Selected records of the Polish Committee of National Liberation Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego (Sygn. 185) : Wybrane materialy
Extent and Medium
6,067 digital images, PDF
Creator(s)
- Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego
Biographical History
The Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN) was formed on July 21, 1944. The PKWN was established in Moscow and led by Polish communists who had been living there in exile, and it functioned under the political control of Joseph Stalin. The Central Office of Polish Communists and the National Council of the Polish Communist Party were influenced by the Communist Party, but the final decision on its creation, name, status and staffing was made by Stalin. From August 1, 1944, the headquarters of the Polish Committee of the Army was based in Lublin. The PKWN was chaired by Edward Osóbka-Morawski and became the Temporary Government of the Polish Republic on December 31, 1944. PKWN's press office was known as "Rzeczpospolita." The establishment of the PKWN created a political structure that, with only minor modifications, was retained until 1989. The political foundations were the monopoly of the Communist Party in the sphere of power and the subordination of Poland to the Soviet Union.
Archival History
Archiwum Akt Nowych
Acquisition
Forms part of the Claims Conference International Holocaust Documentation Archive at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This archive consists of documentation whose reproduction and/or acquisition was made possible with funding from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Source of acquisition is the Archiwum Akt Nowych w Warszawie, Poland, Sygn. 185. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the filmed collection via the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum International Archival Programs Division in March 2017. This is a cooperative project based on the agreement between USHMM and Yad Vashem, Israel.
Scope and Content
Selected records of the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN), including: A list of the members of the PKWN, and others, who left Moscow for Chełm in 1944, reports of the PKWN delegates of the Department for Jewish Affairs regarding the security of the so-called liberated areas and the organization of Jewish communities, correspondence with the Central Jewish Committee, newsletters of the Jewish Press Agency, 1944, records of the Department of Justice discussing matters of the restitution of property to Jewish survivors, records on the war crime trials, articles written by staff of the Judiciary, letters from Jews living in the USSR searching for their families left in Poland, minutes of the sessions of meetings of the PKWN relating to Jews and the former concentration camp at Majdanek, registration of war damages and doctor's reports about persons suffering from chronic ailments caused by mistreatment during the German occupation, propaganda posters and leaflets, and correspondence relating to establishment of the National Museum in Majdanek, 1944.
System of Arrangement
Arranged in seven series: 1. Bureau; 2. Department of Public Administration; 3. Department of Justice; 4. Department of Labor, Social Welfare and Health; 5. Department of War Damages; 6. Department of Culture and Art; 7. Department of Information and Propaganda.
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Copyright Holder: Naczelna Dyrekcja Archiwów Państwowych
People
- Osóbka-Morawski, Edward, 1909-1997.
Corporate Bodies
- Majdanek (Concentration camp)
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
- Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego
- Jewish Press Agency
- Central Committee of Polish Jews
Subjects
- Holocaust Jewish (1939-1945)--Poland.
- Jews--Poland--Politics and government.
- Communism--Poland--History.
- Poland
- Social service.
- Polish people--Poland--History--20th century.
- World War, 1939-1945--Destruction and pillage--Poland.
- Jewish communists--Poland--History.
- Poland--Emigration and immigration--History--20th century.
- Poland--Politics and government--History--20th century.
- World War, 1939-1945--Atrocities--Investigations.
Genre
- Minutes.
- Reports.
- Correspondence.
- Registers.
- Document
- Leaflets.
- Posters.