Polish immigrant children

Kindergarten group at a Polish refugee camp, Pahiatua, 7 February 1945.

In 1944 more than 700 displaced Polish children, with about 100 adults, arrived in New Zealand. Maria Wodzicka, herself a Polish immigrant, had helped negotiate their acceptance by the New Zealand government, and took a leading role in assisting them to settle in New Zealand. She mediated between the Polish Children's Camp at Pahiatua and government agencies, and she and her family acted as translators.

• See also: film about Polish children in NZ (NZOnScreen)