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Story: Poles

Displaced persons enter New Zealand

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Displaced persons enter New Zealand

A considerable number of Poles came to New Zealand after the Second World War as displaced persons. Like most such people, Aleksander Niedaszkowski found himself at the war’s end outside his own country, reluctant to return and with no identification papers. In 1950, the International Refugee Organisation issued him with a ‘certificate of identity for the purpose of immigration to New Zealand’.

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Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: MS-Papers-6025

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How to cite this page

Theresa Sawicka, Poles – 20th-century arrivals, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/document/1161/displaced-persons-enter-new-zealand (accessed 11 June 2026).

Story by Theresa Sawicka, published 4 March 2009, updated 1 July 2024.