Polish Boys' Hostel
Bursa Męska or Polish Boys’ Hostel
Embedded Files
Sister Monika (Maria) Alexandrowicz was an Ursuline nun who, together with Sister Imelda Tobolska, had shared the children’s fate through Russia and Iran. She worked with those children for 14 years in New Zealand – first as a teacher at the camp and then as a manager of the Polish Boys’ Hostel, followed by the Polish Girls’ Hostel, before she was recalled to Poland. She describes those times very clearly in her memoirs Od Lubcza na Antypody (From Lubecz to the Antipodes).
When the older boys were leaving the camp to go to Wellington, some to St Patrick’s College, Wellington, and some to apprenticeships in carpentry, motor mechanics and other trades, the necessity arose for setting up a hostel for these boys. We were aided in this work by Father John Kavanagh, who was appointed by the Bishops’ Curia to liaise between the Curia and the Government. After negotiating all the conditions with the authorities, both Government and Church, Father John Kavanagh bought a two-storey house in Clyde Street, Island Bay, which was to accommodate 40 Polish boys, some of whom were already working and some attending school.
On the adjacent section there was a very little house which was allotted for our use, Sister Imelda’s and mine. We managed also to set up a little chapel – a converted army hut – between the hostel and our house. So, on 26 August 1946, Sister Imelda and I moved into the Polish Boys’ Hostel in Island Bay, Wellington, beginning a new phase of our work ...
Source: New Zealand's First Refugees: Pahiatua's Polish Children (3rd Edition Pages 334-337)
NZ Leaving Camp Hostel
NZ Leaving Camp Hostel
The Polish Boys' Hostel in Clyde Street, Island Bay, Wellington was opened on 6 May 1946 to house the first boys who left the Polish Children's Camp in Pahiatua to work or study in Wellington.
Source: Polish Children's Reunion Committee 2004.Polish Boys’ Hostel
Polish Boys’ Hostel
167 Clyde Street, Island Bay, Wellington
6th May 1946 – August 1952
Written by Joseph Zawada 13th April 2007
The Polish Boys’ Hostel was established by the Catholic Church to cater for the needs of some of the Polish Orphans, who were being shifted to Wellington pending the closure of the Polish Children’s Camp in Pahiatua, where they had lived since arriving in New Zealand on 1st November 1944. It was opened on 6th May 1946 and soon a group of boys arrived – some to take up employment, some to be apprenticed for trades and a few to study at the St Patrick’s College, Cambridge Terrace, Wellington.
Initially, two Polish Ursuline nuns, who arrived with the children in New Zealand, were running the hostel, but in time they were needed to staff the Polish Girls’ Hostel, which was being established at 112 Queen’s Drive, Lyall Bay. Polish civilian staff took over the administration of the Hostel, till it was closed in August 1952.
The Hostel, even though it could be considered an institution, offered the boys a familiar and safe home pad and at the same time sufficient freedom to start venturing into the strange new environment, and to encourage the boys to make their own decisions. Since 10th February 1940, the only life the boys knew was in Soviet Labour Camps, which were under strict army-type administration, the orphanages in Iran and the Polish Children’s Camp at Pahiatua – all of necessity demanding strict obedience.
Surprisingly, the older boys showed a lot of initiative in finding for themselves well paid jobs, such as on the wharf, car assembly plants, Freezing Works. The boys were good savers, the main incentive being to have enough money to buy a motorbike. Behind the hostel there was an empty space, where the boys used to congregate to work on their bikes. To try out their bikes they would race up and down Clyde Street. By the time someone decided to telephone the police the race was over and the bikes well hidden.
It was very noticeable that neighbours in general looked down on the Polish boys and were suspicious of them. At that time the people must have been shocked to have a group of young foreigners living amongst them.
Nothing good was expected of many of those who were at the hostel, even by their own people. However vast majority of them did well: nearly all married, established their own families and settled well into the local community. None of them ever blamed the handicaps of their earlier life – no parents, no home life and no real guidance – for any wrong decision they made.
There were other Polish boys from the Camp in Wellington, who were placed as boarders into New Zealand families. These boys used to visit the hostel on Sundays – to recharge their emotions and let off steam amongst their friends.
Today, on the site bounded by Clyde, Mersey and Tiber Streets, where the Polish Boys Hostel used to be situated, stands St Francis de Sales Catholic Church.
WSBHS File 07/219
See Southern Bays No 3, 2007, page 7 for this article and photographsSee AlsoBook Box 4, The Invited: 733 Polish Children by Krystyna SwarkoNew Zealand’s First Refugees – Polish Children’s Reunion CommitteeGoogle Sites
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