Selected records of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Poland in London. Office for War Crimes Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych Rządu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej w Londynie. Biuro ds. Zbrodni Wojennych (Sygn. GK 159)

This collection contains materials related to the research and investigation of perpetrators of war crimes such as: witness testimonies after the invasion of Germany in September 1939, reports of crimes committed against Poles on Polish territory and in Germany, lists of local German officials, Gestapo chief officers, guards of concentration camps, data related to concentration camps, German police authorities, accounts of Polish refugees about the conditions of life in Poland and crimes committed against civilians by the occupation authorities and Wehrmacht in the initial period of occupation, data concerning German officials and party activists, card files of individuals suspected of collaboration in the destruction of Polish culture and employed by German institutions, lists and card files of German war criminals, materials concerning the extermination of Jews in Poland, “applications of accusations,” and file Nos. 1-43 of the United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC, Międzynarodowa Komisja Badania Zbrodni Wojennych) concerning German crimes committed in Poland. Copyright Holder: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej-Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu 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.