Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Polish Information Center (New York, N.Y.) records
48018
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Polish Information Center (New York, N.Y.) records
Date (inclusive): 1940-1945
Collection Number: 48018
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material: In Polish and English
Physical Description:
82 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box
(35.8 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Clippings (primarily from American sources), correspondence, administrative files, press reviews and summaries, bulletins,
printed matter, sound recordings, and photographs, relating to World War II, the German and Soviet occupations of Poland,
the persecution of Jews in Poland, and the spread of communism in Eastern Europe.
Creator:
Polish Information Center (New York, N.Y.)
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Box 82 may not be used without permission of the Archivist. The remainder of 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.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Materials were acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 1948
[Identification of item], Polish Information Center (New York, N.Y.) records, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution
Library & Archives.
Also available on microfilm (67 reels).
Polish government information and propaganda agency.
The Polish Information Center was founded in 1940 and remained active until 1945. It consisted originally of staff responsible
for Poland's presence at the World Fair in New York in 1939; indeed, its first director, Stefan Gotfryd Ropp, was curator
of the Polish Pavilion. He remained in his post for the first three years of the center's existence, and was a major force
in the creation of a Polish lobby influential in U.S. military, financial, and political circles, particularly to counter
American isolationism before the United States entered the war.
Originally called Centrum Informacji Prasowej, the center at first was funded with the proceeds from the sale of objects that
couldn't be returned to war torn Poland. In its first year, it operated unofficially, but with the declaration of war by the
United States, it had to fulfill certain requirements from the Justice Department. Later, the center became a branch of the
Ministry of Information and Documentation. The center's main offices were located on Fifth Avenue, in the heart of New York
City, but it eventually had representatives in Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Pittsburgh.
The center had a well-educated and skilled staff, involved in the collecting and dissemination of information on Poland and
on matters relevant to Polish interests in the United States. Ropp himself wrote regular reports for the Polish Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, which are excellent examples of his visionary ideas. In the magazine he founded,
New Europe, he wrote of a new post war continent, united and free of ideological divisions. This publication was considered one of the
most intellectual and most effective instruments of allied propaganda in the United States.
In 1943, the center's structure underwent significant changes and its budget was increased. The broadening of operations found
immediate reflection in the way materials were collected: for instance, specialized firms were hired to deliver clippings
from hundreds of American newspapers. These clippings constitute three fourths of the collection held at Hoover, and point
at issues and events that were of vital interest to the Polish raison d'être. Organized by subject and date, they document
developments as they happened, especially for 1943 and 1944 (for other years, the coverage is uneven and in short runs).
The year 1943 was of critical importance to Poland's diplomatic efforts to save its international position after it broke
off relations with the Soviet Union and after the death of General Sikorski. Polish politicians found themselves under permanent
attack from the American left, which required intensification of their propaganda efforts.
Also in 1943, Ropp was moved to London to head the Biuro Prac Kongresowych responsible for planning the peace conference and
a new post-war Poland. Still, the office grew steadily, gradually attracting some of the best minds working for the Polish
cause on American soil: from 35 experts in 1943, it employed 51 in 1944.
In 1944, at the peak of its activities, the center had at its disposal a budget of a million dollars. It published weekly
bulletins in several languages, as well as numerous brochures on Polish history and politics. During the first six months
of the year, over one hundred thousand short publications were distributed, not only in the United States but also in Central
America, South Africa, and Australia. Among the recipients of those bulletins and daily reports were the
New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post, etc. Additionally, some 500-700 letters with inquiries were received and answered each month.
Specialized departments were responsible for the press, radio, exhibits, lectures, films, and cooperation with the United
Nations. The Radio Department, for example, delivered programs to numerous English-speaking radio stations, in addition to
the 27 Polish-American stations that received regular weekly programs. The center also sponsored the production of some 22
films, and organized several traveling exhibits a year.
Very little in the collection at the Hoover Archives covers the work of those specialized departments operating within the
center, such as the German Section (Dzial Niemiecki) directed by Joseph Frejlich, which dealt with the activities of German
and German-American circles in the United States. Employees would attend meetings of such groups on the East coast and report
back to London. Fortunately, Frejlich also deposited his papers at Hoover, and they should be considered a good complement
to the center's records.
The year 1945 brought big budget cuts, and half of the employees were laid off. The center shared the fate of many other Polish
diplomatic posts, as the loss of diplomatic recognition of the London government by the Western Allies resulted in the termination
of its operations. By decree of Poland's President, Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz, on July 3, 1945, the center was officially shut
down.
Its office files were divided among the Pilsudski Institute in New York and the Hoover Institution, which acquired the records
described in this register in 1948. Traces of the center's activities can be found in almost all of the other Polish wartime
collections at the Hoover Institution in the form of documents, periodicals, and monographs, particularly, as noted above,
among the records of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Information, Ministry of Preparatory Work Concerning
the Peace Conference, as well as of the Polish Embassy in Washington.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Sound recordings
Poland -- Emigration and immigration
Poland -- History -- Occupation, 1939-1945
World War, 1939-1945 -- Refugees
Polish people -- United States
World War, 1939-1945 -- Propaganda
World War, 1939-1945 -- Poland
World War, 1939-1945 -- Peace
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Jews -- Poland
Propaganda, Polish