Polish American Congress, Records

Provenance/Processing

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Historical Sketch

    The Polish American Congress (PAC), founded in 1944, is a national organization composed of many Polish American fraternal, social, cultural, professional, veteran, and other like organizations.  It is also the largest Polish American political interest/pressure group in the United States.  Despite 44 years of existence and considerable activity in different fields, the PAC still has not attracted serious attention from historians.  There is no single monographic study on the Congress, and this gap is not filled by the occasional studies and articles fashioned in the context of broad analyses of Polonia history.

    The story of the PAC's establishment is strongly connected with wartime world politics concerning the existence of a free and independent Polish state.  After the Soviet Union joined the Western Allies in 1941, the circumstances regarding Poland became extremely complicated.  It was obvious that Poland, being in a difficult political position and with its geographical location, could be exposed to Soviet territorial and political demands.  In recognition of this, two Polonia groups decided to establish a new organization that could represent Polish American opinion and exert some influence on American government decisions on the Polish matter.  One group was created by followers of the National Committee of Americans of Polish Heritage (Komitet Narodowy Amerykandu Polskiego Pochodzenia - KNAPP);1 the other was formed by the three major fraternal insurance companies--the Polish National Alliance, the Polish Roman Catholic Union and the Polish Women's Alliance.2

    The constitutional assembly of the Polish American Congress gathered in Buffalo, New York, on May 28, 1944.  Expressing enormous solidarity and enthusiasm, 2,500 delegates, representing almost all Polish American organizations, created the common platform for joint political actions.  Charles Rozmarek, the president of the PNA, was also elected president of the PAC.  In his keynote speech delivered in Buffalo, Rozmarek formulated the two major objectives of the new organization: 1) "to cooperate to the fullest extent with our government in order to hasten the day of victory for our beloved America and her Allies;" and 2) "to express our unequivocal support of the American foreign policy based upon the Atlantic Charter and the Four Freedoms.  The impartial application of the principles enunciated in the Atlantic Charter will assure a just and lasting peace to all the United Nations, among whom is our first and ever faithful ally -- Poland.”3

    Within the few months following the Buffalo convention, the PAC organized its internal structure and created 33 state divisions.  The highest constitutional body was the national convention, which was supposed to meet every four years in order to elect executive officers and adopt major policies for the future.  The organizational work was carried out by the executive committee (the president, two vice presidents, a secretary, and a treasurer), which was responsible to the supreme council.  The supreme council, comprised of about 100 representatives of major organizations and the PAC state divisions, was to meet at least once a year.4

    Beginning in 1968 the PAC underwent several structural changes.  In 1970 and 1972 bi-annual national meetings were introduced, and the supreme council was replaced by the 31-member board of directors composed of PAC state division officers.  The board was expected to meet annually.  After the 1976 national convention, the executive committee was made responsible to a new national board of directors numbering approximately 100 persons, including representatives from the state divisions and from national Polonia organizations affiliated with the Congress.  This new body combined the functions of the defunct supreme council and the quadrennial convention.5

    The PAC organizational structure also included some other units, like the Washington Office, the Social Welfare Office, and the New York Information Bureau.  Next to the Chicago PAC Office, which served as the central headquarters of the Congress, the Washington Office was the most important and long-lasting agency.  Until 1969 the Washington Office was directed by Charles Burke, followed then by Casimir Lenard (1970) and Leonard Walentynowicz (1974).  The Washington Office took care of PAC business as well as that of the United Polish Press in America and the American Committee for Resettlement of Polish D.P.'s. Its main objective was to represent those organizations to the American government, the government's numerous agencies, embassies of other countries, and American mass media.6

    The PAC carried out much of its activities through the state divisions and the PAC commissions created to deal with particular problems.  Three committees affiliated with the Congress are worthy of mention here.  The first is the Committee to Stop World Communism, founded at the end of 1947 and sponsored by the Polish American Congress.  Co-chairmen of the Committee were Arthur Bliss Lane (former U.S. Ambassador to Poland) and Judge Blair Gunther.  Its main objective was to develop propaganda and educational programs directed against the spread of communistic ideas.7 Though the Committee was active only a short time, its goals and methods reflected the PAC attitude toward communism and Communist governments in Europe.

    The American Committee for Resettlement of Polish D.P.s, established in 1944 and dissolved in 1968, had a much more successful record.  Created in order to bring to and resettle in the United States eligible Polish displaced persons from Western Europe (mostly from German DP camps and from Great Britain [Polish ex-soldiers]), the ACRPDP functioned in affiliation with the PAC, using its full support and involving in its work the most prominent PAC officers.8

In 1961 the Polish Language Committee (Komitet Nauki Jezyka Polskiego) began its work to broaden the scope of Polish language education available to Polish Americans.  Wanda Rozmarek was elected its chairman.  As a result of the Committee's activity, a number of Polish Summer Courses were organized from 1962 to 1967.9

II.  ACTIVITIES AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

    It is hardly possible to summarize all actions taken by the PAC during over 40 years of its existence.  Political positions of the PAC varied also over time.  We can, however, divide the PAC's history into two periods spanning roughly the time of  Charles Rozmarek's presidency (1944-1968) and that of Aloysius Mazewski (1968- ). With the exception of approximately one year, both men simultaneously presided over the PAC aid the Polish National Alliance.  Both presidents were/are outstanding personalities who exerted such a great influence on the organization that they were sometimes called "Mr. Polish American Congress."10

    Both Rozmarek and Mazewski were very active and energetic, organizing and coordinating the PAC work and representing its ideas to the public.  Exhaustive reports of their activities can be found in each issue of the official reports  from the PAC conventions.  Additionally, both the Polish press and PAC Bulletin/Newsletter document almost every presidential venture in detail.  The years 1944-1954 are covered by very interesting and useful PAC publications: Story of the Polish American Congress and Poland's Case in Press Clippings, Vol.  No. 1, 1944-1948; Vol.  No. 2, 1948-1952; Vol.  No. 3, 1952-1954,11 and Miscellaneous Press Clippings About the Polish American Congress from Belgium, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Latin America, Portugal and Spain (Chicago: PAC, 1946).

    From the moment of its founding in 1944 the PAC began a serious struggle for the recognition of Polish matters in the world political arena.  A few months after the Buffalo convention, the PAC delegation was invited to the White House, where it was met by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  The next year President Rozmarek headed another delegation to the formative United Nations San Francisco meeting, trying to represent Poland's cause there.  From the very beginning the Polish American Congress opposed the Yalta agreement and attempted to influence the American government to withdraw its support for the decisions of the Yalta conference.  In the fall of 1946 Rozmarek and three other members of the executive board of the PAC attended the Paris conference and made a 13-week tour of Polish displaced persons camps in Western Europe.  While abroad, Rozmarek held numerous press conferences; and in Paris and London he personally conferred with leaders and diplomats of many countries.

    The case of the Polish DPs staying in Western Europe, mostly in German camps, attracted much interest and effort from the PAC.  In 1948, PAC involvement in lobbying for a new law admitting about 205,000 DPs into the United States contributed to its enactment, even though the Act didn't fulfill all expectations ultimately.  Both the Committee on the DP's Matters (Komitet dla Spraw Wysiedlencow Polskich), led by I. Nurkiewicz, and the ACRPDP (from 1948) started bringing the DPs to the United States and resettling them here.  Meanwhile the PAC continued its efforts to obtain permission to enter the United States for Polish ex-soldiers staying in Great Britain, which was finally achieved in 1950.  The PAC also supported the similar activity of the Polish Immigration Committee, headquartered in New York.

    At the same time, the Congress struggled for recognition as a serious force on the American political scene.  During all election campaigns, President Rozmarek was approached by both major parties in search of his and the Congress's endorsements.12

    In 1947 the Congress welcomed in Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, the wartime prime minister of the London government after Sikorski's death and the Polish Peasant Party leader who took part in the postwar Warsaw Government of national unity.  Mikolajczyk's attempt to cooperate with the Communist dominated government in Poland was very controversial for most of Polonia.  After Mikolajczyk's flight to America, the PAC strongly supported his actions, resulting in the withdrawal of the KNAPP and Polish Roman Catholic Union groups from the Congress.13

    The PAC was actively involved in the investigations of Katyn Massacre.  The Polish American press frequently published related articles, and PAC leaders were speaking publicly on the matter.  The Congress paid $5,000 to support the American Committee for the Investigation of Katyn Massacre and also demanded a special investigation in the United Nations.  Thousands of petitions were signed and sent to the U.S. president to back that demand.

    The PAC was always very sensitive to affairs in Poland.  After the Poznan riots of June 1956, the Congress endorsed economic assistance and cultural and educational exchanges with Poland, initiated by the American government.  The organization was constantly agitating for international recognition of Poland's western boundary.

    Though the Polish American Congress never recognized the Communist government in Poland, its attitude toward the Polish nation underwent some changes.  These were explicitly expressed in the so-called four points accepted by the executive committee in March 1959, calling for the separation of the nation's needs (financial aid, cultural exchange) from the Communist government's business.  At the same time, the PAC maintained its basic position demanding 1) the return of the Polish territories included in the USSR, 2) free elections in Poland, and 3) recognition of the Odra-Nyssa boundary of Poland.

    In September 1957, the PAC organized a grand celebration of the 350th anniversary of Poles' landing in Jamestown.  The commemoration book Jamestown Pioneers from Poland, published at that time by the PAC, was a great success among Polonia.  In October 1959, thanks to PAC efforts, a Paderewski commemorative stamp was issued.  Later, in 1966, Poland's millennium stamp was also issued.

    Widespread activities in observance of Poland's Millennium of Christianity were initiated by the PAC in 1966.  In the years 1961-1967 six-week long summer Polish language courses were arranged by the PAC at Alliance College.  The courses were attended by many students from all parts of the United States.  The PAC has, through many of its state divisions, offered scholarships to young Americans of Polish descent to encourage study in such fields as social work, history, art, and journalism.

    Another action taken by the PAC was related to the question of keeping Polish language liturgy in Polonia parishes in America and preserving their ethnic character.  Petitions favoring language retention were sent to officials of the Church hierarchy both in the United States and at the Vatican.

    In 1967 Charles Rozmarek was defeated in his quest for an eighth term as president of the Polish National Alliance by Aloysius Mazewski.  A year later, Mazewski also gained the office of president of the Polish American Congress.  The 1968 convention of the PAC initiated many profound changes in the way of handling the Polonia business.  The new President stressed the need to focus more attention on American Polonia home affairs.  He also promoted a collegial way of consulting with the members of the PAC on important decisions.  Further, he expressed a serious concern for getting more funds to erase budget deficits.

    The next convention was convened only two years later, in 1970, in Chicago.  Mazewski's report presented at that convention summarized briefly the PAC's activity under the new leadership.  During those two years, the Congress underwent a serious reorganization.  More stress was put on the activity of the state divisions.  A number of commissions were established in order to deal with specific problems (e.g., Commission on Press, Radio and TV Programs; Commission on Polish Press in English Language; Industry, Commerce and Labor Commission; Commission on Civic and Political Activities; Commission on Polish Affairs; Polish Language Teaching Commission; Commission on Study of Polish American History and Culture; Commission on Polish American Fraternal Organizations; Commission on Teaching of Polish American History; Commission on Veteran Affairs).  The PAC strengthened cooperation with Polish fraternal organizations in the United States and also with Canadian Polonia.

    Two special actions undertaken by the PAC are particularly noteworthy: educational programs for the young people, preserving Polish language and culture as well as Polish American history and tradition; and presenting the true image of Poles, Americans of Polish ancestry, and Polonia to the pluralist society of America.  Emphasis was placed on true and thorough mass media coverage of Polonia matters, and anti-defamation action was coordinated by the special Civic Alertness Commission.

    The money necessary to put all these enterprises into effect was collected during a major 1968/69 fund drive.14 The innovations introduced by Mazewski and his administration were necessary because both the PAC and the PNA faced a serious problem of decreasing membership in the 1960s.15

    In the 1970s the PAC was forced to clarify its attitude towards Poland once again.  The Congress, through its president, emphasized the distinction between the Polish Communist Government and the Polish nation or people, whom they sought to help through economic and cultural contacts.16 The 1970s witnessed also a new flow of emigration from Poland.  The newcomers remained deeply interested in world politics but searched for contact with Polish American organizations.17

    The election of Pope John Paul II followed by the rise of the Solidarity movement drew special attention to Poland and Polish affairs.  The PAC supported the Solidarity union, as it had previously supported other workers' actions in Poland, e.g., the riots in 1970.  After suppression of the movement and the introduction of martial law in Poland, the PAC publicly condemned the Polish Communist government.  At the same time the PAC Charitable Foundation was formed, which by 1986 had sent over $80,000 worth of humanitarian aid (especially medical supplies and equipment) to Poland.  The Congress's officers organized meetings with Solidarity members and leaders in exile.

    The PAC story still -waits to be written.  Day after day and year after year the PAC activists and members add new, valuable accomplishments to it, sustaining their diligence and devotion to Poland and Polonia matters
 

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1 Jedrzejewicz Waclaw, Polonia Amerykanska w Polityce Polskiej; Historia Komitetu Narodowego Amerykanow Polskiego Pochodzenia, (New York: National Committee of Americans of Polish Descent, 1954), 101-106.

2 In March 1944, those three organizations held a conference in Chicago of representatives of Polish fraternal organizations, clergy, and Polish press.  As a result, the declaration was issued announcing the common desire to convene a congress of the whole American Polonia.  IHRC 84, Box 3, Fol. 15.

3 Polish American Congress, Bulletin, 1, No. I (Feb 1945):7.  See also Richard Lukas, The Strange Allies: The United States and Poland, 1941-1945 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1978) and R. Lukas, "The Polish American Congress and the Polish Question, 1944-1947,"Polish-American Studies 38, No.2 ( Autumn 1981):39-54.

4 “Ustawy i Reguly Kongresu Polaczonych Organizacji Polskich w Ameryce (The National Congress of United American Associations of Polish Origin) Przyjete na Plenum Izby Kongresu Polonii Amerykanskiej w Buffalo, New York w dniach 28, 29 i 30 maja, 1944 r.” IHRC 84, Box 3, Fol. 16.

5 Donald E. Pienkos, "The Polish American Congress - An Appraisal," Polish American Studies, 36, No. 2 (Autumn 1979):9-10.

6 Karol Burke, "Sprawozdanie Biura Kongresu Polonii Amerykanskiej w Waszyngtonie," Sprawozdanie Prezesa Zarzadu Wykonawczego Poszczeaolnych Komisji i Komitetow Wydzialow Stanowych i Biur Kongresu P.A. w Chicago i w Waszyngtonie na Druga Konwencje Kongresu Polonii Amerykanskiej w Philadelphia, Pa. 29-30-31 Maja 1948, 81-106. See also next volumes of Sprawozdania and Protokoly

7 "Once Again It Is Later Than You Think" - a brochure published by the Committee, IHRC 84, Box 18, Fol. 137.

8 See the historical sketch of this organization in the introduction to the Inventory of the ACRPDP collection within the IHRC holdings.

9 See the records of the Committee, IHRC 84, Box 17, Fols. 132-136.

10 Pienkos, "Polish American Congress," 11-12.

11 The IHRC does not have any information about two other volumes that were supposedly published by the PAC.  See note on this in Prace Kongresu Polonii Amerykanskiej w Okresie 24-ch Lat Istnienia (Krotki Zarys Dzialalnosci) (Chicago: PAC, 1968), e (in the appendix).

12 Ibid., 17 ff; Lukas, "Polish American Congress," 39-53; Donald E. Pienkos, PNA: A Centennial History of the Polish National Alliance of the United States of North America, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984), 163-165.

13 The PRCU rejoined the PAC in October 1954.  Pienkos, "Polish American
Congress," 18.

14 Protokol Osmej Krajowej Konwencji Kongresu Polonii Amerykanskiej, (Chicago, 1970), 1-43.

15 Pienkos, PNA Centennial History, 190-200.

16 Ibid., 21-22.

17 Ibid., 21.  In 1978, 11 of the 29 presidents of state divisions were from the post-World War II emigration.
 

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Scope and Content

The collection is organized in the following series and subseries:
 
 

Series I	CORRESPONDENCE AND ORGANIZATIONAL PAPERS
Subseries	1. Buffalo Convention 1944 (Correspondence and Applications)
	2. Washington Office
	3. PAC General Correspondence
	4. American Committee for Resettlement of Polish D.P.'s (ACRPDP)
	5. ACRPDP and PAC Correspondence with DPs and with People from Poland
	6. Petitions re Katyn Massacre
Series II	FINANCIAL RECORDS
Subseries	1. PAC Miscellaneous Financial Records
	2. PAC Membership Dues
	3. ACRPDP Income and Expenses Ledgers
Series III	NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS
Series IV	DP's PERSONAL FILES
Subseries	1. Assurances for Named Displaced Personas
	2. Assurances for Polish Veterans in Great Britain
	3. Assurances by an Individual Sponsor (Refugee Relief Act of 1953)

    Bracketed folder numbers refer to oversize folders, to be found in the oversize boxes listed at the end of each subseries for which they have been used.

I.  The first series, CORRESPONDENCE AND ORGANIZATIONAL PAPERS, is the most diverse.  It contains 299 folders grouped into six subseries, representing a subject division based partly on the primary order imposed upon the records by the PAC.

    The Buffalo Convention 1944 subseries consists of 73 folders.  The records deal with almost all aspects of organizational and political problems that arose before, during, and immediately after the founding of the Polish American Congress.  The PAC's genesis is detailed in a large amount of correspondence with organizations and representatives of Polish immigration in the United States; in texts of speeches, resolutions, addresses, and statutes accepted at the convention; and in documentation of its press and radio coverage.  Also included are anonymous and signed letters from opponents of the organization.  Forty-seven folders of this subseries contain applications for PAC membership ("Aplikacje a Mandat na Kongres Polonii Amerykanskiej w Buffalo," Nos. 1-1967).  The original arrangement of the materials has been essentially retained.

    Records of the Washington Office subseries span the years ca. 1944-1974 and include 58 folders.  This part of the collection was created by Charles Burke, the PAC representative in Washington.  The Office was established to represent PAC business before the US government and its various agencies, to provide coverage of the PAC activities to American mass media and, finally, to deal with complex legal immigration cases.  The Washington Office records contain Charles Burke's official correspondence with many American authorities and agencies, correspondence on individual immigration cases, miscellaneous materials relating to special political or cultural events and anniversaries press and radio releases, some printed records of congressional action, newspaper clippings, and ephemeral publications.  In general, this subseries covers the activity of the Washington Office in great detail, and its original arrangement has been maintained.

    The PAC General Correspondence subseries, consisting of 53 folders, documents many different aspects of the Congress's work.  It includes a great deal of the routine correspondence of the PAC, many reports and protocols, some press and radio releases, and other documentation of PAC activity in various fields.  Some of the materials were created by two separate units of the Congress, the Committee to Stop World Communism (records from years 1948-1949), and the Polish Language Committee and Polish Summer Courses (1961-1967).

    Other records relate to the activity of the PAC Chicago Office, Supreme Council of the PAC, Social Welfare Office, and New York Information Bureau.  Some of this material reflects official contacts of the PAC with Polish organizations in American and British Zones in Germany.  The records' exceptional diversity and wide date coverage (1944-1967) make this subseries very interesting and informative.

    The American Committee for Resettlement of Polish D.P.'s (ACRPDP) subseries within the PAC collection focuses on the four main aspects of its activity: 1) cooperation with different units of the War Relief Services-National Catholic Welfare Conference; 2) official contacts with the Refugee Relief  Program, the Displaced Persons Commission, the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration, and the Polish Chief Chaplain in the Polish DP camps in Germany; 3) miscellaneous routine activity (primarily mixed with the PAC correspondence); and 4) wide ranging interaction with DPs--most already resettled in the United States.  The years 1951-1956 are covered in detail, although the entire inclusive date span is wider (1948-1963).  This subseries consists of 42 folders.

    The ACRPDP and PAC Correspondence with DPs and People from Poland subseries consists of 72 folders.  Though produced by seemingly two different agencies, the affiliations of correspondents interchange so much that the subject matter of this material serves as the key criterion of arrangement.  The records are divided into four groups: 1) correspondence with the DPs from the German camps-mostly requests and applications for immigration to the United States; 2) correspondence on DP matters--mainly letters to and from DPs already brought to the United States or people interested in sponsoring them; 3) correspondence with DPs or other Polish people (Polonia) from various parts of the world (excluding Germany); and 4) correspondence with people from Poland--mainly requests for financial aid or location of relatives in the United States.  The records, apparently somewhat incomplete, are arranged in rough alphabetical order.  Most of the materials date to the year 1949, when the ACRPDP launched its most effective efforts to bring the DPs to this country.  Correspondence on DP matters spans the years 1949-1957; correspondence with Polonia, 1950s; and correspondence with Poland, late 1950s until 1968.  This subseries is valuable for many reasons.  Letters from Poland show a specific image of life in America commonly held in Poland in the 1950s and 1960s.  Letters from Germany contain fascinating wartime biographies of individual Poles, sometimes enriched by their photographs.  Correspondence with people already settled in America depicts their first steps on American ground and their efforts to establish new homes here.

    On January 4, 1953, Charles Rozmarek, president of the PAC, delivered a speech demanding that the United Nations review charges of a Congressional committee that the Soviet Union was to blame for the World War II massacre of 15,000 Polish officers in Katyn forest near Smolensk in Russia.  He thanked the Congressional investigators and urged people to "flood Washington with petitions demanding that the evidence be presented for a thorough review before the U.N." In support of that idea, all the PAC divisions launched a petition drive.  Three volumes of those petitions (vols.  II, III, IV, 1953) addressed to the President of the United States, together with one folder of letters requesting the submission of forms, constitute the fifth and final subseries (Petitions re Katyn Massacre) of Series I.

II. The FINANCIAL RECORDS series consists of three subseries: PAC
Miscellaneous Financial Records; PAC Membership Dues; ACRPDP Income and
Expense Ledgers.

    The first subseries, covering the years 1944-1959, includes records connected with all types of financial activities of the Congress.  There are, for instance: financial reports of various PAC units; financial correspondence; expenses and accounts of particular conventions, board meetings, or conferences; payroll information; reports on money collected (e.g. Jamestown Fund, Pulaski Day Fund Drive, Million Dollar Drive, etc.); auditing reports; numerous check requisitions; and newspaper clippings with articles relating to PAC finances.  The records previously were almost totally unarranged..

    It is worth noting that a couple of folders contain materials on ACRPDP matters ("Roll Call for the indebted D.P.s", and "ACRPDP--Cases Not Arrived"), and some other records have only loose connection with finances (e.g. "Membership List, Lists of Senators and Congressmen", "Lists of the PAC Members in Power to Elect Their Delegates to the Convention in Atlantic City, N.J."). In accordance with basic archival principles, these loosely-related materials found among financial records were kept within the financial series.

    The next subseries, PAC Membership Dues, has a more homogeneous character.  It holds the records of membership dues for the years 1949-1952, collected from the PAC divisions of Michigan, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and also Minnesota, Montana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire.  This choice of states is not accidental, as they shape the "M-N state divisions" of the PAC; the rest of the records are missing.  The years 1956-1959 are covered by the membership dues records from Pennsylvania, New York, and partially by 24 other PAC state divisions.  Those records are also far from complete, but they represent a good sample of the total PAC membership.

    The third subseries is, once again, connected with the ACRPDP.  Nineteen folders contain ACRPDP Income and Expense Ledgers from April 1949 until June 1953.  They cover thoroughly the Committee's finances, further enriched by some other financial records and correspondence.

Ill.  The third series consists of 105 folders of NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS, spanning the years 1944-1950, though one folder contains miscellaneous clippings from 1935.  There are many articles, however, that lack both the title and the date of the newspaper in which they appeared.  The newspaper clippings were derived from Polish American papers as well as from the American press.  Their original arrangement and folder titles have mostly been retained.  This collection of records might have served as the base for the second volume of the Story of the Polish American Congress and Poland's Case in Press Clippings 1948-1952, published by the PAC in Chicago.  This series of the PAC collection is both very interesting and quite unusual.

IV. The last series, DPs' PERSONAL FILES, was fully generated from the ACRPDP.  The subseries division within it is based on a chronological order reflecting new laws pertaining to the immigration of DPs to the United States.  The change of regulations caused also the change of forms, applications, and all required procedures, as the records illustrate.  Assurances for Named Displaced Persons were issued under the Displaced Persons Act of 1948.  These sources are arranged in the chronological order of arrival of ships bringing DPs from Europe to either New York or Boston.  Arrangement of items within folders conforms to the lists of DPs brought on the identified ship.

    Five boxes comprise the Assurances for Polish Veterans in Great Britain subseries.  As a result of the special regulations of 1950, many Polish ex-soldiers from the Polish Army demobilized in  Great Britain were allowed to enter the United States in 1950-1951.  The records are arranged by numbers (1-3425) of the "Assurances."

     The Assurances by an Individual Sponsor relate to the Refugee Relief Act signed by the State Department in 1953. Within this group of records aare materials documenting the cooperation of the ACRPDP and the War Relief Services - National Catholic Welfare Conference, begun in 1955.  This subseries is also organized by the consecutive number of the forms.  These numbers appear to reflect a filing system for which, unfortunately, there is no key or index.

    All of the assurances in series IV contain a large number of forms, affidavits, questionnaires, applications, attached correspondence, certificates, pictures, etc.  The research value of those records is rich, especially for those interested in the DPs' story collectively.

    The PAC manuscript collection broadly and thoroughly documents the history of the Congress.  Both the beginnings of the Congress and the first period of its existence and activity, approximately until 1968, are recorded in great detail, providing researchers with useful and interesting information.  Moreover, the collection can also be used to reconstruct the early organization of the PAC offices as agencies producing records, which may be of some interest for the theory of contemporary archives keeping.  The full usage of this historical source will generate much valuable information and shed more light on the history of the Polish American Congress and the whole Polish American population in the United States.
 
 

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Preliminary Container List