http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8b27tmz No online items Preliminary Inventory of the Edmund Jan Osmańczyk papers Finding aid prepared by Hoover Institution Library and Archives Staff Hoover Institution Library and Archives © 2012 434 Galvez Mall Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-6003 [email protected] URL: http://www.hoover.org/library-and-archives Preliminary Inventory of the 2013C2 1 Edmund Jan Osmańczyk papers Title: Edmund Jan Osmańczyk papers Date (inclusive): 1937-1989 Collection Number: 2013C2 Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives Language of Material: Polish Physical Description: 84 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box(34.0 Linear Feet) Abstract: Correspondence, writings, and printed matter, relating to political conditions in Poland, Polish foreign relations, and international relations in general. Creator: Osmańczyk, Edmund Jan, 1913-1989 Hoover Institution Library & Archives Access The collection is open for research; materials must be requested at least two business days in advance of intended use. Publication Rights For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives. Acquisition Information Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2012. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Edmund Jan Osmańczyk papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives. Biographical Note Edmund Osmańczyk (1913-1989) was a Polish journalist, writer, politician, and Silesian activist. He served as parliamentary deputy from 1952 to 1961 and 1969 to 1985. His life was rather atypical for his generation of Polish intellectuals; unlike most others, who were either killed or had to leave the country, he survived the war and forty-five years of communism, and died in free Poland. Born on the extreme western periphery of ethnic Poland, in mostly German Silesia, Osmańczyk studied in Warsaw and in Berlin. His journalistic career began in the 1930s as a correspondent covering the League of Nations in Geneva. Later he directed the press of the Union of Poles in Germany, an organization concerned with the welfare of over a million ethnic Poles and Polish immigrants living in pre-World War II Germany. Threatened with arrest by the Gestapo, Osmańczyk moved to Warsaw and got a job with the Polish State Radio. When the Nazis invaded Poland in September 1939, he joined the underground, working for its clandestine radio in Warsaw. He lived through the Warsaw Uprising, and, in early 1945, he joined the Polish troops fighting alongside the Red Army. He was a war correspondent during the battle for Berlin, the Potsdam Conference, and the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals. An enthusiastic and vocal supporter of Poland's rights to its formerly German "Recovered Territories," and uncritical of Polish Communists and their Soviet sponsors, Osmańczyk worked for the Polish state radio and the press agency without having to join the Communist Party. His radio and press assignments took him to various countries in Europe, the United States, and Latin America. Along with a small group of Catholic and unaffiliated intellectuals, Osmańczyk served in the parliament of Polish People's Republic for close to thirty years, through 1985, helping provide a semblance of democratic diversity to this largely symbolic institution. In the waning years of communist Poland, during the social and political ascendancy of the Solidarity trade union movement of the 1980s, Edmund Osmańczyk joined the democratic opposition. He was one of the Solidarity representatives in the roundtable discussions with the Communists that paved the way for a peaceful transition from authoritarian communism to a parliamentary democracy in Poland. In the first semifree parliamentary elections in the Soviet Bloc, on June 4 1989, Osmańczyk was elected senator. He was able to enjoy his democratic mandate, political popularity, and respect only briefly, dying of a heart attack four months later. Osmańczyk authored some two dozen books and hundreds of articles. His most substantial work was the four-volume Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements, with an introduction by Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, published in several editions in Polish, English, and Spanish. Osmańczyk, an old acquaintance of Witold Sworakowski, director of the Hoover Institution Library and Archives was probably the first scholar from communist Poland and the Soviet Bloc to conduct research at the Hoover Library and Archives. After his October 1956 visit to Stanford, Osmanczyk published a detailed report on some of the Polish holdings of the Hoover Library and Archives; it remains a useful tool for researchers. Scope and Content of Collection Correspondence, writings, and printed matter, relating to political conditions in Poland, Polish foreign relations, and international relations in general. Preliminary Inventory of the 2013C2 2 Edmund Jan Osmańczyk papers Subjects and Indexing Terms Poland -- Politics and government -- 1980-1989 Poland -- Politics and government -- 1945-1980 Journalists World politics -- 1945-1989 Poland -- Foreign relations -- 1945-1989 Journalism -- Poland Box 1 - Box 46 box 1, folder 1 "Inni i my. Wymowa dokumentów," Dziennik Polski, 1946 November 20 box 1, folder 2 "Matka Boska Radosna," Tygodnik Powszechny, 1945 Also Includes "Na ziemiach Odzyskanych (I), Mówimy prawdę", Dziennik Polski, 21.7.1945, nr. 164 (Rewers strony 3); E. J. Osmańczyk, "Na ziemiach Odzyskanych (IV)", Wrocławskie Wrota, Dziennik Polski, 12.8.1945, nr. 186, s. 3; E. J. Osmańczyk, "Na ziemiach Odzyskanych (III), Bertram nie ustąpił", Dziennik Polski, nr. 168, 25.7,1945; "Na ziemiach Odzyskanych (VI), Szczecin jest polski", Dziennik Polski, nr 189, 15.8.1945 box 1, folder 3 "Żywot i śmierć Berlina," Sprawozdanie korespondenta wojennego, 1945 May 25 box 1, folder 4 "Raport z niemieckiego rynku pracy," Dziennik Zachodni, 1948 May 5 box 1, folder 5 "Krótkie spięcie (nad tytuł)," "Z życia kleru," Dziennik Polski, 1947 August 16 box 1, folder 6 "Rozmowy z Niemcami: Lipsk-liczby, ludzie, liderzy…," Dziennik Zachodni, 1947 February 27 box 1, folder 7 "Pasjonująca literatura," Dziennik Literacki Polski, 1948 June 6-12 box 1, folder 8 "Starzy znajomi i co ich łączy," Dziennik Polski, 1948 July 7 box 1, folder 9 "Reforma walutowa w Niemczech," Dziennik Polski, 1948 June 4 box 1, folder 10 "Reporter klasyczny," Dziennik Polski-Literacki, 1948 April 25 box 1, folder 11 "Sprawa się wyjaśnia," Dziennik Polski, 1948 September 25 box 1, folder 12 "Milczący Mr. Brüning" (Od własnego korespondenta API dla Dziennika Polskiego), Dziennik Polski, 1948 September 6 box 1, folder 13 "Trzy lata Poczdamu(I), Ideały Zwycięzców," undated Also Includes E. J. Osmańczyk, "Trzy lata Poczdamu (II), Ciężar okupacji"; "Trzy lata Poczdamu (III)"; "Nerwówka" box 1, folder 14 "Rozmowy z Niemcami (3), Na południe od Berlina," Dziennik Polski, 1948 February 23 box 1, folder 15 "Liczby i fakty," Dziennik Polski, 1948 February 27 box 1, folder 16 "Sprawa wschodnich uciekinierów," Dziennik Polski, 1948 January 28 box 1, folder 17 "Odbudowa ciężkiego przemysłu niemieckiego," Dziennik Polski, 1948 March 14 box 1, folder 18 "Nowiny za serbski lud," Dziennik Polski, 1948 April 13 box 1, folder 19 "Tu i tam denazyfikacja skończona," Dziennik Polski, 1948 March 9 box 1, folder 20 "Frankfurcki gabinet," Dziennik Polski, 1948 January 15 box 1, folder 21 "Rozmowy z Niemcami, W stolicy Saksonii - w radzieckiej strefie okupacyjnej," Dziennik Polski, 1948 box 1, folder 22 "Notatka (x2) w sprawie Łużyc, współpraca koresp. woj.," Praga, 1945 July 5 box 1, folder 23 "Przez Kłodzko do Pragi," Dziennik Polski (kwiecień, Kłodzko), undated box 1, folder 24 Mieciu Nowak z Niechomu, "Łużyccy Serbowie," Czytelnik, undated box 1, folder 25 "Sprawy Polaków," Słowo Polskie, Wydawnictwo Awir 1946 March box 1, folder 26 J. A. Szczepański, "Polacy i Niemcy," Dziennik Polski, undated box 1, folder 27 "Polacy nad Odrą," undated box 1, folder 28 "Na roboty do Prus," undated box 1, folder 29 "Reforma rolna nad Odrą," (rękopis), 1945 March 27 Preliminary Inventory of the 2013C2 3 Edmund Jan Osmańczyk papers Box 1 - Box 46 Kopia broszury Łużyce 1944 box 1, folder 30 "Kraj Krzywdy," (maszynopis rozdział do Spraw Polaków), 1945 March box 1, folder 31 "Gdański finał a gdańskie dzieci," (maszynopis ad. Książka), undated box 1, folder 32 "Niebezpieczne złudzenia," (maszynopis) undated box 1, folder 33 "Idea czy terytorium," (maszynopis), undated box 1, folder 34 "Bei den Preussen," Odra, (maszynopis) undated box 1, folder 35 "Bei den Preussen," Odra, (maszynopis) undated box 1, folder 36 "Korzenie hitleryzmu," (artykuł 5), (maszynopis) undated box 1, folder 37 "Polacy nad Odrą," (maszynopis), artykuł siódmy, undated box 1, folder 38 "Na pobojowisku," (maszynopis) undated box 1, folder 39 "Skazani i przeklęci," Przekrój, (3 x maszynopis) undated box 1, folder 40 "Polityka realna Polaków," (2 x maszynopis) undated box 1, folder 41 "Znam tylko jeden Śląsk," (książka i do Odry), (maszynopis) undated box 1, folder 42 "Na zachodzie jest ziemia," (dla Zaremby Łódź, II Odra, Tygodnik Powszechny, archiwum), (maszynopis) undated box 1, folder 43 "Cierpliwość roztropna," Paryż, sierpień 1946, Czytelnik, (maszynopis) 1946 August box 1, folder 44 "Norymberga w Paryżu," Czytelnik, (maszynopis) 1946 August box 1, folder 45 "Spotkania w Genewie," Dziennik Polski, Genewa, (maszynopis) 1946 August box 1, folder 46 "Gisevius i Pechem," Odra, (maszynopis) undated box