If not for the initiative of Maria Wodzicka, the support of her husband Kazimierz Wodzicki – Consul General of the Republic of Poland in Wellington – and Janet Fraser, the wife of New Zealand’s Prime Minister, a group of more than 700 Polish orphans and semi-orphans evacuated from Siberia would have likely wandered aimlessly around the world for a long time. Thanks to the efforts of such compassionate individuals, the children were placed into new homes on the other side of the globe.

Maria (née Dunin-Borkowska) and Kazimierz Antoni Wodzicki were people who craved constant action, who had to be deeply engaged in social efforts. Both were born in Podolia into landowning families (Kazimierz bore the Leliwa coat of arms, Maria the Łabędź), and both had received well-rounded academic educations. Maria graduated in 1923 with a degree in soil science from the Jagiellonian University, while Kazimierz was a zoologist and ornithologist, also a Jagiellonian University alumnus (1922), where he later attained his habilitation. He pursued an academic career, teaching and conducting research at the Jagiellonian University, the University of Poznań, and the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW). Following her studies, Maria was employed in a university laboratory.

After the outbreak of World War II in the autumn of 1939, Kazimierz was detained by the NKVD, although he was quickly set free. In December of that year, he escaped via Italy to Paris. In the  subsequent years,  several members of his family were deported to Siberia, where his father died after winding up in a labor camp.

Maria, together with their children Maria Monika and Antoni, joined up with her husband in France at the beginning of 1940. Until that time, she had been active in the resistance movement, aiding refugees from occupied Poland cross over the mountains into Romania and Hungary. It is worth adding, that twenty years earlier, when her studies had been interrupted by the outbreak of the Polish–Bolshevik War, Maria rushed off to the front to work for the Polish Red Cross.

In France, Kazimierz started work for the Polish government-in-exile, being tasked with education of Polish refugees. Later, even before the German invasion of France, the Wodzicki family managed to get to England. There, among other things, Kazimierz collaborated with the British Museum, carrying out scientific research.

He arrived in Wellington, New Zealand in 1941, serving as Consul General of the Polish government-in-exile. While carrying out his diplomatic duties, Maria dedicated herself to social work—organizing aid for Polish soldiers and civilians, coordinating charity collections, cooperating with humanitarian organizations, and addressing the public by giving talks about the situation of Polish soldiers. She also functioned as a delegate of the Polish Red Cross.

In France, Kazimierz started work for the Polish government-in-exile, being tasked with education of Polish refugees. Later, even before the German invasion of France, the Wodzicki family managed to get to England. There, among other things, Kazimierz collaborated with the British Museum, carrying out scientific research. He arrived in Wellington, New Zealand in 1941, serving as Consul General of the Polish government-in-exile. While carrying out his diplomatic duties, Maria dedicated herself to social work—organizing aid for Polish soldiers and civilians, coordinating charity collections, cooperating with humanitarian organizations, and addressing the public by giving talks about the situation of Polish soldiers. She also functioned as a delegate of the Polish Red Cross.

In 1942, the Anders Army left the USSR, accompanied by thousands of Polish children—orphans of deportees and prisoners of the Gulag. In response to an appeal from the Polish government-in-exile in London for help in caring for these children until the war’s end, several countries offered assistance – among them Lebanon, Palestine, Mexico, India, Tanganyika (Tanzania), and Uganda. In the summer of 1943, a ship bound for Mexico docked in the port of Wellington and among the passengers were a group of Polish refugees, including children. Maria Wodzicka met with them and for their benefit she organized a gift collection. Not long afterwards, she initiated efforts to bring another group of children over to New Zealand, being supported in this enterprise by her husband Kazimierz and Janet Fraser, wife of New Zealand’s Prime Minister. As a result, at the end of 1943, the government of New Zealand agreed to the acceptance of a group of Polish children along with their caregivers, offering them a place to stay and food for the duration of the war. On 1 November 1944, 733 children and 102 staff members arrived in New Zealand from Isfahan, Iran. Large crowds gathered to greet them at the Wellington port, among them  being Kazimierz and Maria Wodzicki alongside Prime Minister Peter Fraser. The refugees were to settle in the camp at Pahiatua, with the vast majority of them remaining in New Zealand for the remainder of their lives.

Maria and Kazimierz Wodzicki also chose not to return to Poland after the war. With the closure of the Polish Consulate in 1945, Kazimierz resumed his academic career, making a significant contribution to research in that part of the world. He lectured in zoology at Victoria University in Wellington, founded the Department of Animal Ecology, establishing himself as a pioneering ecological researcher in New Zealand and Australia. He also organized scientific expeditions to Pacific islands—on one of which he rediscovered a small species of kangaroo previously regarded as being extinct. He also conducted studies on island ecology in the South Pacific – it is a truly difficult task to list all of his undertaking and activities. His works were cited in academic publications around the world and are now regarded as classics of ecological literature. From 1960, he was a member of the Polish Scientific Society Abroad, and in 1962 he was elected to the Royal Society of New Zealand. He also became a foreign corresponding member of the Polish Zoological Society.

For the remainder of their lives, the Wodzickis kept up a keen interest in the fate of the “Pahiatua children”, actively supporting the Polish community in New Zealand. Thanks to the efforts of Kazimierz’s, Polish language courses were organized at Victoria University. Maria Wodzicka passed away on 24 July 1968. Kazimierz outlived his wife by almost twenty years, passing away on 15 June 1987. In 2011, they were posthumously awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta by the President of Poland, Bronisław Komorowski, for their “outstanding achievements in aiding Polish refugees and children orphaned in Siberia.” The decoration was accepted on their behalf by Michał Wodzicki, their grandson.

Read more about the fate of Polish children in New Zealand here:  https://swiatsybiru.pl/pl/dzieci-sybiru-w-nowej-zelandii/

and here:  https://sklep-sybir.pl/produkt/najwieksza-rodzina-swiata-pl-eng/