When 740 Christian Polish children were condemned to simply disappear into the sea during World War II. Britain, an ally of Stalin’s murderous Soviet Union, said NO. Only one man said YES.

In the middle of the vast Indian Ocean, an old ship drifted forward like a floating coffin. On board were 740 Polish children.

The kids were orphans who had survived Soviet labour camps, where their parents had died from hunger, disease, and exhaustion.

Finally, they had managed to escape to British-occupied Iran, but the tragedy did not end there. The packed vessel made its way to British-controlled India.

For fear of offending the British ruling class, the stricken vessel was turned away from port after port along the coast of India.

The British Empire, the greatest power in the world at that time, refused them again and again.

‘It is not our responsibility.’

Food began to run out. Medicine was exhausted. And hope, the only thing that had kept those children alive until then, began to fade.

Maria, who was just 12 years old, clutched the hand of her 6-year-old brother.

She had promised her dying mother that she would protect him. But how do you keep a promise when the entire world has decided you do not deserve to live?

Eventually, the news reached a small palace in Nawanagar, Gujarat. There, the ruler was Jam Sahib Digvijay Singhji, a maharaja under British control.

The maharaja had no army, no power over the ports, and no obligation whatsoever to intervene.

His advisers reported:

‘There are 740 Polish children trapped at sea. The British will not allow them to disembark.’

He asked quietly, ‘How many children?’

‘Seven hundred and forty.’

There was a long silence. Then he said, ‘ The British may control our ports. But they cannot control my conscience. Those children will disembark in Nawanagar.’

They warned him against offending the British…’

‘I will accept the consequences.’

And then a message was sent, brief, but enough to save 740 lives:

‘You are welcome here.’

In August 1942, the ship entered the harbor under a burning sun. With the landing came the children like skeletal shadows. They were too weak to cry, too accustomed to pain to dare to hope.

The maharaja was waiting for them.

Dressed in white, he knelt to meet them at eye level. His actions have become one of the most memorable humanitarian stories in history. Let readers know what you think

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