British archives. Access to the files of 250,000 Polish soldiers is blocked

Collecting signatures under petition

The petition has already been signed by over 1,700 people, and erstwhile the number of signatures reaches 10,000, the UK government will gotta respond to it. There are inactive a fewer months left since the collection runs until October 17, 2025.

“Rzeczpospolita” informs that the archives of the Ministry of Defence of large Britain store evidence files of 250 1000 Polish soldiers located on the military base, to which access is restricted. Contact with the archive is only possible electronically, and the waiting time for the answer is over a year. papers can be obtained by PES veterans or their families after documenting a kinship, as noted by Dr. Aneta Hoffman of the Memorial Signs Foundation.

Dr. Hoffman admitted she failed to get those documents. The cards were drawn up in Polish and supplemented throughout the service, which makes them a valuable origin of information.

Access is valuable

Responses to veterans show that initially only short, one- or two-page certificates were sent, constituting a shortened cognition compendium from the file. Over time, families besides began receiving scans or photocopies of PES veterans' registration cards.

“Rzeczpospolita” points out that the deficiency of published complete lists of PES soldiers makes the British resource an highly valuable origin of information and documentation concerning the service of thousands of Poles during planet War II.

In March 2015, the British handed over to Poland about 10,000 files of personnel of Polish soldiers who died or died during planet War II. The folders, previously stored by the Ministry of Defence of large Britain, contain information about the service, distinctions and lives of soldiers. Although copies of the files of any of the commanders were besides forwarded in 2014, talks about the transmission of a complete set of papers concerning soldiers who survived the war have not yet yielded crucial results.

Krystian Cieślak from the press office of the Chief Directorate of State Archives denies that talks on this subject should be held at all.