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Title: Józef Frejlich collection
Date (inclusive): 1891-1968
Collection Number: 68023
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
81 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize folder
(33.8 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Writings, correspondence, bulletins, press releases, serial issues, pamphlets, and other printed matter, relating to Polish
history and politics, socialism in Poland, Poland during World War II, the Yalta Conference, Poles in the United States and
Canada, anti-communist movements, and the Russian Orthodox Church. Includes some correspondence of J. Frejlich and newspaper
articles written by him.
Creator:
Yalta Conference (Location of meeting: I͡Alta, Ukraine. Date of meeting or treaty signing: 1945.)
source:
Frejlich, Józef
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.
Acquired.
[Identification of item], Józef Frejlich Collection, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Also available on microfilm (84 reels).
Jozef Frejlich, collector, historian, and economist was able to leave Warsaw in 1940 as a result of the efforts of his party
colleagues, who were members of the government-in-exile in London. As an active and well-known member of the Polish Socialist
Party (Polska Partia Socjalistyczna), he was smuggled through many borders to Portugal where, in 1942, he received a visa
to the United States. Upon his arrival in New York the following year, he was hired by the Polish Consulate to oversee the
government's financial operations. Later he was transferred to the German Department of the Polish Information Center, and
remained there until its closing in 1945. His main assignment was to stay in touch with German and Jewish-Americans circles,
which were of particular interest to the Polish diplomatic services. His own political views also brought him closer to the
activities of the socialist groups, but he soon found himself in conflict with those who manifested their support for the
Soviet Union.
This collection reflects Frejlich's professional activities, as it contains mainly printed materials such as press clippings,
which he analyzed as a press reviewer. However, he continued this work long after the closing of the government's operations.
A large portion of those press clippings originated from the émigré newspapers published in the United States, a majority
of which from the German press, which, to a large extent, reflected the opinions not of the German minority but of the German
speaking Jewish immigrants. There are also some German language titles printed in Switzerland, a country with good insights
into the political developments on the European continent.
Frejlich's political association with the socialist movement both in Poland and in the United States is reflected in a large
set of documents left for him in the last will of Wladyslaw Fischler, who was active in the Zwiazek Socjalistow Polskich w
Stanach Zjednoczonych. They illustrate the liveliness of political life among Polish immigrant workers in the United States.
The collection also includes Frejlich's articles written for numerous Polish-American journals, as well as rare documents,
periodicals, and monographs supplementing other collections in the Hoover Archives on World War II, socialism, and Poles in
the United States and Europe, particularly the records of the Ministerstwo Informacji i Dokumentacji and of the Polish Information
Center.
The papers were part of a larger shipment delivered to the Hoover Archives in 1969. Besides materials that originated in the
Polish Information Center, the shipment contained several thousand books deposited at the Hoover Library. Because of Frejlich's
interest in the history of socialism, he was offered the position of honorary curator of the Polish socialist collection;
unfortunately, his advanced age didn't allow him to accept that offer.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Socialism -- Poland
Polish people -- United States
World War, 1939-1945 -- Diplomatic history
World War, 1939-1945 -- Poland
Poland -- Politics and government
Anti-communist movements
Poland -- History
Polish people -- Canada
Russkai͡a pravoslavnai͡a t͡serkovʹ
Frejlich, Józef