The Polish Exodus To Iran in World War 2

In light of the horrific deaths of refugees & migrants crossing into Europe and the alarming xenophobic sentiments that are being spouted on the radio waves, I have decided to bring attention to an almost forgotten footnote in history; the Polish refugees of Iran.

A Polish woman decorates her tent, in an American Red Cross camp in Tehran, Iran. 1942

Why were the Polish in Iran?
Time for some backstory. It's September 1939 - Germany and the Soviet Union have invaded Poland and partitioned the country between the two. To say life was miserable for the Polish at this time would be an understatement. The Soviet Union interned over 320,000 Polish citizens and deported them to Siberia for work in the infamous Gulags. Another 150,000 Poles died, in gruesome massacres such as the Katyn massacre. Stalin began emptying Poland of anyone who could resist the occupation. First went military officers and their families, then the intelligentsia, and last anyone with wealth, influence or education.

Fast forward to 1941 and Nazi Germany launched a full-scale invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa, the largest military campaign in history). Officially on the side of the Allied powers in July 1941, Joseph Stalin signed a Polish-Russian agreement that led to the foundation of a Soviet-backed Polish army that was to be made up of Polish prisoners of war who were 'pardoned' from the Gulags. The formation of such an army would take place in British-occupied Iran.

With news of their mass release, Poles began to slowly make their way towards Iran. With the Polish government in exile unable to assist their compatriots, and the Soviets refusing to allow access to trains to facilitate their exodus, fatalities due to hunger, the Siberian cold, violence, disease and simple exhaustion were high. By August 1942, a conservative estimate suggests more than 115,000 Poles (included 40,000 civilians) fled to Iran. At most, it is thought 300,000 Poles fled.

Camp Polonia:

The soldiers who enlisted in Anders' Army (named after its commander Władysław Anders) regrouped in Bandar Pahlavi, Mashhad and eventually Ahvaz, before being transferred to British command in Mandatory Palestine.

Young Polish refugee at a camp operated by the Red Cross in Tehran, Iran. Nick Parrino, 1943

The civilians were left in the refugee camps that sprawled up around the country. Having first arrived in the port of Bandar Pahlavi (now Bander Anzali) on the northern Iranian coast, a makeshift city comprising over 2000 tents (provided by the Iranian army) was hastily erected along the shoreline of Pahlavi to accommodate the refugees. It stretched for several miles on either side of the lagoon: a vast complex of bathhouses, latrines, disinfection booths, laundries, sleeping quarters, bakeries and a hospital. Every unoccupied house in the city was requisitioned, every chair appropriated from local cinemas. Nevertheless, the facilities were still inadequate.

The Iranian and British officials who first watched the Soviet oil tankers and coal ships list into the harbour at Pahlavi on the 25th March 1942 had little idea how many people to expect or what physical state they might be in. Only a few days earlier, they had been alarmed to hear that civilians, women and children, were to be included among the evacuees, something for which they were totally unprepared.[4] The ships from Krasnovodsk were grossly overcrowded. Every available space on board was filled with passengers. Some of them were little more than walking skeletons covered in rags and lice. Holding fiercely to their precious bundles of possessions, they disembarked in their thousands at Pahlavi and kissed the soil of Persia. Many reportedly sat down on the shoreline and prayed, or wept for joy.

They had not quite escaped, however. Weakened by two years of starvation, hard labour and disease, they were suffering from a variety of conditions including exhaustion, dysentery, malaria, typhus, skin infections, chicken blindness and itching scabs. The spread of typhus in particular was deadly to such an extent that 40% were hospitalised and a large proportion later died.

Overcrowded ship crossing the Caspian Sea to Pahlavi

Gholam Abdol-Rahimi, a struggling photographer in Pahlavi, emerged from bed to witness ships disgorging disheveled refugees. Abdol-Rahimi's photographs are perhaps the most complete account of the catastrophe. But his work was never recognized or published.

Pahlavi was only a temporary shelter. Refugees were later dispersed to more prepared camps in Isfahan (Isfahan in particular being dubbed as the 'City of Polish Children'), Tehran and Ahvaz.

More than 13,000 of the arrivals in Iran were children, many orphans whose parents had died on the way. In Russia, starving mothers had pushed their children onto passing trains to Iran in hopes of saving them.

As the war dragged on, most refugees continued their journey away from the Soviet Union, reaching Pakistan, Palestine and British East Africa & South Africa, eventually to the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Polish cemetery in Bander Anzali (Pahlavi)

In all, 2,806 refugees died within a few months of arriving and were buried in cemeteries around Iran. Their alien names and the dates on their tombstones chronicle a calamity, even to a visitor without knowledge of their history. Etched on row after row of identical tombstones is a single year of death: 1942.

Polish military cemetery, Tehran.

Further reading:
Forgotten Polish Exodus to Persia - Washington Post
The Exile Mission: The Polish Political Diaspora and Polish Americans, 1939-1956. Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann. page 26-27 
The Polish Deportees of World War II: Recollections of Removal to the Soviet Union and Dispersal Throughout the World. Tadeusz Piotrowski. page 10-12.

History in Focus: The Iran-Iraq War

(Note: History in Focus is a new post style where I discuss a topic simply by posting photos [and if applicable, videos] of the event in question. I often found that this helps the reader to understand a topic much more thoroughly).

The Iran-Iraq war was a devastating eight-year war fought between the two countries between September 1980 and August 1988. The war started with a simultaneous air and land Iraqi offensive onto Iran which caught the Iranians off guard (with Iran still reeling from the chaos caused via their revolution).

Iraqi gains (between 1980-82) and Iranian gains (1982-88)

The Iraqis made early gains, capturing the strategic border city of Khorramshar after a lengthy and bloody siege (The city was nicknamed "Khunistan" [City of Blood] by both sides during the conflict) and initiated the siege of Abadan. Much of the city of Abadan, including the oil refinery which was one of the world's largest refinery with capacity of 680,000 barrels per day, was badly damaged and almost destroyed by the siege.

Armed Iranian woman in Khorramshar during the siege

Oil wells on fire, outside Abadan, Iran.

Iraqi artillery battalion.

Iraqi soldiers posing after a victory

Trench warfare was common, as in WWI.

For much of 1981 and 1982, the Iraqi offensive halted in a stalemate. In 1982, Iraqi soldiers were repelled from Iranian territory and it seemed that the conflict would end with Iraq suing for peace. It did not, Iran was later on the offensive, dragging the war on for another six years.

Iraqi army and militia positions in the war (from HealingIraq.blogspot.com)

The war saw the mass recruitment of child soldiers

Child soldiers on the Iranian frontier

Sudanese volunteers marching. They joined the Iraqi Army in 1983.

Iraqi tank and soldiers cross beyond the Karun river

Iraqi soldiers in combat.

The Iranian offensive was slowed down and eventually halted by the deployment of chemical weapons, mainly mustard gas, by the Iraqi army. Iraq would later use these weapons for the remainder of the war, most notably in the gassing of the Kurdish village of Halabja.

Iranian soldier wears a gas mask and takes cover in a trench

Locations of the use of chemical weapons

Iranian soldiers equipped with gas masks. It helped them survive.

Victims of the gas attack at the Kurdish village of Halabja, Iraq. 5,000 died at least.

The war saw the constant bombardment, by both sides, of the other's cities and towns. Missiles and air raids were launched to bomb each other into submission. This was later dubbed as the "War of the Cities".

Kuwait was attacked by Iran in an airstrike over their support for Iraq

Iranian Revolutionary Guard mounting an Anti-Air gun in Iran

Iranian children lie dead after a school was bombed in 1987

Tanker Wars:

The conflict spilled into the Persian Gulf; both countries produced large amounts of oil and it was viewed that attacking and disabling oil installations in the combatant's country would damage their economy and eventually bankrupt them. However, this mini-war caused the US navy (a navy stronger than both Iran's and Iraq's combined) to escort Gulf oil tankers; there were still incidents. Iraq 'accidentally' bombed a US warship and Iran's practice of laying mines in the sea (which had damaged a US frigate) caused an American strike on the Iranian navy, taking out five Iranian naval vessels.

Oil tanker scuttled in the Shatt al Arab waterway on Saddam's orders to prevent sea access to southern Iraq

The USS Stark after being hit by an Iraqi fighter plane

Iranian boats like these littered the Gulf.

Oil tanker in flames after being hit by an Iranian missile.

After the USS Stark incident, American naval vessels were on high alert. In July 1988, the cruiser USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655, killing all 290 passengers and crew on board. The American government claimed that the airliner had been mistaken for an Iranian F-14 Tomcat, and that the Vincennes was operating in international waters at the time and feared that it was under attack, which later appeared to be untrue.The Iranians, however, maintain that the Vincennes was in fact in Iranian territorial waters, and that the Iranian passenger jet was turning away and increasing altitude after take-off. U.S. Admiral William J. Crowe also admitted on Nightline that the Vincennes was inside Iranian territorial waters when it launched the missiles. The issue remains a controversial point in Iranian-American relations to this day.

Home Front:
As in WWI and WWII, the war brought in the massive pouring of military volunteers and aid to each country's armed forces.

Iranian children offer their spare savings to the war-front.

Military volunteers en route to the front-lines.

Most were never seen of again.

Iranian volunteers took up arms by the busloads (literally)

Iranian volunteers marching to the front-line.

Iranians from across the country joined the army

Civilians stock up supplies in a mosque along the frontline in Iran

Iran's first president, Banisadr, visiting an injured soldier.

Azadi sports stadium in Tehran was a focal recruitment area

International Reactions:

The UN deployed several observers to Iran to assess if chemical weapons were used and to report on how much were used.

UN weapons inspectors at work.

Taking photos of artillery shells

And of children... (???)

UN observers assess the level of chemicals used.

Casualties (graphic):

The war left a million dead, and hundreds of thousands injured.

Peace:

Peace was achieved in 1988. 100,000+ civilians killed on both sides, 320,000–720,000 Iraqi soldiers and militia killed and 150,000–375,000 Iranian soldiers and militia killed. Over a trillion dollars in damages occurred. This was the longest conventional war of the 20th century and one of the most brutal.

Iraq erected  101 statues with pointing fingers towards Iran, six miles away from the border, in memory of Iraqis killed during the Iran-Iraq War. The statues were destroyed by the British on March 31, 2003.