) as well as in Mexico. Many of the military age men and many boys wanted to join the fight against the Germans. This meant traveling from Iran to Egypt which was apparently done through Palestine.

Scout Group

The first Polish refugees from the Soviet Union reached Palestine (summer 1942). They were boys and some girls (aged 14 to 18 years) who were members of a scout organization formed by the Polish Army. This was in part a subterfuge so he children would qualigy for Soviet rations. The Scout transports reaching Palestine, were directed to Camp Bashit. They were divided into groups and began their education, including military training. The older boys could eventually transfer to Anders Army which became the reconstituted Polish Army.

Schools

Two schools were established for them for instruction in Polih (August 1942). One school was for the younger children (aged 8 –15 years) and the other for the older children. Classes began (September 1, 1942). These Polish schools operated in Palestine until the British began to leave (1947). Some 1,632 students attended. Other Polish schools were opened in Egypt (Tall al Kabir and Heliopolis). There were 26 schools opened for Polish refugee children in the Near East during the War.

Jewish Children

One pitifully small number of Jews who escaped was the Tehran children. Among the Polish civilians evacuated from the Soviet Union were 1,000 Jewish children, the majority of them orphans. We are not sure to what extent they were grouped together. We do not believe the Soviets separated Jewish children. We could be wrong about that, but Soviet policy was essentially to assimikate Jews and eradicate their Jewish heritage as aprt of vthe overall atheism campaign. As a result most Soviet Jewish children grew up it was without any knowldege of Judaism and their cultural heritage. We do not entirely understand the details. e do not know how the children were selected or even if the Poloish Government in Exile was involved in the selection process. They were aonly a small part bof the Polish children in Soviet captivity. The Jewish Agency in Palestine was concerbned that the Jewish children might be passed over. The orphnas wer given special trratment. They came from orphanages and shelters throughout the Soviet Union. Given conditioin in the Soviet Union at the time with the Germans 'at the Gate', this effort for a small group of Polish children was extrodinary. The children traveled on trains, which as often not the case for civilans trying to escape. One route was from Central Asia to Krasnovodsk a Soviet Caspian Sea port and then by ship to the port of Pahlavi, on the Iranian eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. Pahlavi is tosay Bandar-e Anzali ( بندرانزلی‎ ) is a city of Gilan Province, one of the most important cities in Iran the first and biggest port on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea. Others traveled via Bukhara to Kazan and Ashkhabad (on the Iranian border), and from there to Pahlavi. It was hear the Jewish childre ere identified and eparated from th e other Polish refugee children.

Mandatory Palestine Jewish Agency: Caring for the Children

The Jewish Agency (JA) was the Jewish body representiung Jews in Mandatory Palestine. The JA was particularly concerned with the orphans. Getting any Polish children to safety gibemn the freaful news arriving about what both the NAZIs and Soviets were doing was a real priority. The JA negotiated with the Polish Government in Exile (PGE) about over the percentage of Jews to be included in the transports out of the Soviet Union to Iran. The JA was comcerned that the PGE would only evacuate Christin children. We have no details about how the children were selected abd to what extent the PGE was involved in the process. JA represenhtatives were stationed in Pahlavi to identified and separated the Jewish children from the Christian children as they arrived in Iran. This was more difficult than in sounds. Some children were easy to identify because they look Jewish, But as the NAZIs found early on, many Jewish children did not look Jewish--meaning the cgaricature featues NAZI propaganda commonly featured. (Which are basically the same as Arab features.). That is why Jews were ordered to wear identiufy badges, often stars. The chikdren were hungary, often not well, traumatized by their experience. Many had learbned that it was not why to identify themmselves as Jewish. Theu were ageds 1-18 years, but most were in the 7-12 years age. Younger children had very little chance of syrvivubg without parents. Once identified, there was aproblem getting them into Palestine. To placate the Arabs, British officuial were limiting the entry of Jews. Zionist represrnatives David Ben Gurion and Eliahu Dobkin had to negotiate with Polish cabinet minister Stanislaw Kott and British officials, to obtain the necessary entry permits. The JA established an orphanage for the Polish Jewish children. Some 730 Polish Jewish children arrived in Iran (April - August 1942). They were housed in tents on the grounds of Dustan Tappeh outside Theghran,. It was a former Iranian Air Force military base. Efforts to get more children out of Soviet orphanages resulted in only a tricke if new arrivaks (after summer 1942). As the military situation on the eastern Front began to shift, the willingness of the Soviets to accomodate the Poles also shifted. The camp became kmown as the Tehran Home for Jewish Children. Various groups supported them (the local Jewish community, the Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization in the United States, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and the Youth Immigration Department of the JA). The JA arrabged for experienced Zionist youth leaders to run the camp. Now that they were safely out of thge Soviet Union, serious efforts could be given to their carem especailly medical attentioin. Given what they had been through, the loss of parents, witness to military actiin, forced deportation, hunger, poot clothing, alack of medival carem, many children had serious medical problems. The most common was tuberculosis and malnutrition. Most recovered at the Tehran camp.

Getting the Children to Palestine

The JA ecebtually managed to bbtain the needed certificates authorising entry to Palestine. It was quite an adventure. A total of 716 children with their adult escorts (mostly other refugees) were trucked to Bandar Shahpour on the Persian Gulf (January 3, 1943). There they got on the freighter Dunera to Karachi, Pakistan. Next they boarded the Noralea which took them around the Arabian Peninsula and through the Red Sea and Suez Canal to Suez. A train The children then crossed the Sinai Desert by train. They arrived at the Atlit refugee camp in northern Palestine (February 18, 1943). The Yishuv (Palistinian Jewish community) welcomed them. A rare bit of good news duruing the Holoocausr disaster. A second smaller transport of 110 children arrived in Palestine a few nonths later overland (through Iraq) (August 28, 1943). A total of 870 Tehran Children reached Palestine. They were taken in by kibbutzim (collective farms) and moshavim (cooperative farming villages). Only 5 years later, Arab armies invaded Israel. Some 35 of the Tehran Children would be killed in Israel's War of Independencem any as soldiers (1948-49). [United States Holocaust Museum]

Sources

United States Holocaust Museum, “Tehran children,” Holocaust Encyclpedia.

"Soviet permits children to proceed to Palestine, allows parcels to Polish Jews," (February 2, 1942). We do not know what American newspaper this article appeared in, but was archived by JAT.

Created: 12:31 AM 8/14/2014
Last updated: 11:19 PM 2/20/2020