Instytut Zachodni w Poznaniu

The Institute for Western Affairs (Instytut Zachodni) in Poznań came into existence in 1944. It was created by a group of outstanding professors of Poznań University. It is an interdisciplinary scientific institution. Its research is focused on the political, historical, sociological, economic and legal problems of international relationships, especially Polish-German and European relations. In the immediate postwar period, one of the institute’s academic employees was the outstanding economic historian Jan Rutkowski. On his initiative the institute launched in 1945 the publication of the series “Documenta Occupationis”. Another World War II scholar who worked at the Poznań institute was Karol Maria Pospieszalski, the author of source publications comprising documents constituting occupation-era law in Poland. Since its foundation, the institute is collecting the documents relating to the history of the Nazi occupation of Poland. From 1992, the Western Affairs Institute works in the organizational structure of the Polish Ministry of the Foreign Affairs. The activity of the Institute was closely related with the experience of the World War II, the German occupation, and the changes of Poland's borders after 1945. Nowadays, the scientific research is concerning the following subjects:

• German modern history,
• Political, economic, social and cultural transformations in Germany,
• Role of Germany in the international politics. The Polish-German relationships.
• War and occupation 1939-1945,
• Social and cultural transformations in the western territories of Poland gained after World War II
• Internal transformation of EU,
• EU in the international relationships. The Western Affairs Institute is one of the most important scientific institutions in the area of German and European research.

In the frame of the Institute works an Archive of World War II. This is a collection of documents, archival records and photographs concerning the war in Poland and Europe. It possesses over 2500 collections and archival founds (about 5000 folders) and about 7000 photographs. The archive is composed of five sections:

1. The German documents (960 archival founds). The biggest group are the documents of the following institutions: Reichsstatthalter Warthegau, Regierungsprasident Posen, Reichsstatthalter Danzig-Westpreussen, Der Chef der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD - Umwandererzentralstelle Posen, Der Chef der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD Einwandererzentralstelle, Reichsuniversitat Posen, Oberlandesgericht Posen, Reichsjustizministerium. There is also the collection of Nazi propaganda leaflets, posters, and periodicals. These documents are concerning the German war actions in Poland and Western Europe, German national politics, everyday life and extermination of Polish and Jewish population, displacement of Poles and Jews, Nazi politics concerning the Polish culture, science, education, Catholic Church, and German colonization of Polish territory.

2. Memories and diaries (480 archival founds): the documents of the German secret service in Poland before 1939, Nazi national politics, concentration and prisoners of war' camps, Polish underground and the Warsaw Uprising.

3. Records and testimonies of witnesses (180 founds). The documents are concerning the German minority in Poland before 1939, executions and pacifications in 1939-1945, extermination of Polish and Jewish population and the history of the Catholic Church in Poland.

4. Photographs (160 archival founds): 90% of photographs are originating from Germany. They are concerning the German war actions in Poland and Europe, Poles, Germans, and Ukrainians everyday life the Third Reich and General Government, Soviet and German war crimes.

5. Documents created after 1945 and press documentation (461 archival founds). They are concerningf the trials of the war-criminal, the War Compensation Office (Biuro Odszkodowań Wojennych, 1947), Polish Western Society (Polski Związek Zachodni), and local courts.

The separate holdings are concerning the losses of Polish intelligentsia during the World War II and underground movement in Greater Poland (1939-1945).

The Western Affairs Institute holds a library. It possesses 110 000 volumes, periodicals and special holdings. The collections deserving special attention are the memoirs of Polish population in the Western (post-German) territories (in three editions: 1957, 1966, 1970) and collection of over 5500 photographs of Western territories from the end of 40's.

A. Skibinska (ed.), chapter 5