Polish Refugee Children in India: Personal Memory, Grassroots Activism, and Transnational Commemorative Diplomacy

Abstract

This article explores the memory of nearly one thousand Polish child refugees who found safe haven in India during the Second World War. It discusses how from the 1970s onward, the former refugees attempted to sustain the memory of their exilic homeland, often with support from other memory actors in both Poland and India. Analyzing both personal testimonies and grassroots memory activism, this article investigates the intertwining of individual memory with wider memorial trends, such as vernacular, national, and transnational memory. By discussing the ways in which personal and familial memory of wartime childhood serve as a springboard for other commemorative initiatives, this article also examines how children and young people feature in public memory, both as memory actors and objects of commemoration. In doing so, not only do I ask broader questions about remembering children that are relevant to this special issue, but also provide a window into the vicissitudes of Polish politics of memory from the late 1940s to the present.