According to the petition’s proponents, the descendants of members of the Polish military units who fought alongside Britain during the Second World War should be granted access to unredacted records of their relatives’ military service. There is a growing call for the Government to review the current system and ensure that families can fully uncover the stories of those who stood with the UK in its time of need.

“Polish Military Records are a rich, and in most cases the only, resource of family history for the descendants of Polish Soldiers who were unable to go home to Poland after WWII, and had no choice but to settle in Exile. Yet, we believe that this important family information is now being redacted and withheld from families,” says the description of the petition created by Jean Sztul-Belda.

The key issue raised in the petition is that service records held by the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) are often heavily redacted when released to family members, even when the person in question has been deceased for many decades. This applies not only to British soldiers but also to foreign nationals who served under British command, including members of the Polish Armed Forces in the West (e.g. the Polish Air Force, Polish Army units like the 2nd Corps under General Anders, etc.).

You can access the petition here.

In Poland, military archives (such as at the Central Military Archives in Warsaw) may operate under different access rules, sometimes providing fuller information. But if the records are held by the UK (which is often the case for soldiers who stayed in the West after 1945), families may face these UK restrictions.

The proponents will have 6 months to encourage Poles and other interested people to sign the petition. If it is supported by 10,000 citizens, the government will be forced to prepare an official response to the petition. 

If the proponents find 100,000 supporters then the problem of access to unredacted documents of their ancestors will be up for debate in the Parliament. 

Source: petition.parliament.uk

Photo: IPN

Tomasz Modrzejewski