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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 Polish 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 were 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.
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