Ministry of Justice Ministerstwo Sprawiedliwości (A.20)

Copyright Holder: Instytut Polski i Muzeum im. Gen. Sikorskiego w Londynie Contains selected records of the Ministry of Justice of the Polish government-in-exile under Minister Bronisław Kuśnierz. Includes secret files of Katyń massacre, records related to Jewish affairs, communist actions (such as the pro-Soviet atmosphere in ghettos), cruelty of the USSR and German occupiers of 1939-1940, crimes of the Wehrmacht against civilians and Polish citizens interned in Palestine by the British authorities (mainly Jews). Contains the letter of the World Jewish Congress to the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the abolition of the 1938 law depriving Jews in the Polish Army of Polish citizenship for desertion, material from the Polish Journal of Laws, 1939-1945, letters from Lwów citizens acting against the Polish state, and files of Polish lawyers, including Jews (correspondence, Curriculum vitae, name lists), etc. 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.