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Anders (Wladyslaw) collection
46004  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Access
  • Use
  • Acquisition Information
  • Preferred Citation
  • Alternative Form Available
  • Biographical Note
  • Introductory Note

  • Title: Wladyslaw Anders collection
    Date (inclusive): 1939-1946
    Collection Number: 46004
    Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
    Language of Material: Polish
    Physical Description: 93 manuscript boxes, 17 card file boxes, 1 oversize box (44.2 Linear Feet)
    Abstract: Orders, reports, card files, questionnaires, accounts, Soviet government documents and publications, photographs, microfiche, and printed matter, relating to World War II, the Polish Armed Forces in Russia, the Polish 2d Corps in Italy, Polish citizens arrested and deported under German and Soviet occupation, Polish foreign relations, the Polish government-in-exile in London, and Polish Jews. A digital copy of this entire collection is available at https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/zespol/-/zespol/22991 .
    Creator: Anders, Władysław, 1892-1970
    Creator: Poland. Polskie Siły Zbrojne. Polski Korpus, 2. Biuro Dokumentow i Informacji.
    Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives

    Access

    A digital copy of this entire collection is available at https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/zespol/-/zespol/22991 . The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.

    Use

    For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

    Acquisition Information

    Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 1976.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Wladyslaw Anders collection, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

    Alternative Form Available

    Also available on microfilm (130 reels).
    Digital copy in Poland's National Digital Archive at https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/zespol/-/zespol/22991 . It was digitized from microfilm by the Polish State Archives.

    Biographical Note

    1892 Born
    1919-1920 Served in the Polish-Russian War
    1939 General Officer Commanding Ind. Cavalry Brigade
    1939-1941 Taken prisoner by the Soviet Army and released
    1941-1944 Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces in the USSR
    1944 Commander-in-Chief of the Polish 2nd Corps in Italy
    1970 Died

    Introductory Note

    The Wladyslaw Anders Collection is the core of the 1946 archival deposit to the Hoover Institution made by General Wladyslaw Anders, the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces. The collection is composed mostly of the archives of the Documents Bureau of the 2nd Polish Corps. The Bureau was established by General Anders in April 1943 to collect documentation on the 1939-1941 Soviet occupation of Eastern Poland, and the fate of the hundreds of thousands of Polish prisoners of war, labor camp inmates, and deportees, as well as to prepare materials in support of the Polish cause for the future peace conference.
    The collection contains over 18,000 original personal accounts and questionnaires of former prisoners and deportees, some documents dating back to 1941, most completed later, shortly after the 1942 evacuation from the Soviet Union. The materials were once filed in one sequence numbered 1 to 18,304. Later the file was broken into two sections, one labeled as "Relacje" and the other as "Ankiety", translated loosely as "Statements" and "Reports" in the present Hoover register, but with the old numeration retained. The highest number of the "Reports" file is 15,714, and the highest number in the "Satements" file is 18,304. The "Statements" and the "Reports" files are complementary, with numbers which are lacking in one file found in the other. The documents have an alphabetical card index, occupying the first 34 boxes of the Anders Collection, comprised of over 18,000 cards, listing the name, brief biographical data, and the corresponding personal account or questionnaire number. The 18,000 plus documents contained in the next 33 boxes of the Anders Collection (boxes 35-68) represent a variety of formats. Two questionnaires, one shorter, page-long ten point form, and the second, a four-page questionnaire, were commonly used. There were also specialized questionnaires -for the clergy, for Jews, one about working conditions, etc. Some less typical materials, such as general situation reports, regional compilations, and memoirs, are also numbered with "Reports" and the "Statements". The personal accounts and questionnaires of the Anders Collection have a detailed subject index with about 250 entries on cards (boxes 89-92). There is also a card index (boxes 93-107) of several thousand names of people who died in prisons and labor camps or who were probably left behind after the 1942 evacuation to Iran. Additionally, the index includes the names of suspected collaborators and of Soviet camp and prison personnel. Besides the original accounts and questionnaires and the card indexes, the Anders Collection includes a large number of internal documents and reports collected or produced by the Documents Bureau (boxes 68-81). Finally, the Anders Collection is supplemented by materials generated by a 1951-1952 U.S. Government study of Soviet labor camps. During that time, with the permission of General Anders, the entire Anders Collection and some files of the Poland-Ambasada (Soviet Union) Collection, were loaned to the Library of Congress. In exchange, the Hoover Institution received copies of the resulting works -nearly 1,300 English language abstracts of the personal accounts from the Anders Collection (boxes 81-87), card indexes on the geography and terminology of the Soviet camp system (boxes 108-109), and a final report of the study.
    Two other Hoover Institution collections include original depositions of Polish soldiers and civilians, former prisoners and deportees in the Soviet Union. These are the Poland-Ministerstwo Informacji i Dokumentacji Collection, and the Poland-Ambasada (Soviet Union) Collection. Most of the holdings of the Documents Bureau were filmed in 1945-1946 in Italy, before the transfer of the archives to the Hoover Institution. These microfilms are now part of the Col. Wincenty Bakiewicz Collection in the Archives of the Polish Institute and the Sikorski Museum in London. The personal papers of General Anders are also at the Polish Institute.
    Maciej Siekierski

    June 1998

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    World War, 1939-1945 -- Deportations from Poland
    Forced labor -- Soviet Union
    Poland -- History -- Occupation, 1939-1945
    World War, 1939-1945 -- Soviet Union
    World War, 1939-1945 -- Poland
    World War, 1939-1945 -- Campaigns -- Italy
    Internment camps -- Soviet Union
    Poland. Polskie Siły Zbrojne. Armia polska na Wschodzie
    Poland. Polskie Siły Zbrojne. Armia polska w ZSSR.
    Soviet Union. Narodnyĭ komissariat vnutrennikh del