http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf5c60042m No online items Register of the Poland. Ministerstwo Informacji i Dokumentacji Records, 1939-1945 Processed by Ronald Bulatoff and Irena Czernichowska Funding for this project was generously provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, together with a matching grant from the Taube Family Foundation. The grant also provides depositing a microfilm copy of these materials in the State Archives of Poland in Warsaw. Hoover Institution Archives Stanford University Stanford, California 94305-6010 Phone: (650) 723-3563 Fax: (650) 725-3445 Email: [email protected] © 1999 Hoover Institution Archives. All rights reserved. 59008 1 Register of the Poland. Ministerstwo Informacji i Dokumentacji Records, 1939-1945 Hoover Institution Archives Stanford University Stanford, California Contact Information Hoover Institution Archives Stanford University Stanford, California 94305-6010 Phone: (650) 723-3563 Fax: (650) 725-3445 Email: [email protected] Processed by: Ronald Bulatoff and Irena Czernichowska Date Completed: 1998 Encoded by: Xiuzhi Zhou © 1999 Hoover Institution Archives. All rights reserved. Funding for this project was generously provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, together with a matching grant from the Taube Family Foundation. The grant also provides depositing a microfilm copy of these materials in the State Archives of Poland in Warsaw. Descriptive Summary Title: Poland. Ministerstwo Informacji i Dokumentacji Records, Date (inclusive): 1939-1945 Collection Number: 59008 Creator: Poland. Ministerstwo Informacji i Dokumentacji Collection Size: 247 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box, 8 envelopes, 13 microfilm reels(105.2 linear feet) Repository: Hoover Institution Archives Stanford, California 94305-6010 Abstract: Correspondence, reports, bulletins, memoirs, and photographs, relating to conditions in Poland during World War II, deportation of Poles to the Soviet Union, the Katyn Forest Massacre, and activities of Polish armed forces and of the Polish Government-in-Exile. Includes release certificates and reports of several thousand Polish deportees released from the Soviet Union in 1941. A digital copy of this entire collection is available at http://szukajwarchiwach.pl/800/41/0/-/ . Language: Polish. Access Collection open for research. Publication Rights For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Poland. Ministerstwo Informacji i Dokumentacji Records, [Box no.], Hoover Institution Archives. Alternative Form Available Also available on microfilm (279 reels). Digital copy in Poland's National Digital Archive at http://szukajwarchiwach.pl/800/41/0/-/ . It was digitized from microfilm by the Polish State Archives. Access Points Poland. Polskie Sily Zbrojne. Armia Polska w ZSSR Katyn Forest Massacre, 1940 59008 2 World War, 1939-1945 World War, 1939-1945--Deportations from Poland World War, 1939-1945--Diplomatic history World War, 1939-1945--Governments in exile World War, 1939-1945--Poland Poland Poland--History--Occupation, 1939-1945 Introduction The origins of the Ministry of Information and Documentation go back to the inception of the Polish government in exile in October 1939 in Paris. At first it had neither a definite organizational structure nor a name. It was referred to as the Office (urzad) or Bureau of Information and Documentation. By April 1940, the unit was named Center of Information and Documentation, and in September 1940 the Center was reorganized into the Ministry of Information and Documentation, a designation it carried for the remainder of the war and in the years that followed. During the early months of its existence the office, comprised of information and documentation sections, was headed by Deputy Prime Minister Stanislaw Stronski, who was directly in charge of its documentation section. The information section was headed by Minister Marian Seyda. Stanislaw Stronski was in charge of the Ministry of Information and Documentation until March 1943, when his position was taken over by Stanislaw Kot, who headed the Ministry in the cabinet of Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, until the resignation of that government in November 1944. Kot's successor was Adam Pragier, who was Minister of Information and Documentation until 1949. The Ministry of Information and Documentation was the main information and propaganda unit of the Polish government in exile. It coordinated and facilitated the dissemination of information in support of the Polish war effort through its publishing and radio programs. The Ministry also documented and analyzed the conditions and developments in occupied Poland. One of its units, for example, the Research Section headed by Wiktor Sukiennicki, was assigned the task of systematically reviewing and summarizing the testimonies of former Polish prisoners and deportees to Soviet Russia, with a view to document the entry of the Red Army into Poland, the first weeks of Soviet occupation, the October 1939 "elections", and the consequent sovietization of the occupied territories. Thousands of original Soviet camp release certificates, statements of survivors, and detailed summaries of Soviet occupation compiled by the Research Section for every county of Eastern Poland, make up about forty percent of the volume of the Ministry's collection. Most of the archives of the Ministry of Information and Documentation, together with those of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, were moved from London to Dublin at the end of the war, and remained in storage for more than a decade. In 1959, in keeping with the agreement reached between the Hoover Institution and Aleksander Zawisza, Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Polish government in exile, the archives were shipped to their new home at Stanford. The collection of the Ministry of Information and Documentation in the Hoover Institution Archives occupies about 31 linear meters. A smaller portion of the Ministry's archives, 3.6 linear meters, is preserved in the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London. Two Hoover collections in large measure complement the archives of the Ministry of Information. One of these is the Wladyslaw Anders Collection, consisting mostly of over 18,000 statements and reports of former Polish prisoners and deportees to Soviet Russia. The other collection is that of the Polish Government Information Center (Polskie Rzadowe Centrum Informacyjne), the New York agency of the Ministry of Information and Documentation. Preliminary processing of the collection was provided in the 1980s by the late Helena Sworakowska. Detailed processing and preservation microfilming were made possible by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1997 and by matching funds from the Taube Family Foundation. In addition, the grant provides depositing a microfilm copy of these materials in the State Archives of Poland in Warsaw Maciej Siekierski November 1998 OFFICE FILE, 1939-1945 Physical Description: Boxes 1-23 Scope and Content Note Correspondence, bulletins, memoranda, reports, printed matter, and other material relating to the operations of the Polish Ministry of Information and Documentation. Arranged alphabetically by physical form 59008 3 POLISH GOVERNMENT-IN-EXILE, 1939-1944 POLISH GOVERNMENT-IN-EXILE, 1939-1944 Physical Description: Boxes 23-34 Scope and Content Note Addresses, corres- pondence, decrees, notes, speeches, printed matter, and other material relating to the operations of the Polish Government-in-Exile in London. Arranged alphabetically by physical form POLISH DIPLOMATIC OUTPOSTS, 1939-1945 Physical Description: Boxes 35-60 Scope and Content Note Correspondence, memoranda, reports, press reviews, clippings, printed matter, and other material relating to operations of various consulates, embassies and legations. Arranged alphabetically by country and therein by organization POLISH ARMED FORCES, 1940-1944. Physical Description: Boxes 60-66 Scope and Content Note Correspondence, memoranda, reports, clippings, printed matter and other material relating to various branches of the Polish military forces. Arranged alphabetically by military division and therein by subject POLISH PRESS AGENCY (PARIS), 1939-1943 Physical Description: Boxes 66-71 Scope and Content Note Bulletins, cor- respondence, reports, press reviews, radio broadcasts, printed matter, and other material relating to operations of the Polish Press Agency in Paris. Arranged by branch and therein by physical form POLISH RESEARCH CENTER (JERUSALEM), 1943-1944 Physical Description: Box 71 Scope and Content Note Correspondence, memoranda, and notes relating to operations of the Polish Research Center in Jerusalem. Arranged alphabetically by physical form POLISH INFORMATION CENTER (NEW YORK), 1940-1944 Physical Description: Boxes 71-79 Scope and Content Note Bulletins, correspondence, memoranda, and printed matter relating to operations of the Polish Information Center in New York. Arranged alphabetically by physical form POLAND, 1938-1945 Physical Description: Boxes 79-109 Scope and Content Note Correspondence, memoranda, reports, notes, clippings, printed matter, and other material relating to events and conditions in Poland. Arranged alphabetically by subject POLES DEPORTED TO THE SOVIET UNION, 1939-1945 Physical Description: Boxes 110-124 Scope and Content Note Diaries, identity records, memoirs, and reports of Poles deported to the Soviet Union. Arranged alphabetically by subject and therein