U.S. Government Propaganda Photo, 1943

Some of the Polish prisoners and slave laborers in Soviet Russia during World War II who had survived, were evacuated first to Iran and became refugees, were temporarily resettled in India. Their story was described in “A Little Poland in India,” a 2015 Indo-Polish co-production documentary by Any Radha and Sumit Osmand Shaw.

Unlike American and British propaganda films of the 1940s which went into great lengths to obscure Soviet atrocities and not to offend Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, the film presents an accurate account of historical events.

The cover photo showing the camp for Polish refugees in Iran is not from the video. The propaganda photograph was taken in Iran in 1943 by the U.S. Office of War Information photographer before the Polish refugees were transported to be resettled in India, Africa, New Zealand and Mexico.

U.S. Government Propaganda Photo

• Title: Teheran, Iran. Polish evacuee children playing in the dormitory courtyard at a camp operated by the Red Cross
• Creator(s): Parrino, Nick, photographer, U.S. Office of War Information (OWI)
• Date Created/Published: 1943.
• Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
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