Poland in New Zealand

The 20th century brought the world inconceivable suffering and the deaths of hundreds of millions in the name of twisted, totalitarian ideologies. The death toll of Nazism, fascism and communism is obvious for people of our generation. It is also obvious who is responsible for those crimes and whose pact started World War II - the most murderous conflict in the history of humankind.

On Friday, 6 December a special multi-lingual publication was launched with the excerpts from the book “A World Apart: The journal of a Gulag Survivor” by Gustaw Herling-Grudziński. The publication in Polish, English, Italian, Hebrew and Te Reo Māori was prepared in collaboration with the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation, Victoria University of Wellington.

On Friday, 6 December, the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel will pay a historic visit to the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. It will be Angela Merkel’s first visit to the Memorial Site after her 14 years in office and the third visit of an incumbent head of government. German chancellor will be accompanied by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

Two concerts “New World, New beginnings”, on 15 and 17 November 2019 at the iconic St Andrew’s on the Terrace church in Wellington, were performed by SMP Ensemble, founded by Andrzej Nowicki. The ensemble is associated with the Victoria University of Wellington. The project was supported by the Polish Embassy in Wellington.

Please take a look at the latest Polish Embassy's presentation highlighting personal stories and profiles of several members of the Polish Children of Pahiatua - a group of 733 Polish children, mostly orphans and half-orphans, who arrived in Wellington on 1 November 1944 upon the invitation by the New Zealand Government. On the 75th anniversary of their arrival, we present some of their contributions to their new homeland.

Polish Ambassador Zbigniew Gniatkowski provides a Polish perspective on the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War in the latest issue of New Zealand International Review.

On October 23, 2019, at the "History Stop" event of the Institute of National Remembrance in Warsaw, the book "Killed in Kalinin, buried in Miednoje" (Убиты в Калинине, захоронены в Медном) was presented. The three-volume work contains more than 6,000 biographical notes of Polish prisoners of war in Ostashkov, who died in captivity or were shot by the order of the USSR authorities of March 5, 1940. The book also presents source materials documenting the crime and exhumations of victims carried out in 1991 and 1995.

On 1-3 November 2019, the commemorations of the 75th anniversary of the arrival to New Zealand of the Polish Children, later known as Pahiatua Children. The jubilee celebrations were organised by the Pahiatua Polish Children Facilitating Committee and the Polish Association in New Zealand. The celebrations took place in Pahiatua and Wellington.

Take a look at our latest presentation showing WW2 fronts where Polish and New Zealand soldiers fought as brothers-in-arms, great Polish and New Zealand pilots who bravely supported the Battle of Britain, invitation to New Zealand of 733 Polish Siberian orphans, Polish Army League, most horrific battle of Monte Cassino and a few other less-known actions and operations with participation of our brave men and women during the Second World War.

Olga Tokarczuk, Polish writer and activist, won the Nobel Prize in Literature for “a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life.”