Authors

Piotr Długołęcki¹;  ¹ Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych , Poland

Discussion

The idea of the paper is to demonstrate the conditions and mechanisms of actions implemented by the Polish Government-in-Exile towards the Jewish population during World War II. It will show the systemic and large-scale nature of efforts made by the Polish diplomatic and consular service to aid and rescue Jews during all stages of the war. The paper bring together the activities of the President, the Prime Minister, as well as individual ministries and offices, but above all reflect the constant work of the Polish diplomatic and consular posts and the relief agencies of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare and the Polish Red Cross.
The paper will illustrate the entire spectrum of actions undertaken: documenting information (about the situation of the Jews in occupied Poland), propaganda (aimed at mobilising the international community to stop the Holocaust) and legal activities (to file criminal charges against the perpetrators). At the same time, it point out that the extensive aid effort was not incidental but systematic and constituted one of the most important policies of the Polish Government-in-Exile. The actions presented in this paper allow us to put forward a thesis that Polish officials and diplomats organised one of the largest relief actions to help Jews, carried out by the state diplomatic services during World War II.