Andrzej Pomian papers, 1937-1973
Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Pomian, Andrzej
- 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. Also available on microfilm (36 reels).
- Extent:
- 21 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box, 1 oversize folder, 7 motion picture film reels (8.8 Linear Feet)
- Language:
- In Polish and English
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Andrzej Pomian papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
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.
- Biographical / historical:
-
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 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.
Date Event 1911 January 2 Born, Bohdan Sałacinski in Czarny Ostrów, in present-day Ukraine1920 Evacuates to Poland with his family after the Polish-Russian War1930s Studies law at Warsaw University and works in the municipal solicitor general's office1940s 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 Bureau1944 April Evacuates from Poland by airplane during Operation Wildhorn I as an emissary to the Polish government-in-exile in London1944-1954 Works on the staff of the commander-in-chief of the Polish government-in-exile as leading liaison operations with the Polish underground1946 Author, Warsaw Rising1949 Author, Stalin and the Poles1950 Author, Polish Armed Forces in World War Two: The Home Army1955 Emigrates to the United States1956-1977 Works as the Washington correspondent for the Polish section of Radio Free Europe1974-1977 Completes a three-year assignment in Munich1977 Returns to Washington and retires1977-2000s 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 1918-19451991 Receives the Warsaw University Medal2000 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 York2008 April 20 Dies, Washington D.C. - Acquisition information:
- Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library Archives in 2009.
- Physical location:
- Hoover Institution Library & Archives
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
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.
- Terms of access:
-
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Andrzej Pomian papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
- Location of this collection:
-
Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Stanford UniversityStanford, CA 94305-6003, US
- Contact:
- (650) 723-3563