By Roxanne Reid
We’ve come to Oudtshoorn in the Little Karoo and rather unexpectedly met 500 Polish orphans. They lived here for four and a half years, but this is the first time I’ve felt part of their lives. That’s the joy of Oudtshoorn’s CP Nel Museum – there’s always something new to discover.
We’ve come to Oudtshoorn in the Little Karoo and rather unexpectedly met 500 Polish orphans. They lived here for four and a half years, but this is the first time I’ve felt part of their lives. That’s the joy of Oudtshoorn’s CP Nel Museum – there’s always something new to discover.
We’ve visited the CP Nel Museum before and loved the pharmacist’s shop, with its intriguing tools like pill rollers, pessary moulds and ear piercing machines, its bottles of Lennon’s old-fashioned remedies. In another hall is a general dealer, with items like tricycles, fruit peelers, candle moulds, sausage-making machines and large bins for keeping flour or maize meal.
Pills and potions are still around, but the benefits of some gadgets from these days are hard to understand
Each piece in this collection is labelled with the approximate date and place of origin
There’s a well-labelled collection of porcelain, a display of fashion items from the past, collections of musical instruments and household furniture, even military weapons and turn-of-the-century cars and carriages.
Fashions have changed a lot in just over 100 years
If you’re a Pauline Smith fan, as I am, you’ll love the glass cabinets where snippets from her books and letters are displayed together with an explanation of the real-life inspiration for some of the places mentioned in her books. I enjoyed a letter mentioning her visit to Jan Smuts’s house during a crisis in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. When the news came on the wireless Ouma Smuts sent someone to fetch OuBaas, but he wouldn’t come because he was reading Pauline Smith’s delightful Platkops Children!
A Schacht from 1909 and a Panhard from 1904 form part of the museum's transport section
Irina’s story
But the story about the 500 Polish orphans who came to Oudtshoorn between 1943 and 1947 was something I hadn’t found before – proof that there’s always another layer of history to be uncovered in our museums.
They came at the invitation of Jan Smuts and were accommodated in a military barracks, 21 kids to a room, with a teacher and supervisor. Some 12 000 went to places around the world after an Anglo-Soviet alliance of 1942 allowed them to leave Siberia. They had been forcibly removed there after Hitler’s invasion of Poland and the Red Army’s annexation of eastern Poland in 1939.
But the story about the 500 Polish orphans who came to Oudtshoorn between 1943 and 1947 was something I hadn’t found before – proof that there’s always another layer of history to be uncovered in our museums.
They came at the invitation of Jan Smuts and were accommodated in a military barracks, 21 kids to a room, with a teacher and supervisor. Some 12 000 went to places around the world after an Anglo-Soviet alliance of 1942 allowed them to leave Siberia. They had been forcibly removed there after Hitler’s invasion of Poland and the Red Army’s annexation of eastern Poland in 1939.
Some rooms are furnished as they might have been in someone's home
You’ll meet Irina Dolinska through her writings about her family’s story. She was ten years old when she, her parents, two brothers and sister walked onto the cattle truck that took them through the freezing snow to Siberia. When the railway line came to a end, they travelled another 150km by sledge. There were no doctors or medicine and little food. One brother died of pneumonia.
After the Anglo-Soviet alliance, they went south to Uzbekistan, where many people died of typhoid, including both Irina’s parents. Later the children were taken to Teheran where her remaining brother joined the cadets and left, never to be seen again.
After the Anglo-Soviet alliance, they went south to Uzbekistan, where many people died of typhoid, including both Irina’s parents. Later the children were taken to Teheran where her remaining brother joined the cadets and left, never to be seen again.
Some of the Polish orphans at Oudtshoorn snapped at the time of an exhibition or concert
Irina and her sister sailed from the Persian Gulf to South Africa in 1943 with another 498 children. After a fortnight's quarantine in Port Elizabeth they came to Oudtshoorn by train. ‘I sat on the top bunk. It had clean sheets on it. It was like being in heaven,’ she noted.
A barracks was converted into dormitories and a school was established. The camp became almost entirely self-sufficient, with teachers, a chaplain, doctor, nurse, cooks, dressmakers and a barber. Slowly life returned to normal for these children who had seen so much hardship. There were concerts, outings into the mountains or to the Cango Caves and an ostrich farm. As one of the photographs shows, Irina even had tea with Ouma Smuts.
When the camp finally closed, about half of the young people joined family members in other parts of the world. Girls without surviving relatives went to convent schools in Graaff-Reinet, George and Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), and most of the boys to a Catholic school in Cape Town.
This is why I love museums; every visit is a journey through time and into someone else’s life. Without museums to preserve such memories, so many valuable stories of human interest would be lost.
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A barracks was converted into dormitories and a school was established. The camp became almost entirely self-sufficient, with teachers, a chaplain, doctor, nurse, cooks, dressmakers and a barber. Slowly life returned to normal for these children who had seen so much hardship. There were concerts, outings into the mountains or to the Cango Caves and an ostrich farm. As one of the photographs shows, Irina even had tea with Ouma Smuts.
When the camp finally closed, about half of the young people joined family members in other parts of the world. Girls without surviving relatives went to convent schools in Graaff-Reinet, George and Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), and most of the boys to a Catholic school in Cape Town.
This is why I love museums; every visit is a journey through time and into someone else’s life. Without museums to preserve such memories, so many valuable stories of human interest would be lost.
Like it? Pin this image!
Related posts:
Oudtshoorn's buildings - a photo blog
Nostalgie restaurant in Oudtshoorn, Klein Karoo
Copyright © Roxanne Reid. No words or photographs may be used without written permission from roxannereid.co.za
Oudtshoorn's buildings - a photo blog
Nostalgie restaurant in Oudtshoorn, Klein Karoo
Copyright © Roxanne Reid. No words or photographs may be used without written permission from roxannereid.co.za
