sound recordings
The collection contains approx 12,300 sound recordings, dated 1889 - 2007, containing 13,500 gramophone records, 11,300 tape recordings and CDs. The recordings originate from the interwar period and before (5%), World War II (10%) and Polish Peoples’ Republic (85%). Most of them come from the Polish Radio Archives (about 80%), with the rest donated or bought from various Polish and foreign institutions as well as from individuals.
- The collection contains the recorded speeches and comments of politicians, scientists, artists, churchmen, sportsmen and other celebrities, as well as live transmissions and reports on cultural and sporting events, state celebrations, parliamentary sessions and political parties, organisations and unions meetings.
- Most valuable are the recordings of Józef Piłsudski, Józef Beck, Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski, Gen. Lucjan Żeligowski, Stefan Starzyński, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Karol Szymanowski, Stefan Żeromski, Juliusz Osterwa, Władysław Raczkiewicz and Gen. Władysław Anders. Of interest are also the radio reports on the Polish-Lithuanian conflict and the annexation of Zaolzie, both in 1938. Unique are also the German radio reports on the attack on Westerplatte, the broadcasting of Warsaw citizen’s celebrations at the French and British Embassies on the 3rd September 1939 (the day war was declared) or Warsaw Uprising’s Radio ‘Lightning’ programme transmitted in Warsaw on the 24th August 1944 - received and recorded in London. Of value are the records from German radio stations 1939 - 1945 with commentaries on occupied Polish territories. Also interesting are recordings of the Student Satirical Theatre performances 1959 - 1975 and amateur recordings of Father Jerzy Popiełuszko’s Masses for the Homeland as well as political demonstrations 1982 - 1988.
