On 10 December 1942, Count Edward Raczyński, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Polish Government in Exile, sent a diplomatic note to Poland’s Allies describing German crimes against the civilian population on the territory of occupied Poland. The so-called Raczyński Note was the first official document informing Western public opinion about the horror of the Holocaust.

The content of the Note was prepared by the Jewish Affairs Department of the Home Army (AK) Headquarters and later delivered to London by a special emissary Jan Romuald Kozielewski (Jan Karski). 

The document in the form of a brochure consisted of a 9-page report was sent to foreign ministers of all countries that were the signatories of the United Nations Declaration. The report was also printed in a Polish government information publication under the title: “The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland”. It described the situation of the Jews in occupied Poland and called for help and international attention for the persecuted population.

The third point of the note described the dramatic situation of the Polish Jews:

“Most recent reports present a horrifying picture of the position to which the Jews in Poland have been reduced. The new methods of mass slaughter applied during the last few months confirm the fact that German authorities aim with systematic deliberation at the total extermination of the Jewish population of Poland and of the many thousands of Jews whom the German authorities have deported to Poland from Western and Central European countries and the German Reich itself… ”

As a result of the Note, on 17 December 1942, the Joint Declaration of the Members of the United Nations was created, in which all signatories declared to punish those guilty of the Holocaust. Until today the document remains one of the most important written sources documenting the Holocaust. 

A reprint of Raczyński’s Note was prepared by the UK’s Polish Embassy on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz. The publication is available online here.

Photo: Polish Foreign Affairs Ministry Archive screenshot

Tomasz Modrzejewski