Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1918-1945. Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych (A.11)

Copyright Holder: Instytut Polski i Muzeum im. Gen. Sikorskiego w Londynie Contains selected records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Polish government-in-exile relating to the Polish Army in the USSR; Jews in the Polish Military Forces; desertions in Poland, USSR, North and South America, and Asia; Jewish refugees in Europe and other continents; exchange of Jews for Germans interned in the USA; Polish-Soviet relations; war crimes and criminals; medical experiments in Ravensbrück and Dachau; and the Congress of Polish Jews, organized in 1945. Documents also include correspondence of the intelligence service, encrypted dispatches, reviews of the Jewish press of 1945, speeches of General Sikorski and Minister Edward Raczynski in Washington, 1942, and name lists of prisoners of concentration camps evacuated to Sweden in 1945 (including Jews), and name lists of refugees and political prisoners. 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.