The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum

16/10/2026

WABIM 2026 - MKIDN 🇬🇧
at the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum (PISM) and the Polish Underground Movement Study Trust (PUMST) in London.

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Dear all!

We are alive and doing well!

We are pleased to announce once again that the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum (IPMS) and the Polish Underground Movement Study Trust (SPP) in London have been awarded funding for 2026 by the Department for Culture and National Heritage under the WABIM Programme—Support for Archives, Libraries and Museums.

This year’s project is effectively another stage in the Institution’s technological and organisational transformation, aimed at ensuring its stability and development, protecting its collections, and making them accessible through modern means.

The project plans to implement at the Institute’s main archive solutions that were tested at the Polish Underground Movement Study Trust (SPP), drawing on experience gained through the WABIM ’25 programme.

Three core activities have been planned as a foundation for the Institution’s operations:
➡︎ Expanding the IT infrastructure at the main archive and integrating it with the SPP’s systems
➡︎ Auditing the Institute’s buildings, including mapping storage spaces and archival holdings
➡︎ Carrying out a shelf check of the Institute’s main archive

In addition, work will continue to safeguard and provide access to the collections:
➡︎ Creating a new PDF/OCR index for the main archive and expanding the existing one for the SPP archive
➡︎ Updating and exporting further finding aids to the ZOSiA database (SPP archive only)
➡︎ Archiving and digitising additional archival collections
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Work has been underway since spring this year.
In future posts, we’ll tell you more about the individual parts of the project, report on the progress made, and share the results.

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WE ARCHIVE, DIGITISE, REFORM, AND MODERNISE!

Check back here more often! Share good news with friends, give as many ‘likes’ as possible
and share the content with others…

Best regards
The Team of the Institute and the Trust

16/10/2026

WABIM 2026 – MKIDN 🇵🇱
w Instytucie Polskim i Muzeum im. Gen. Sikorskiego (IPMS) oraz Studium Polski Podziemnej (SPP) w Londynie.
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Drodzy Państwo!

Po raz kolejny, z przyjemnością informujemy o przyznaniu dla IPMS i SPP w Londynie, przez Ministra Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego, dofinansowania w ramach Programu WABIM - Wpierania Archiwów, Bibliotek i Muzeów…. na rok 2026.

Tegoroczne zadanie to efektywnie kolejny etap transformacji technologicznej i organizacyjnej Instytucji, w celu zapewnienie jej stabilności i rozwoju oraz ochrony i nowoczesnego dostępu do jej zbiorów archiwalnych.

W ramach działań zaplanowano implementacje rozwiązań w archiwum głównym Instytutu, przetestowanych w Studium Polski Podziemnej (SPP), w oparciu o doświadczenia zdobyte w ramach programu WABIM'25.

W planach zapisano 3 podstawowe działania jako podstawa funkcjonowania Instytucji:
➡︎ Rozbudowa infrastruktury IT w archiwum głównym i jej integracja ze strukturą SPP
➡︎ Audyt budynków Instytutu wraz z mapowaniem przestrzeni magazynowej i zasobu archiwalnego
➡︎ Skontrum archiwum głównego Instytutu

W uzupełnieniu, kontynuacja prac nad zabezpieczeniem i udostępnieniem zbiorów:
➡︎ Nowy indeks PDF/OCR w archiwum gł. i rozbudowa istniejącego w archiwum SPP
➡︎ Uaktualnienie i eksport kolejnych inwentarzy do bazy ZOSiA (tylko archiwum SPP)
➡︎ Archiwizacja i digitalizacja kolejnych zespołów archiwalnych.

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Prace trwają już od wiosny tego roku.
W kolejnych postach postaramy się przybliżyć Państwu poszczególne elementy projektu, zdając sprawozdanie ze stanu prac oraz przedstawić ich rezultaty.

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ARCHIWIZUJEMY, DIGITALIZUJEMY, REFORMUJEMY, USPRAWNIAMY I MODERNIZUJEMY!

Zaglądajcie tu częściej! Dzielcie się ze znajomymi dobrymi nowinami, ‘lajkujcie’ i udostępniajcie dalej…

Z szacunkiem
Zespół Instytutu i Studium

02/08/2026

06/06/2026

Zapraszamy

16/05/2026

Setting up for today

15/05/2026

Jutro

Zapraszamy!

06/05/2026

Speaker spotlight ✨

22/04/2026

Zapraszamy!

12/04/2026

Fascinating

PUMST Archive - Błyskawica “Lightning” Radio

A photograph from the archive of the Polish Underground Movement Study Trust depicting insurgents broadcasting via the “Lightning” (“Błyskawica”) radio station during the Warsaw Uprising.

“Lightning” was the name of the Polish resistance’s main radio transmitting station. It operated in Warsaw between 8 August and 4 October 1944. Built by engineer Antoni Zębik (Codename "Biegły"), the station used a 200-watt transmitter that broadcast on short (32.8 & 52.1m) and medium wave radio frequencies.

It was operated by two teams: a team subordinate to the Home Army’s Bureau of Information and Propaganda (“BiP”) and a group of Polskie Radio journalists. Both used the same transmitter, airing programmes at different times of the day. In overall command of “Lightning” was 36-year-old Stanisław Zadrożny (“Pawlicz”) of “BiP”. His deputy was Zofia Rutkowska (“Ewa”).

For nearly two months they worked to broadcast news bulletins, communiqués, reports and appeals for Allied assistance alongside cultural contributions such as poems and songs. The station provided a vital connection between the fighting members of the Home Army, Warsaw civilians and the outside world.

Programmes were also aired in English. The RAF pilot and escapee John Ward, who joined the Home Army, frequently read reports on the uprising and made appeals to the British government to give assistance to the insurgents. ‘The Courier from Warsaw’, Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, and Adam Truszkowski, a London-born Pole, also played a key role in the station’s English language programming. The BBC also played a limited role in partly relaying some of the reports from Warsaw. Other languages utilised by the radio station included French and German, the latter used in an attempt at psychological warfare to demoralise the Wehrmacht.

The transmitter was continuously hunted and attacked by the Germans, forcing its managers to frequently move broadcasting locations. It began operating from the Postal Savings Bank building near Zgoda and Jasna streets, before moving to the Café Adria on Moniuszuki Street. On 18 August 1944, Café Adria was struck by a shell fired from a German Mörser Karl self-propelled mortar. Though it tore through the building, it failed to detonate and the radio station survived the attack. “Lightning” was moved again to a building on Poznańska Street. Its final location from late September 1944 was the Warsaw Public Library building.

Two days after the capitulation of the Home Army on 2 October 1944, Lightning broadcast its final 10-minutemessage. At the end of the message the famous song ‘Warszawianka’ was played for the final time on the radio. Jan Georgica, “Lightning” technical manager, then proceeded to destroy the transmitter with a hammer.

“Lightning” (“Błyskawica”) remains a remarkable example of information as resistance; an insurgent radio station operating amid an active combat zone during WWII. It was a direct means of communicating the situation on the ground in Warsaw in the summer of 1944.

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Photo: Insurgents operate the “Lightning” radio transmitter in Warsaw, August 1944. (FOT_1595)

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Written by Harry Denton for PUMST

All rights to the photographs are vested in the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum and the Polish Underground Movement Study Trust of London.