Polish War Refugees Interned in Palestine in the Light of “Mazra’a Chronicle”

Abstract

In the autumn of 1940, the British Mandate authorities interned approximately twenty Polish war refugees at the Mazra’a camp in Palestine. In the subsequent months, over a dozen more were detained. The majority of the refugees were interned at the behest of Polish military intelligence, which accused them of collaboration with foreign agencies. The events concerning the detention of the Poles are detailed in the “Kronika Mazryjska” (“Mazra’a Chronicle”) by Czesław Horain. This document is part of the collection at the Archives of the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London. The narrative was penned by one of the internees and covers topics such as everyday life in the camp and the situations leading to the arrests of the Poles, and the mood among the inmates. As these issues have not been explored in research thus far, publishing the “Mazra’a Chronicle” is both necessary and recommended.