Register of the Andrzej Pomian Papers
Processed by Nicholas Siekierski.
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford University
Stanford, California 94305-6010
Phone: (650) 723-3563
Fax: (650) 725-3445
Email: archives@hoover.stanford.edu
© 2009
Hoover Institution Archives. All rights reserved.
Register of the Andrzej Pomian Papers
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford University
Stanford, California
- Processed by:
- Nicholas Siekierski
- Date Completed:
- 2009, revised 2012
- Encoded by:
- Machine-readable finding aid derived from MARC record and Microsoft Word file by David Sun and Elizabeth Phillips.
© 2009, 2012 Hoover Institution Archives. All rights reserved.
Collection Summary
Title: Andrzej Pomian papers
Dates: 1937-1973
Collection Number: 2009C45
Creator: Pomian, Andrzej
Collection Size:
21 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize folder
(8.8 linear feet)
Repository:
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford, California 94305-6010
Abstract: The collection includes materials related to Poland, the Polish Underground, the Warsaw Uprising, Polish politics and government
during and after World War II and Polish émigré affairs, in the form of correspondence, writings, reports, publications, notes,
and clippings.
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Archives
Languages:
English
Polish
Administrative Information
Access
Collection is open for research.
The Hoover Institution Archives only allows access to
copies of audiovisual items. To listen to sound recordings or to view videos or films during your visit, please contact the Archives
at least two working days before your arrival. We will then advise you of the accessibility of the material you wish to see
or hear. Please note that not all audiovisual material is immediately accessible.
Publication Rights
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Andrzej Pomian papers, [Box number], Hoover Institution Archives.
Acquisition Information
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 2009.
Accruals
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find
the collection in Stanford University's online catalog at
http://searchworks.stanford.edu/ . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in the online catalog is larger than the number
of boxes listed in this finding aid.
Related Materials
Poland. Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych records, Hoover Institution Archives
Poland. Ministerstwo Informacji i Dokumentacji records, Hoover Institution Archives
Wolność i Niezawisłość miscellaneous records, Hoover Institution Archives
Biographical Note
Andrzej Pomian, who died in Washington, D.C., in 2008 at the age of ninety-seven, was a Polish émigré journalist and author
who worked for many years for Radio Free Europe. During World War II, he was a ranking officer in the Information and Propaganda
Bureau of Poland's clandestine Stowarzyszenie Polskich Kombatantów or Home Army, the largest underground organization in Nazi-occupied
Europe. Extracted from Poland in April 1944 in one of the most spectacular air operations of the war, Pomian spent the next
ten years with the Polish government in exile in London before moving to the United States.
Andrzej Pomian, the name he assumed during the war, was born Bohdan Salacinski in 1911 in a Polish village in Podolia, the
part of western Ukraine absorbed by the Soviet Union in 1920. Escaping the Soviets, the family moved to Warsaw, where Bohdan
was educated, receiving his law degree from the University of Warsaw in 1932 and remaining at the university as an assistant
professor. From the beginning of the German occupation, Pomian was involved in underground work. He taught law in an underground
university and worked in various units of the resistance, eventually becoming a director of the Information and Propaganda
Bureau, which coordinated the underground intelligence and publication work of the Home Army and controlled underground radio
programming, as well as photographic and film documentation units. The Bureau's "Action N" section published documents in
German aimed at weakening the morale of the German army and colonists in Poland. In general, the Home Army was involved in
sabotage, self-defense, and retaliation activities against the Germans. It also provided key service to the Allies in the
area of intelligence, monitoring troop movements in the east, and the development of German secret V-1 and V-2 rockets. The
primary purpose of the Home Army, however, was to prepare for the anticipated German military collapse and the liberation
of the country. After the Allied landing in Italy and the westward advance of the Red Army, a great national uprising, focused
in Warsaw, was planned for the second half of 1944.
In connection with this plan, the Home Army and underground civilian authorities delegated several officers, including Pomian,
to report to the Polish and British authorities in London on the progress of the preparations. Such contacts were usually
carried out by coded radio transmissions or solitary couriers or emissaries. There were regular night flights from England
or southern Italy to drop supplies and people into occupied Poland. A new joint Polish-Special Operations Executive operation,
Wildhorn I, including actual landing and return flight, was undertaken in the evening of April 15, 1944. A Douglas Dakota,
unarmed but equipped with eight additional fuel tanks, left its base near Brindisi in southern Italy. It flew over the Balkans
and the Carpathian Mountains into Poland, to a stubble field near the city of Lublin, southeast of Warsaw. The field was marked
out by bonfires and secured by several forest companies of the Home Army. Agents and bags of U.S. dollars were unloaded, and
Pomian and his colleagues boarded the Dakota, barely avoiding the intense and bloody firefight that erupted between the Home
Army units and the pursuing Wehrmacht columns. The return flight via Brindisi and Gibraltar brought Pomian to England twenty-four
hours later.
Pomian followed the tragic epilogue of the war in Poland from distant London. During his ten years there, Pomian continued
working for the Polish government in exile, coordinating contacts and organizing financial support for the anticommunist underground
and Home Army veterans. He moved to the U.S. in 1955.
Biographical Chronology
| 1911 January 2 |
Born, Bohdan Sałacinski in Czarny Ostrów, in present-day Ukraine
|
| 1920 |
Evacuates to Poland with his family after the Polish-Russian War |
|
|
| 1930s |
Studies law at Warsaw University and works in the municipal solicitor general's office |
| 1940s |
Practices law and lectures in an underground university after the German occupation of Poland. He also works in the Central
Command of the Polish Home Army in the Information and Propaganda Bureau
|
| 1944 April |
Evacuates from Poland by airplane during Operation Wildhorn I as an emissary to the Polish government-in-exile in London |
| 1944-1954 |
Works on the staff of the commander-in-chief of the Polish government-in-exile as leading liaison operations with the Polish
underground
|
| 1946 |
Author,
Warsaw Rising
|
| 1949 |
Author,
Stalin and the Poles
|
| 1950 |
Author,
Polish Armed Forces in World War Two: The Home Army
|
| 1955 |
Emigrates to the United States |
| 1956-1977 |
Works as the Washington correspondent for the Polish section of Radio Free Europe |
| 1974-1977 |
Completes a three-year assignment in Munich |
| 1977 |
Returns to Washington and retires |
| 1977-2000s |
Freelances for radio and publishes articles on history, politics, and literature in the
Polish Daily (London) and
Polish Daily News (New York)
|
| 1990 |
Author,
Poland Defends Her Independence 1918-1945
|
| 1991 |
Receives the Warsaw University Medal |
| 2000 |
Awarded the Commander's Cross with Star by the president of Poland and receives the Joseph Conrad Literary Award from the
Jozef Piłsudski Institute of New York
|
| 2008 April 20 |
Dies, Washington D.C. |
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection includes materials related to the Polish underground during and after World War II, with particular emphasis
on the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 and the Soviet occupation of Poland, and Polish émigré affairs, in the form of reports, publications,
correspondence, clippings, writings, and notes. The collection encompasses the years 1937-1973, with the bulk of the materials
covering 1944-1954.
The bulk of the material relates generally to Andrzej Pomian's work as the assistant director of the Information and Propaganda
Bureau of the Home Army in occupied Poland (1941-1944) and his role as the chief liaison between the Polish underground and
the government-in-exile (1944-1954).
Some correspondence, and some Home Army and government-in-exile material can be found interspersed with post-war notes, clippings,
and publications in the subject file.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Stowarzyszenie Polskich Kombatantów.
Poles--United States.
Collection Contents
Box: 1
Biographical file,
1944-1954.
Scope and Content Note
Correspondence, personal documents, and receipts. Arranged by physical form.
Box/Folder: 1 : 1
Family correspondence,
1944-1954
Box/Folder: 1 : 2
Personal documents, correspondence,
1944-1952
Box/Folder: 1 : 3
Receipts, notes, correspondence,
1949-1954
Box: 1
Correspondence,
1944-1954.
Scope and Content Note
Arranged alphabetically.
Box/Folder: 1 : 5
Gierat, Ewa and Stanisław,
1951
Box/Folder: 1 : 6
Grubiński, Wacław,
1948-1951
Box/Folder: 1 : 8
Sujkowski, Zbigniew,
1951-1952
Box/Folder: 1 : 9
Talarek-Gronowski, Roman,
1951
Box/Folder: 1 : 11
Tyszkiewicz, Samuel and Wiktoria,
1950
Box/Folder: 1 : 12
Węgorek, Zygmunt,
1952-1953
Box/Folder: 1 : 14
Wyczałkowski, Marian,
1950
Box/Folder: 1 : 16
Żenczykowski, Tadeusz "Kania," 1944-1946
Box: 1-6
Home Army and government-in-exile file,
1941-1954.
Scope and Content Note
Reports, notes, correspondence, publications and financial records related to the Home Army and Andrzej Pomian's role as liaison
between the government-in-exile and the postwar Polish underground. Arranged chronologically.
Box/Folder: 1 : 17
"Akcja N," 1941-1945. Anti-Nazi German-language propaganda
Box/Folder: 1 : 18
Biuro Informacji I Propagandy Krajowych Sił Zbrojnych, BIPKSZ, circa 1943
Box/Folder: 1 : 19-20
Publications,
1943-1944.
Scope and Content Note
Contains photos, leaflets,
Insurekcja, Biuletyn Informacyjny, Polska Ilustrowana, Sprawy Polskie, Kobieta w Walce, Przeglad Polityczny, Nowe Drogi, Wiadomosci
Polskie
Box/Folder: 2 : 1
Home Army and "Akcja N,"
1943-1948.
Scope and Content Note
Reports, correspondence, notes
Box/Folder: 2 : 2
Polish underground and postwar publications,
1943-1952.
Scope and Content Note
Includes photostat copies,
Box/Folder: 2 : 3-4
Warsaw Uprising,
1944
Scope and Content Note
Photographs of underground publications
Box/Folder: 3 : 1
Warsaw Uprising,
1944
Scope and Content Note
News digests, anecdotes
Box/Folder: 3 : 2-3
Warsaw Uprising,
August 1944.
Scope and Content Note
Press digests and orders
Box/Folder: 3 : 4
Poland, Ministry of the Interior, Social Division,
1944
Scope and Content Note
Reports from the Warsaw Uprising
Box/Folder: 3 : 5-10
Poland, Ministry of the Interior, Social Division,
1945
Scope and Content Note
Review of the national press during the Warsaw Uprising, parts 1-6
Box/Folder: 3 : 11
Photos, reports on the situation in Poland and the Yalta Conference,
1944-1945
Box/Folder: 4 : 1
Situational reports on Soviet-occupied Poland from the Ministry of Information and Documentation and the Ministry of the Interior,
1944-1945
Box/Folder: 4 : 2
Warsaw Uprising,
1944-1946.
Scope and Content Note
Reports, press digests, correspondence
Box/Folder: 4 : 3
Digests of messages received from Poland, in English; correspondence/publications relating to Polish government-in-exile propaganda
and information distribution,
1944-1947
Box/Folder: 4 : 4
Home Army,
1944-1950.
Scope and Content Note
Reports, pamphlets
Box/Folder: 4 : 5
Typescript chronology of the Warsaw Uprising, circa 1945
Box/Folder: 5 : 1
Narodowe Siły Zbrojne N.S.Z.,
1945-1946.
Scope and Content Note
Reports, underground publications
Box/Folder: 5 : 2
Polish Government budget documents,
1945-1947
Box/Folder: 5 : 3
Correspondence, party platforms, meeting minutes,
1945-1947
Box/Folder: 5 : 4
Notes, receipts, pamphlets, correspondence,
1945-1948
Box/Folder: 5 : 5
"WIN"
1946-1947.
Scope and Content Note
Plan of operations, correspondence, receipts, brochures relating to émigré affairs
Box/Folder: 5 : 6
Polish underground,
1946
Scope and Content Note
Publications, photos
Box/Folder: 6 : 1
Polish government-in-exile,
1946-1950.
Scope and Content Note
Financial records and film
Box/Folder: 6 : 2
Polish underground,
1946-1954.
Scope and Content Note
Correspondence, instructions, reports, receipts, leaflets
Box/Folder: 6 : 3
Financial records, receipts,
1949-1952
Box/Folder: 6 : 4
Polish underground group "Farys" and its cooperation with British intelligence,
1951-1954.
Scope and Content Note
Correspondence, reports
Box: 6-9
Writings,
1945-1960.
Scope and Content Note
Typescripts, manuscripts of books and other writings, and transcripts of Pomian's Radio Free Europe broadcasts. Arranged chronologically.
Box/Folder: 6 : 5
Operation Tempest "Burza" and the Warsaw Uprising,
undated.
Scope and Content Note
Manuscript, notes
Box/Folder: 7 : 1
"Niepodległość I Demokracja," freedom movement,
undated.
Scope and Content Note
Typescript, manuscript and notes
Box/Folder: 7 : 2
The Soviet Union and the Home Army,
undated.
Scope and Content Note
Typescript and manuscript
Box/Folder: 7 : 3-4
Typescripts, reports, clippings
undated
Box/Folder: 7 : 5-7
Powstanie Warszawskie,
1946
Scope and Content Note
Typescript
Box/Folder: 7 : 8
Polish underground,
1947
Scope and Content Note
Manuscripts and typescripts
Box/Folder: 8 : 1-2
Anthology of the Warsaw Uprising,
1954
Scope and Content Note
Sheet music, lyrics, poetry
Box/Folder: 8 : 3
Radio Free Europe,
1954
Scope and Content Note
Correspondence, transcripts, notes
Box/Folder: 8 : 4
Tradycje Demokracji Polskiej,
1954
Scope and Content Note
Manuscripts, typescript
Box/Folder: 8 : 5
Z Dziejow Polski Podziemnej,
1955-1956.
Scope and Content Note
Transcripts
Box/Folder: 9 : 1
Z Dziejow Polski Podziemnej,
1959
Scope and Content Note
Transcripts
Box/Folder: 9 : 2-3
Radio Free Europe,
1960
Scope and Content Note
Transcripts
Box: 9-19
Subject file,
1939, 1944-1958.
Scope and Content Note
Clippings, publications and notes. Arranged alphabetically.
Box/Folder: 9 : 4
Booklet/letter,
1946, 1955
Box/Folder: 9 : 5
Clippings, notes, reports,
1944-1948
Box/Folder: 10 : 3-6
Clippings, periodicals, typescripts, notes,
1944-1955
Box/Folder: 11 : 1
Clippings, newspapers,
1955
Box/Folder: 11 : 2
Clippings, photos, letters, notes,
1947-1948
Box/Folder: 11 : 3-8
Clippings, notes, scripts, correspondence, pamphlets,
1944-1958
Box/Folder: 12 : 3
Notes, orders, clippings,
1947-1950
Box/Folder: 12 : 4
Notes, clippings,
1944-1947
Box/Folder: 12 : 5
Notes, songs, poems, reminiscences,
1954
Box/Folder: 12 : 6
Notes, clippings, pamphlets,
1944-1952, 1955, 1957-1958
Box/Folder: 13 : 1-5
Notes, clippings, pamphlets, periodicals,
1944-1954
Box/Folder: 14 : 1-2
Notes, publications, and periodicals
1941-1950
Box/Folder: 14 : 4
Party platforms, bulletins, photos of Stanisław Mikołajczyk,
1947
Box/Folder: 14 : 5
Publications,
1944-1955.
Scope and Content Note
Includes
Robotnik, Robotnik Polski, Tygodnik Warszawski, Gazeta Ludowa, Polska Zbrojna, Dzis I Jutro, Polska Walczaca, Jutro Polski,
Biuletyn Informacyjny, Zycie, Dziennik Polski I Dziennik Zolnierza, Glos, Tygodnik Powszechny
Box/Folder: 14 : 6
Reports, pamphlets, periodicals,
1943-1947
Box/Folder: 14 : 7
Reports, periodicals, prayer cards, notes,
1945-1954
Box/Folder: 15 : 1
Typescript screenplay, undated
Box/Folder: 15 : 2
Typescript personal narratives, undated
Box/Folder: 15 : 3
Typescripts,
1945, 1947.
Scope and Content Note
Includes
Powstanie Warszawskie by Antoni Chrusciel "Monter"
Box/Folder: 15 : 4
Typescripts, notes, publications, correspondence,
1946
Box/Folder: 16 : 1
émigré affairs,
1945-1953.
Scope and Content Note
Serials, clippings, report
Box/Folder: 16 : 2
Home Army,
undated.
Scope and Content Note
Bibliography of underground publications, notes and typescript
Box/Folder: 16 : 3
Home Army and political organizations,
undated.
Scope and Content Note
Notes, typescripts, clippings
Box/Folder: 16 : 4-5
Polish underground,
undated.
Scope and Content Note
Songs, poems
Box/Folder: 16 : 6
Polish underground,
1943, 1946, 1948-1949.
Scope and Content Note
Typescript, correspondence
Box/Folder: 16 : 7
Soviet occupation of Poland during and after World War II,
1946-1948.
Scope and Content Note
Typescripts
Box/Folder: 17 : 1-2
Warsaw Uprising,
undated.
Scope and Content Note
Typescript, poetry
Box/Folder: 17 : 3
Warsaw Uprising,
1954
Scope and Content Note
Notes, clippings
Box/Folder: 17 : 4-5
Warsaw Uprising,
1944
Scope and Content Note
Typescript, notes, digest of messages
Box/Folder: 18 : 1
Warsaw Uprising,
1944, 1954.
Scope and Content Note
Notes, clippings, typescripts, reports
Box/Folder: 18 : 2
Warsaw Uprising,
1944
Scope and Content Note
Clippings, photographs,
Box/Folder: 18 : 3
Warsaw Uprising 10th anniversary,
1954
Scope and Content Note
Clippings, articles, correspondence
Box/Folder: 19 : 1
Warsaw Uprising,
1947
Scope and Content Note
Clippings, notes, poems
Box/Folder: 19 : 2
Warsaw Uprising and Polish émigré affairs,
1947
Scope and Content Note
Clippings, publications, newsletters, bibliography
Box/Folder: 19 : 3-5
Warsaw Uprising,
1944-1951.
Scope and Content Note
Clippings, photos, correspondence, bibliographies
Box/Folder: 19 : 6
"WIN,"
1952-1953.
Scope and Content Note
Pamphlets, clippings
Box/Folder: 19 : 7
Wodewil Warszawski, by Edward Chudzyński,
1954
Scope and Content Note
Script for a play
Box/Folder: 19 : 8
World War II,
1939-1947.
Scope and Content Note
Clippings, correspondence, September 1, 1939 newspaper
Box: 20
Stowarzyszenie Polskich Kombatantów file,
1969-1973.
Scope and Content Note
Correspondence, financial records, and printed matter, relating to activities of the Polish-American veterans' organization
Stowarzyszenie Polskich Kombatantów and Polish émigré affairs. Arranged chronologically.
Box/Folder: 20 : 3
Ciehanowski, Gladys,
1973
Box/Folder: 20 : 4
Cives Leopolienses,
1971-1973
Box/Folder: 20 : 5
Galinski, Adam,
1971-1973
Box/Folder: 20 : 8
Katyń,
1972
Scope and Content Note
Printed matter
Box/Folder: 20 : 12
Polish-American Congress,
1971-1972
Box/Folder: 20 : 14
SPK combatants,
1972-1973.
Scope and Content Note
General
Box/Folder: 20 : 15-17
SPK correspondence,
1971-1973
Box/Folder: 21 : 1
SPK combatants printed matter,
1972-1973
Box/Folder: 21 : 2
SPK combatants printed matter "Kombatant...",
1971-1972
Box/Folder: 21 : 6
Veteran's Bill,
1972-1973
Box/Folder: 21 : 7
Warsaw Ghetto Anniversary,
1973
Box: 21
Sound Recordings,
1956-1964.
Scope and Content Note
Contains 4 reels and 1 phonorecord, relating to Jan Paderewski, the Warsaw Uprising, Communism in Poland, and the U.S. presidential
election of 1956.
Box: 21
T. Machrowicz New Year's Address, undated, Warsaw Uprising Tribute broadcast on Belgian Radio (French), 1/4 inch reel,
August, 1964
Box: 21
"Poland Under Communism," Interview with Andrzej Pomian, 1/4 inch reel,
June 21, 1963
Box: 21
Flannery on Paderewski, 1/4 inch reel,
undated
Box: 21
"Ballads for Ballots" sung by Joe Glazer, phonorecord,
1956
Map Case
Maps,
1937-1948.
Scope and Content Note
Poland, Germany, and progress of the Warsaw Uprising
