The Polish Underground Movement (1939-1945) Study Trust is an institution housing historical documents which relate to the activities of the Polish Underground State and its Resistance Home Army during the period of German and Soviet occupation. General Bor Komorowski, the Commander in Chief of the Polish Home Army (1943 - 1944) along with other Polish Home Army high rank officers founded the Trust in 1947.

AIMS AND TASKS

• Archival work: collecting, securing and making available all the historical documents pertaining to the history of the Polish Secret State and the Home Army (AK)
• Collecting books for a Library
• Publishing activity and
• Promoting historical knowledge of Poland in the years 1939-1956

Since then many well known politicians and commentators (Tadeusz Zenczykowski, Jan Nowak-Jezioranski, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski) as well as historians (Antoni Pospieszalski, Norman Davies, Roger Moorhouse) visited or worked at the PUMST.

The Trust owes its development during the past six decades mainly to the unselfish work, dedication and patience of three generations of Polish immigrants in Great Britain and above all to one person in particular – Mrs. Halina Czarnocka – a long-serving director, archivist and secretary of the Trust.

In the interest of safe-guarding our unique heritage, it was agreed in 1988 to amalgamate the Study Trust with the Polish Institute & Sikorski Museum – the largest Polish Museum and Archive in the UK.

In June 2003, the Trust became recipient of the Custodian of National Remembrance Award presented by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN). It was granted for the efforts concerned with the safekeeping and making available to all researches the unique archival material under its care.