Polskie Dokumenty Dyplomatyczne 1942

The volume Polish Diplomatic Documents 1942 is the thirtieth one published in the series. It contains 454 documents that illustrate Polish foreign policy in 1942. The most significant during the period were contacts with Great Britain and the United States and deteriorating relations with the Soviet Union. Poland – as an ally of the Western powers – had lost its importance due to the entry of the Soviet Union and the United States into the war in 1941. During the year encompassed by the volume, however, the Polish government still had a chance to exert influence on the most crucial issues related to its vital interests.

The Polish authorities in exile devoted much attention to assisting people in the occupied country and deportees and refugees scattered around the world. The intensification of repression by the Germans and the commencement of the extermination of not only Polish but also European Jews increased the obligations of the Polish authorities to aid the persecuted, to inform about the crimes committed, and to collect evidence in order to punish the war criminals after the end of hostilities.

The issues of key importance to Poland in its relations with the Soviet Union became those concerning the evacuation of the Polish Army to the Middle East, citizenship, and the post-war Polish-Soviet border.

The other issues of significance were relations with the Holy See, negotiations concerning the establishment of the future post-war order (among others, plans for federation with Czechoslovakia, Polish-Lithuanian talks), and formulating demands to increase the territory of post-war Poland by taking over the territories of Silesia, Pomerania, and East Prussia.

The source base of the volume consists primarily of materials stored at the Hoover Institution in Stanford (based on online records), the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London, and the Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw. In addition to that, the volume includes documents from the Józef Piłsudski Institute of America and the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America. The valuable materials used in the volume are also held in the National Archives of the United Kingdom and the Archivum Helveto-Polonicum in Freiburg.

The documents in the volume are arranged in chronological order. A preface, list of documents, list of abbreviations, and an annex on general organizational and office matters are included. Moreover, the volume contains an index of personal names and a subject index.