Poland in Canada

Signed by the then head of the MFA, Edward Raczyński, the featured note bears the date of 9 December 1942 because this was the day it was handed over to the British side. The Polish Government-in-Exile passed the note to other Allied states on 10 December. As a result, the same note has different dates in a number of publications: 9 or 10 December 1942.

The presentation of the note was closely linked to the transfer to London, in November 1942, of documents prepared by the Government Delegation for Poland and the Home Army. The intelligence brought over by Polish Underground State couriers showed the tragic situation of the Jewish population in occupied Poland. Information about the Holocaust was made public by the Polish Government, among others, in a special report of 24 November 1942, which was also shared with the London-based media.

Edward Raczyński provided this information to UK Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden at a meeting on 1 December 1942, and on 9 and 10 December the Polish Government-in-Exile issued official notes calling for the cessation of the genocide.

The note (sometimes incorrectly referred to as Karski’s report) contained data on the situation of Jews in occupied Poland at the time and disclosed the German crimes. It also included a list of information and protest actions by the Polish government in this matter and called on the Western countries to stop the crimes. In the closing paragraphs, the Polish government called not only for condemning the murders and bringing those responsible to justice but also for taking measures to stop the use of methods of mass extermination.

The note was met with numerous press comments, and the Allied governments responded by issuing a special declaration on 17 December 1942, which announced, among other things, severe punishment for those responsible.

In an attempt to expose the facts of the Jewish genocide in occupied Poland, the Polish authorities, besides issuing the official note, decided to publish a high-circulation special brochure in English and distribute it, among others, through Polish diplomatic and consular posts. As a result, a sixteen-page brochure was published, titled “The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland,” consisting of an introduction and four documents concerning the extermination of the Jewish population in Poland under German occupation.

The most important of the documents presented in the brochure was of course “Raczyński’s note” dated 10 December 1942. The brochure also contains the text of the joint declaration of the Allied states of 17 December 1942, a fragment of a statement by Deputy Prime Minister Stanisław Mikołajczyk of 27 November 1942, and the text of Edward Raczyński’s speech of 17 December 1942.