When hundreds of Polish children arrived in India’s Nawanagar state during World War II, they had already been driven from their homes, survived Soviet labor camps, and lived through years of uncertainty. The war had stripped away school, friends, and the everyday routines most children naturally build their lives around.

According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the children’s journey had begun years earlier. Following the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland in 1939, thousands of Polish families were deported to labor camps scattered across Siberia and Central Asia. After the 1941 Sikorski-Mayski Agreement allowed many Polish civilians to leave the Soviet Union, some eventually made the long journey south to India.

Creating a space to just be a kid again

A recent Smithsonian Magazine story recounts how Maharaja Digvijaysinhji........

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