Józef Piłsudski Institute of America
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| Founder(s) | Henryk Floyar-Rajchman, Franciszek Januszewski, Wacław Jędrzejewicz, Lucjusz Kupferwasser, Stefan Łodzieski, Ignacy Matuszewski, Ignacy Nurkiewicz, Maksymilian Węgrzynek |
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| Established | 1943 |
| Mission | Research in the Modern History of Poland |
| President | Iwona Korga |
| Location | New York City |
| Coordinates | 40°43′48″N 73°57′18″W / 40.729887°N 73.955041°W |
| Address | 138 Greenpoint Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11222 |
| Website | www |
The Józef Piłsudski Institute of America (full name: Józef Piłsudski Institute of America for Research in the Modern History of Poland) was created in New York City in July 1943. It is an archive, museum and research center devoted to the study of modern Polish history and named after the Polish interwar statesman Józef Piłsudski.
The Piłsudski Institute of America, a research organization and archive, came into being during the General Assembly of the National Committee of Americans of Polish Extraction (KNAPP), held at the Washington Hotel in New York City on July 3–4, 1943. The eight-member organizational committee included three prominent colleagues of Marshal Józef Piłsudski from the interwar period: Wacław Jędrzejewicz, former Minister of Education; Henryk Floyar-Rajchman, former Minister of Commerce and Industry; and Ignacy Matuszewski, former Finance Minister. Also present were well-known Polish-Americans, among them Franciszek Januszewski, editor of the Detroit Polish Daily;Maksymilian Węgrzynek, editor of the New York Nowy Świat; and Lucjan Kupferwasser and W. Skubikowski from Chicago.
Jędrzejewicz commented on that event in one of his press releases: "Taking advantage of the presence of several prominent Polish émigré activists, we decided to bring to fruition a plan that had been in the works for a long time, namely, to call into existence on July 4 the Józef Piłsudski Institute, dedicated to the research of the most recent history of Poland." This newly created entity picked up the tradition of an earlier research center established in Warsaw in 1923 and renamed after Marshal Piłsudski after his death in 1936. The organizers of the New York research center were keenly aware of the importance of collecting documents related to such a crucial period in Polish history as World War II. The initiative was also welcomed by the Polish government-in-exile – the Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief at the time, General Władysław Sikorski and his two successors, General Kazimierz Sosnkowski (Commander-in-Chief) and Prime Minister Stanisław Mikołajczyk.
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