Polish Underground Movement (1939-1945) Study Trust

History of the "Trust" and Its Aims

The Polish Underground Movement (1939-1945) Study Trust is an institution, housing historical documents relating to the activities of the Polish Underground State and its Resistance Home Army during the period of German and Soviet occupation. Gen. Bór-Komorowski, the Commander in Chief of the Polish Home Army (1943-1944) founded the Trust in 1947. From 1948 to the present, the Trust is housed in West London. It has been amalgamated with the London based Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum since 1988, while retaining its organisational autonomy.

In June 2003 - the Trust became the recipient of the Custodian of National Remembrance Award presented by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance. It was given for the safekeeping and making available to all researchers the unique archives under its care.

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Activities

Our mission is to safeguard and make available WWII historical documents to all researchers .

This entails:

	Collecting, securing and cataloguing historical documents and publications
	Publishing historical documents
	Spreading information about the contents of the Archive to all researchers and the general public
	Providing high quality education resources
	Encouraging a dedicated workforce to take care of its historical heritage in the UK

The above activities relate mainly to the events that took place in Britain and Poland during the Second World War and the immediate post-war years.

Several voluntary workers and permanently employed staff, support the activities of the Trust.

Their tasks include:

	Answering postal inquiries
	Creating searching aids
	Sorting of documents
	Conservation of old or damaged documents
	Information searches of service records of former Home Army soldiers
	Providing guidance to authors, historians and students from various universities, Polish government institutions, other archives, television companies and the public who require information on the subjects, which are of the Trust’s particular expertise.

A project to preserve the archival documents using information technology is at the evaluation stage.

Your help in any form will be greatly appreciated.

Two forms of support membership are available:

· Annual membership: from £10 upwards

· Life membership: £100

(Please, make cheques payable to: The Polish Underground Movement Study Trust)

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The Archives

The core of the collection consists of:

· Approximately 70,000 deciphered messages exchanged between the London based Polish Commander in Chief and the Resistance Home Army in occupied Poland

· Similar number of messages and documents concerning civil matters that were exchanged between the London based Polish Ministry of Home Affairs and the Underground Civil Authorities in occupied Poland

· Extensive correspondence with the British Military Authorities (including SOE) concerning intelligence co-operation as well as military supplies for the Polish Underground

The archives also contain:

	· Memoirs and manuscripts relating to the events which took place in occupied Poland during the Second World War and the immediate post-war years
	· Personal archives of prominent soldiers of the Polish Resistance Home Army
	· Extensive collection of the underground press, pamphlets and posters (approx. 300 positions) published in Poland during the Second World War
	· Documents of the ‘Verification Commission’ of former members of the Polish Resistance Home Army
	· A collection of historical maps and street plans of major Polish cities and towns
	· Large collection of photographs, slides, negatives and microfilms
	· Original wartime film footage
	· A collection of sound and video tapes
	Various museum exhibits

All visitors to the Trust are offered the following services:

• Reproduction and processing of photographs and documents using information technology

• Document xerography

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The Library

The library of over 7000 volumes, consists mainly of books in Polish but also in English, French, German, Dutch and Italian, which relate to the activities of the Polish Underground State and its Resistance Army during the period of German and Soviet occupation. Primarily the books are of an historical nature in addition to the literature and poetry of this period. A large section is devoted to the resistance against the Soviet take-over after the end of the Second World War. Polish-Jewish relations are also well represented. Part of the library consists of literature and documents concerning the Nazi-German extermination camps.

The library of the Trust probably houses one of the largest collections in Europe of books, which relate to the various aspects of the Polish Underground State and its Resistance Home Army.

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Publications

The most significant achievement of the Trust has been the publication in Polish of six volumes of The Home Army in Documents 1939-1945 (almost 2000 documents on 3000 pages). These volumes published from 1970 to 1989 remain to this day an important primary source of information for historians.

He who saves one life - Poles and Jews 1939-1945 by K. Iranek-Osmecki (1971), documenting the efforts of Poles in saving Jews during the Second World War (published in Polish and English) (£11).

Polish edition of The Underground Army by Gen. T. Bor-Komorowski published in 1979. (£6)

K. Bulicz wrote in Polish in 1984, the first Guide to The Trust outlining its history, aims and listing its possessions.

In 1997, on the fiftieth anniversary of the setting up of the Trust, A. Suchcitz produced A brief history and guide to the collections with a summary in English. (£5)

Documents relating to the airlift of material to occupied Poland edited by J. Tarczyński (2001), published in Polish, in many ways compliments the previously published six volumes of Home Army documents (£12).

M. Ney-Krwawicz The Polish Home Army 1939-1945 (2001) concisely informs English language readers about the history of the Polish Underground State and its Armed Force. Translated into English from the Polish original (£11).

Lastly, the publication of documents of The Ministerial Committee for Home Affairs of the Polish Government in Exile is in the final stages of preparation.

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Most of the above publications are available for sale.

Please add £3 per 1 book for postage and packing, except Home Army in Documents…, which is £6 per one volume. Cheques should be made payable to: The Polish Underground Movement Study Trust

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