kolhapur as many as 80 people including two ministers from poland will reach kolhapur on monday on a threeday tour to relive the memories of their stay in the city as refugees during world war ii jan stanislaw ciechanowski minister for war veterans and victims of oppression and andrzej krzysztof kunert minister for council for protection of struggle and martyrdom will accompany the delegation coming for the first time to india particularly to visit kolhapur bishop jozef jan guzdek the field bishop of polish army andrzej person a member of the polish senate adviser to the presidents chancellery and personal representative of president of poland waldemar strzalkowski and the deputy commander of warsaws garrison will be the state dignitaries to visit kolhapur along with the delegation visitors from countries such as poland the us the uk australia canada south africa new zealand and middle east nations were either born at valivade or they were of 4 to 10 years of age when they left the camp colonel vijaysinh gaikwad retd president of the exservicemen welfare association of kolhapur who is managing the muchawaited visit of the polish refugees said the tour plan has been finalized and shared with the state government we have finalized the plan of the polish refugees visit to kolhapur and they will be in india from march 2 to march 7 they are exclusively coming to visit kolhapur as no other program is scheduled either in mumbai or any other location gaikwad said senior diplomat of the polish government are accompanying the delegation signifies the importance of the trip to that country i have tried to convey the message to city and district administration and hope that the cemetery and other places will be cleared by the time of delegation arrives in the city he added the polish consulate in mumbai has spent over rs 40000 to clean the areas near the cemetery situated near tararani chowk some weeks ago polish consul general leszek brenda and officials from polish council for the protection of memory of combat and martyrdom visited the city to oversee arrangements for the gathering around 5000 polish men women and children had made kolhapur their home during ww ii valivade also known as gandhinagar was the largest refugee camp in india for polish migrants the camp was built in 194243 and refugees left once peace returned to their country in 1948 tour plan march 2 delegation from warshaw to reach mumbai march 3 visit to panchgani near mahabaleshwar where the poles stayed between 1943 and 1947 the delegation will arrive at kolhapur in the evening march 4 visit to st francis xaviers church at 930 am a catholic mass from 930 am to 1015 am the delegation will visit the war memorial at mahavir garden from 11 am to 12 pm and later visit the cemetery for around 90 minutes march 5 delegation to move around the city and panhala in morning they will go to valivade gandhinagar at 12 pm to