Ministry of Internal Affairs Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrzych (A. 9)

Copyright Holder: Instytut Polski i Muzeum im. Gen. Sikorskiego w Londynie Consists of selected records of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Polish government-in-exile. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Polish government-in-exile between 1940-1949 was overseen by four ministers: Stanisław Kot (1940-1941), Stanisław Mikołajczyk (1941-1943), Władysław Banaczyk (1943-1944), Zygmunt Berezowski (1944-1949). These documents relate to the re-creation and reorganization of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in France: correspondence, dispatches, notes and information received from diplomatic posts, emissaries and posts of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, correspondence, and exchanges of material and subject memos for civil and military institutions. In addition, the collection contains exchanges of information with the British Home Office, British Foreign Office and their American counterparts, matters relating to the organization and functioning of the “Continental Action” and contacts concerning the British Operational Executive and the Office of Strategic Services, documentation relating to the activities of political parties and their members in occupied Poland and abroad, as well as representatives of non-Polish political movements (with special reference to communist activities), memoranda and documentation of the activities and situation of national minorities in Poland and abroad. Also includes reports of the Delegate of the Government related to various matters: Jewish affairs, destruction of Jews, prisons and concentration camps in Poland and Germany, forced labor camps, Germanization and enlistment of Poles in the German army, executions, religious and national persecutions by Germans, the political and economic situation in occupied Poland, situation of the Polish intelligentsia, situation of Soviet-occupied Poland, German spies, couriers smuggling money for Jews and Żegota, and Jewish press reviews related to Palestine and central-western Europe, 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.