Documentation from the Archiwum Instytutu Zachodniego w Poznaniu Archive, Poland, 1939-1945

Documentation from the Archiwum Instytutu Zachodniego w Poznaniu Archive, Poland, 1939-1945 Archive of World War II Part A: German documents Original German documents, authorized copied and also copies and photocopies of documents. Close to 400 files regarding the subjects of administration, economics, police authorities and the German settlement in Wartheland; included in the collection are documents regarding the "Reichsuniversität Posen" that was established in Poznan, including copies of headlines from the German press, pamphlets and propaganda materials. Approximately 300 items represent the German national policies in the Polish territories that were integrated into the Third Reich. Another collection of files, numbering several dozen, includes documentation regarding the situation of the Polish population - forced labor, arrests, imprisonment, concentration camps and the extermination of Jews. In this collection there is also a collection of German posters regarding the implementation of death sentences on Poles. Part B: Memoirs and diaries The second section of the archives was created thanks to the initiative of two Professors from the University of Poznan. One was Vladislav Ruzinski, who initiated a memoirs competition in 1946, regarding the work and life of Poles during the German occupation period. The second Professor was Jan Rotkovski, the head of the History of Economics department at the University of Poznan, who conveyed a special instruction to journalists that was published and dispersed by the Institute for Western Affairs. Memoirs written on this base (numbering 192) comprise the largest collection in the second section of the archives. It is also important to note a small collection of diaries written by farmers from Mazury in 1947, according to a survey held by the Mazury Institute in Olsztyn. In the diaries there is documented information regarding family traditions, customs, the attitude of the Germans and the authorities in Germany toward the Poles, and the situation immediately after the end of World War II. To the collection have been added 122 memoirs from 1939-1945, written during 1947-1948 by students from universities throughout Poland. In 1946 a questionnaire was also formulated in the documentation division of the MA, regarding the subject of the German national policies during the years of the German occupation, 1939-1945, for writers of memoirs about the subject. 33 reports were received thanks to this initiative. All of the diaries, memoirs and reports mentioned here were written during 1946-1948 shortly after the events took place, a fact that without any doubt influenced their value. The memoirs and reports (65) of residents of Poznan and Greater Poland, who were uprooted to the Generalgouvernement territories during World War II, were also used for research that was sent to the competition declared by the "Gazeta Poznańska" in 2004. In this section of the archive, close to 500 items of great value, including diaries and memoirs regarding combat during 1939 and 1945, the discrimination and destruction of Poles and Jews (detentions, executions, imprisonment, concentration camps, ghettos, invasion of territories, German national list, and deportations to forced labor). This distinct collection includes reports with information regarding the independent activities of members of the underground organizations in Greater Poland and in the Generalgouvernement territories, the underground cultural life in Poznan and Greater Poland, and regarding secret instruction. Most of the documentation in this collection was written during the 1960s.