American Polish community's aid for Poland after 1939. An outline of the issue

Abstract

The aid offered by the Polish community in America after 1 September 1939 went through different stages. Starting with humanitarian aid of the war and post-war period that ended in 1951, when the Communist authorities effected shutting down the Polish offices of the Polish War Relief, through giving aid to various centers like hospitals, orphanages or the Catholic University of Lublin in the period from the middle of the 1950s to the beginning of Gierek’s „propaganda of success” era. The period was started with investment aid to state enterprises. However, from 1975 until the fall of Communism sending financial means and equipment to the opposition intensified. After 1990 the aid was sent to particular people when such natural disasters happened as the 1997 flood. This issue has never been comprehensively researched, and numerous record offices of aid organizations are still waiting to be studied.