1948
Preliminary Plan for Operational Invigilation against Rada Polonii Amerykańskiej
Approved by
Lt. Col. [Artur Ritter-]Jastrzębski[1]
Director of Division I (Counterintelligence)
[of the Polish Ministry of Public Security]
Top Secret
[now declassified]
Preliminary plan for operational invigilation against Rada Polonii Amerykańskiej
1) [Operational] case profile
The American Relief of Poland[2] has been operating in Poland since 1945. It is administratively divided into districts covering several adjacent voivodeships. Each district is headed by a director, who reports directly to the director at the headquarters in Warsaw.
The organization runs a large-scale charity campaign in Poland, providing clothing and other products to various charitable institutions (usually under the influence of the clergy), such as orphanages, shelters for the homeless or the elderly, religious sects, etc., and private individuals.
With the use of surveillance techniques and agent activities, we were able to obtain materials showing that ARP using its extensive contacts, is spreading the propaganda of the London “government” for intelligence purposes in Polish society and is presenting the new reality of postwar Poland in a unilateral and slanderous way to American circles.
Prominent members of the American Relief of Poland are in constant communication with the US Embassy in Warsaw. We have also investigated their frequent contacts with Polish anti-communist partisans and PSL[3] members, and generally speaking, with Anders[4] [army] ‘elements’ in Poland.
People from the above-mentioned communities, having been given food or a package of clothing by the ARP, consciously or not, are serving foreign intelligence [support the interests of foreign countries].
The organization offering help to anyone at the same time obliges them to enter into correspondence with designated persons in the USA.
Below is an example of a letter by American Relief of Poland (signed by Director Edmund Nadarski) to some families of arrested members of an underground [anti-Communist] organization.
Dear Madam,
The American Relief of Poland has obtained a CARE food package for you. You have also received a notification from the CARE organization about how the package is to be delivered.
To this notice received from CARE, please write down the address of the person who purchased the package and, upon receipt of the package, send a thank-you note to that person in America [ in order to establish contact].[5]
Please also send a notification upon receipt of the package to the ARP branch in Warsaw (Hotel Polonia, room 102), so that we know whether the package announced by us in this letter has been delivered to you.”[6]
Signed by
Edmund Nadarski
Director [the ARP]
In their thank-you letters to the US, such “petitioners”[7] are trying to depict the current political situation in Poland in the worst possible light in order to obtain further assistance by begging.[8]
Some directors of educational institutions and schools have also fallen for this gimmick.
[1] Artur Ritter-Jastrzębski (1906-1981), head of Division II of the Department I of the Ministry of Public Security (MBP), acting director of Department I of MBP (July 1 – September 30, 1946), deputy director of Department I MBP (October 1, 1946 – February 19, 1947), director of Department I MBP (April 1 – September 24, 1948. Member of Komunistyczna Partia Polski (Communist Party of Poland) (1924-1935), during WW2 allegedly the agent of Soviet intelligence, employee of Central Committee of the Polska Partia Robotnicza (Polish Workers’ Party) (August 1945). Aparat bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Kadra kierownicza, vol. 1: 1944–1956, ed. Krzysztof Szwagrzyk, Warsaw: Institute of National Remembrance, 2005, pp. 78, 142, 266; Jastrzębski (Ritter), Artur, entry in Catalogue of the Security Apparatus Functionaries in Poland, https://katalog.bip.ipn.gov.pl/informacje/38123 (accessed February 28, 2024)
[2] Also translated as Polish War Relief, American Relief of Poland, Polish-American Relief; Polish American Inter-Organizational Council; it was an organization led by Polish-Americans operating in Chicago, USA in the years 1938–1973. Its main goal was to organize various kinds of charitable aid for Poland and Poles around the world. In the years 1941–1945, the organization had its European delegation in Lisbon. The Council’s activities focused mainly on sending parcels to German-occupied Poland, as well as caring for Polish POWs in German camps. Approximately US$ 1.3 million was spent on this purpose. In 1945, the organization European delegation moved to Geneva, mainly helping compatriots not only in Poland but also in various areas of Europe (see: Polish War Relief Collection [in] Guide to the Polish Museum of America Archives Collections edited by Edyta Targońska, Warsaw–Chicago 2019, p.44-47 https://archiwa.gov.pl/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/PMA_EBOOK.pdf (accessed February 28, 2024), Polish War Relief was a founding member of CARE organization
[3] PSL – the Polish Peasant Party, after the January 1947 parliamentary election soon found itself targeted by intimidation, arrests, and violence by the Communist security police for political reasons.
[4]Władysław Anders (1892–1970) was a general in the Polish Army and after 1945, a Polish émigré politician and prominent member of the Polish government-in-exile in London.
[5] Annotation probably by a Security officer.
[6] Both CARE documents (Bloomstein’s Research Files, New York Public Library, CARE Collection, Box 2 F, Folder Poland) and those created by Polish Americans (press clippings collection) prove that Polish Americans often sent their parcels to maintain contact with their relatives in Poland or simply to find out whether they had survived the war but the conclusions drawn by the secret services of Communist Poland seem to be very far-reaching and obviously biased.
[7] The word "petitioner" was used here in an offensive, slightly cynical context; almost as a synonym for a person begging for help; the entire document is coined with the combination of propaganda language and over-interpretations.
[8] American and Polish archival sources show that most thank-you letters were not about political matters at all; this is an obvious distortion.
This is a counterintelligence report from 1948 (exact date not indicated) on operational actions taken against Rada Polonii Amerykańskiej (American Relief of Poland, or the ARP) in connection with the distribution of CARE packages in Poland. Although the Communists ruling Poland initially warmly welcomed support from foreign aid organizations, this changed in the late 1940s as Moscow placed trusted Communist leaders in power who were under pressure to reject contact with the West. The activities of CARE and other similar organizations began to be seen as unwanted foreign agents. CARE was treated with indifference, impatience, and finally, unconcealed hostility
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