- Description
- Contains selected records from the Ministry of Information and Documentation, Division of National Minorities, mainly Jewish press, testimonies of the Jews from 1940 to 1945, reviews of the Jewish press 1941-1943, and Jewish matters 1940-1944. The Ministry of Information and Documentation of the Polish government-in-exile between 1940 and 1949 was overseen by three ministers: Stanisław Stroński (1940-1943), Stanisław Kot (1943-1944), and Adam Pragier (1944-1949).The collection also includes documentation of the situation in the eastern provinces of Poland under the Soviet occupation: witnesses’ testimonies and their studies, reviews of the Soviet press 1940-1945, and correspondence 1940-1941.
- Alternate Title
- Ministry of Information and Documentation
- Date
-
inclusive:
1940-1947
- Credit Line
- Forms part of the Claims Conference International Holocaust Documentation Archive at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This archive consists of documentation whose reproduction and/or acquisition was made possible with funding from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
- Collection Creator
- Rzad Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchod?stwie
- Biography
-
Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie (Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile) was established after Germany and the Soviet Union occupied Poland in September 1939. The Polish government-in-exile was first based in Paris, but moved to London after the French army surrendered to the Germans in the mid-1940s. The Allied powers accepted the government-in-exile as the legitimate representative of the Polish people soon after it was created. The Polish government allied itself with the Allied powers, as its members believed that only a total military victory over Germany would restore Poland's independence and freedom. The government-in-exile led the Polish war effort throughout World War II, and amassed its own land, air, and naval forces. In addition, it commanded the largest underground army of the war, the Armia Krajowa (the Polish Home Army). In 1942, reports about the mass murder of Jews in Poland reached London. At that point, the Polish government-in-exile made several public declarations on the subject, and officially demanded that the Allied powers stop the Germans from continuing their campaign to murder Jews, and other individuals they deemed undesirable. From December 1942 onward, the government-in-exile backed the rescue work of Zegota, which offered aid to Jews throughout occupied Poland.
- Reference
- Guide to the Archives of the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, vol. I, compiled and edited by: Waclaw Milewski, Andrzej Suchcitz and Andrzej Gorczycki, Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, London 1985
