Historic files handed over by Foreign Ministry to state archives

Boguslaw Winid (L) with director of state archives Władysław Stępniak: photo - PAP/Pawel Supernal

The files include the text of a speech delivered on 31 July 1941 by erstwhile head of the Polish government-in-exile and commander of Polish armed forces in the West, General Wladyslaw Sikorski; instructions for a media campaign by Polish foreign missions in March 1940; and the personal files of writer Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz (from 1932 to 1964) who was also President of the Polish Writers’ Union.

The documents, dating from 1918 to 1939, come from Polish diplomatic missions gathered on three continents, including from Buenos Aires, Goteborg, Ottawa or Casablanca.

“Thanks to the work of our diplomats, yet more valuable archival records have been saved,“ said MFA Undersecretary Bogusław Winid during the hand-over ceremony.

“All these files are being transferred to the Central Archives of Modern Records in a very good condition. At this point, I would like to express my appreciation to you, thanks to whose efforts future scholars and historians will be able to study them,” noted the deputy foreign minister.

These are not only diplomatic documents compiled before 1939, Boguslaw Winid told Polish Radio.

They also relate to Poland’s wartime affairs and those following World War Two. Thanks to efforts by Polish diplomatic services in all these periods the files have been preserved and could presently be put in the care of historians.

Wladyslaw Stepniak, Director General at the State Archives, said the collected pre-war documents have special value because they were scattered all over the world, due to Poland’s complicated situation that developed with the start of war hostilities in Europe and their later spread to other regions of the world. Polish diplomatic documents from the war period have been secured at American archives in Stanford. (pg/ss)