Only one man said “yes”.
The year was 1942.
In the middle of the Indian Ocean, an old ship drifted like a floating coffin. On board were 740 Polish children , orphans who had survived Soviet labor camps, where their parents died of hunger, disease, and exhaustion.
They had managed to escape to Iran.
But the tragedy did not end there.
No country wanted to receive them.
The ship was turned away from port to port along the coast of India.
The British Empire—the world’s greatest power at the time—refused time and again.
“It’s not our responsibility.”
Food began to run out.
Medicines ran out.
And hope—the only thing that had kept those children alive until then—began to fade.
Twelve-year-old Maria squeezed her six-year-old brother’s hand tightly.
She had promised her dying mother she would protect him.
But how can you keep a promise when the whole world has decided you don’t deserve to live ?
Finally, the news reached a small palace in Nawanagar, Gujarat .
The ruler was Jam Sahib Digvijay Singhji , a maharajah under British control, with no army, no real power over the ports, and no obligation to intervene.
His advisors reported:
“There are 740 Polish children trapped at sea. The British are not allowing them to disembark.”
He asked in a low voice,
“How many children?”
“Seven hundred and forty.”
There was a long silence.
Then he said:
“The British can control our ports.
But they cannot control my conscience .
Those children will disembark at Nawanagar.”
He was warned:
“If you confront the British…”
“I will accept the consequences.”
And then a message was sent, brief but enough to save 740 lives:
“You are welcome here.”
In August 1942, the ship entered the harbor under a blazing sun.
The children disembarked like shadows: too weak to cry, too accustomed to pain to dare to hope.
The maharaja was waiting for them.
Dressed in white, he knelt down to be at their eye level and spoke, through an interpreter, words they had not heard since the death of their parents:
“You are no longer orphans.
You are my children.
I am your Bapu. Your father.”
He didn’t build a refugee camp.
He built a home .
In Balachadi , he created a “little Poland” in the heart of India: Polish teachers, traditional food, classrooms, gardens, nursery rhymes and even a Christmas tree under the tropical sky.
He said:
“Pain always tries to erase who we are.
Their language, their culture, and their memory are sacred.
They will live on here.”
During four years of war, those children didn’t live as refugees, but as a family .
The maharaja remembered every name, organized birthdays, visited them frequently, and paid for everything with his own money.
The British did not protest openly.
But they did not forget.
Jam Sahib was politically isolated, his influence limited.
He accepted the price.
Because every morning, when I heard the laughter of children in Balachadi — a sound almost nonexistent in a world of bombs — I knew I had chosen correctly.
When the war ended, the world began to count losses: millions dead, cities destroyed, treaties yet to be signed.
But no one counted how many lives were saved by a single decision made in time .
On the day of their farewell in Balachadi, there were no official ceremonies.
Only hugs, handwritten letters, and a gentle sadness: the sadness of leaving the only place many had called home.
The maharaja didn’t stare at the boat for too long.
He turned away soon.
Years later, those children became doctors, teachers, parents, and grandparents.
In Poland, squares and schools bear the name of Jam Sahib Digvijay Singhji. He received the highest decorations.
But its greatest monument is not made of stone.
It is built with 740 lives .
And those lives continue to tell their children and grandchildren the story of an Indian king who, when the world closed all its doors, looked pain straight in the face and said:
“From today on, you are my children.”
