This story, which is about a large group of Polish children, reminded me of the blog I wrote a couple of weeks ago about human empathy. It demonstrates, yet again, that human empathy can come from the most unusual people in the most unusual circumstances, and therefore deserves to be told if only to remind us of how important that sentiment is to our well-being and survival.
The year was 1942. The ship drifted in the Arabian Sea, like a floating coffin. There were 740 Polish children on board. Orphans. Survivors of Soviet labor camps, where their parents had died of the flu or starvation. They had escaped through Iran, but a more terrible punishment awaited them. No one would accept them.
The British Empire – the most powerful power of its time – refused entry to port after port along the Indian coast. “It’s not our responsibility. Sail away” the officials repeatedly said.
The food was almost finished. No medicine. Time was running out. Twelve-year-old Maria held her six-year-old brother’s hand. She had promised her dying mother to protect him. But how do you protect someone when the whole world turns against them?
The news of this continuing disaster came to a small palace in Gujarat. The ruler was Jam Sahib Digvijay Singhji, Maharaja of Navanagar; a minor prince in the Indian royal system. The British controlled the ports, trade, and the army. He had every reason to obey and remain silent. When his advisors told him that 740 children were stranded at sea after the British refused to take them to any port in India, he asked one question: “How many children are there?”
“Seven hundred and forty, Your Majesty.”
He paused and calmly said: “The British may control my ports. But they do not control my conscience. These children are docked at Navanagarh.”
The advisors warned him: “If you challenge the British …..”
He sent a message to the ship: You are welcome here. When British officials protested, the Maharaja remained firm. “If the strong refuse to save the children,” he said. “I, the weak, will do what you cannot.”
In August 1942, the ship struggled into Navanagara harbor under the blazing summer sun. The children disembarked like ghosts – exhausted, blank-eyed, many too weak to walk. They had learned to hope for good, but hope had turned dangerous.
The Maharaja was waiting for them on the dock. Dressed simply in white, he knelt down to be at their eye level. Through interpreters, he spoke words they had not heard since their parents died. “You are no longer orphans. You are my children now. I am your Bapu – your father.”
Maria felt her brother’s hand shake. After months of rejection, these words seemed surreal.
But the Maharaja was serious. He didn’t build a refugee camp. He built a home.
In Balachadi, he created something amazing – a little Poland in India. Polish teachers who understood trauma. Polish food flavored with memory. Polish songs in an Indian garden. A Christmas tree under a tropical sky. “Suffering tries to erase you,” he said. “But your language, culture, and traditions are sacred. Let’s keep them here.”
Children who were told they had no place in the world finally found a home. They laughed again. They played again. They returned to school. Maria watched her brother chase a peacock in the palace garden, and her body remembered again what safety meant.
The Maharaja used to visit them often. He remembered names. He celebrated birthdays. He watched high school plays. He comforted children crying for parents who would never return. He paid for doctors, teachers, clothing, and food, all from his own wealth. For four years, while the world was torn by war, 740 children lived not as refugees, but as a family.
When the war ended and it was time to leave, many wept. Balachadi became the only home they had ever truly known.
These children grew, and moved around the world – becoming doctors, teachers, engineers, parents, grandparents. And they have never forgotten.
Warsaw’s “Good Emperor Square” appeared in Poland. Schools bear his name. He was awarded Poland’s highest honor.
Today, at 80 years old, the children still gather. They tell their grandchildren about an Indian king who refused to turn compassion into political calculation.
In 1942, when kingdoms closed their doors, one man – without obligation and with every reason to remain silent – looked at the suffering and said: “They are my children now.”
And so, the world changed – silently, forever, and irrevocably.
If this true story doesn’t touch your heartstrings, I don’t know what will!
