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Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm98075544
Collection material in Czech, with English, French, German, and Slovak
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The papers of Jan Papánek, Czechoslovak diplomat and United Nations representative, were given to the Library of Congress by Jan Papánek in 1988.
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Jan Papánek is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
The papers of Jan Papánek are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Jan Papánek, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Jan Papánek (1896-1991) span the years 1917-1967 with the bulk of the material dating from 1939 to 1948. During the Nazi occupation of his home country, Papánek served as the representative of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in the United States. The immediate postwar years were dedicated to service at the United Nations. The papers are in Czech, Slovak, English, German, and French and are organized alphabetically by name of person, topic, organization, or type of material. Oversize items are listed together at the end of the container list.
Papánek spent his career working for either the democratic movement or the democratic government of Czechoslovakia. He worked closely with Edvard Beneš and Jan Masaryk, both of whom have papers in this collection, primarily material they left with Papánek after visiting the United States during World War II. The Beneš papers are the more extensive and include correspondence, speeches, reports, examples of anti-Nazi propaganda, including a political tract written by Heinrich Mann to be smuggled into Czechoslovakia in seed packages, and a group of telegrams and correspondence with Franklin D. Roosevelt and other world leaders on the occasion of the German occupation of Prague in March 1939. Jan Masaryk’s papers include secret reports on Czechoslovak political actions and notes and letters, including notes on his 1944 meeting with Roosevelt and correspondence with Dorothy Thompson. The papers also contain correspondence between Tomáš G. Masaryk and Edvard Beneš as well as photographs and an extensive collection of printed matter on T. G. Masaryk.
Papánek, as the representative of the exiled democratic government of Czechoslovakia during World War II, received confidential reports of conditions and actions in the “Protectorate” and Slovakia. Many of these reports are in this collection as are several concerning the communist takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1948. His United Nations material primarily concerns communist activities in Czechoslovakia and Papánek’s dismissal from his United Nations position in 1948. A transcript of Papánek’s extensive oral history made in 1951 is located in a biographical file. Prominent correspondents not previously mentioned include Vladimír Clementis, Ladislav Feierabend, Rudolf Firkušný, Josef Lukl Hromádka, Otakar Odložilík, Hubert Ripka, Carlo Sforza, and Emanuel Victor Voska. Of special interest is a confidential report written by Gregory Ignatius Zatkovich and addressed to Edvard Beneš concerning the wartime activities of Carpatho-Ukrainians.
This collection is arranged alphabetically by name of person, topic, organization, or type of material.
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm98075544
Letters to Beneš, most sent from within the United States, but some also from Europe and South America. Includes two letters from William S. Schlamm offering cooperation.
Anti-annexation propaganda mailed to Germany by German emigrants living in France, samples sent to Beneš. Includes a seed package with political tracts enclosed, one by Heinrich Mann.
Telegrams, drafts of telegrams, and other correspondence from Beneš to Franklin D. Roosevelt, Joseph Avenol, Georges Bonnet, Emil Hácha, Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st earl of Halifax, Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov, and others. Includes Roosevelt’s original letter of response. In French, English, and Czech.
Invitations from schools and associations answered by Beneš’s personal representative, E. B. Hitchcock. Letters regarding radio address, 1938-1939
Letters of thanks and encouragement written after Beneš’s first radio address in the United States. Mostly in English.
By an anonymous Jewish writer. Sent from Prague, Czechoslovakia, to Beneš, May 1939. In Czech.
Mostly speeches released in the United States. In English.
Correspondence and news clippings concerning books by and about Beneš.
Mostly from the United States. In English.
Reports on Beneš’s political action in America during World War II.
Sent to Beneš in London, England, and after May 1945, Prague, Czechoslovakia. In Czech and Slovak.
Drafts and final texts of speeches and statements by Beneš in the United States.
Correspondence, mostly between Vojta Beneš and Papánek, and some printed matter. In Czech.
Transcript of Papánek’s oral history concerning his life and career to 1948. Main topics include Edvard Beneš, World War II, and Czechoslovak political activities in the United States. In English.
Appointment as Czechoslovak consul in Pittsburgh, Pa., and official recognition by the United States as consul.
Entries from Jan. 10 to May 18. In Slovak.
Letters from Papánek to Clementis, deputy foreign minister of Czechoslovakia. In Slovak.
Memorandum of 22 Sept. on political impact of Committee for Free Germany. Unnamed source. Sent to London, England for Edvard Beneš. In English.
Unsigned Czech report, unsigned English-language confidential report, and unsigned letters in Czech, one with an English translation, from Prague, Czechoslovakia, to Papánek.
Items relating to their activities. In Czech and Slovak.
Documents pertaining to the beginning of Czechoslovak Action Abroad, Edvard Beneš’s first political organization during World War II. The American branch was formed in Chicago, Ill. Some of the notes and drafts were written by Beneš. In Czech and English.
Memoranda from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with recommendations for rectification of Czechoslovak frontiers after World War II. Includes a detailed map. In English.
Items related to the council based in New York, N.Y.
Documents from the founding of the Czechoslovak Information Service in the United States. In Czech.
Documents prepared by the Foreign Ministry of Edvard Beneš’s exile government, including political surveys and confidential memoranda to Czechoslovak diplomatic offices. In Czech and English.
Czechoslovak restitution and reparation demands after World War II. In Czech and Slovak.
Items relating to Feierabend’s visit to the United States in 1943, including his report as minister in the government of Edvard Beneš to premier Šrámek about his negotiations in Washington, D.C. Mostly in Czech.
Correspondence and memoranda concerning Czech pianist Firkušný and his legal status in the United States. In Czech and English.
Confidential reports from various sources in Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia. Mostly in Czech.
Correspondence, newspaper clippings and transcripts from radio station KPRC. In Czech and English.
Items concerning the work of Hostovský, a Czech writer, including his memorandum on the cultural situation of Czech exiles in America during World War II.
Beneš to Hromádka concerning political philosophy; Hromadka to Papánek with copy to Beneš concerning his discussion with Hermann Rauschning. In Czech.
Letters to Edvard Beneš. In Czech.
Notes about the political situation during Masaryk’s visit to the United States in October 1941, notes from his meeting with Franklin D. Roosevelt on 4 Feb. 1944, letters to Papánek, and correspondence with Dorothy Thompson. In Czech and English.
Correspondence, speeches, statements, news clippings, and printed matter. In Czech and English.
Reports to and from Jan Masaryk on Czechoslovak political actions and views. Most of the reports are deciphered despatches. Includes reports during the 1945 United Nations Conference on International Organization at San Francisco, Calif. In Czech.
Letters to Edvard Beneš, one with a situation report attached. In Czech.
Pamphlets, essays, articles, lectures, etc. concerning T. G. Masaryk. In various languages.
Items related to activities of the exile organization of Czechoslovak students. In Czech and English.
Includes chapters on the beginning of the Habsburg era until Joseph II, the Czech state and the Holy Roman Empire, nineteenth century and T. G. Masaryk, and Slovakia. In Czech.
Letters between Papánek and others concerning Odložilík’s academic career and other activities. In Czech and English.
Letters, memoranda, and reports concerning broadcasting to Czechoslovakia during World War II. In English and Czech.
T. G. Masaryk, Edvard Beneš, Jan Masaryk, and others. Photographs include an autographed portrait of T. G. Masaryk dated 13 Sept. 1926.
Letters from Posse, a Swedish writer, to the former private secretary of Edvard Beneš describing her last meeting with Beneš in Aug. 1948, shortly before his death. Translated from Swedish to Czech.
Items documenting arrangements for Czechoslovakian students to come to the United States.
Includes letters written in 1940 to Papánek from Paris, France, concerning the political situation in the country. In Czech.
Reports and speeches by Ripka, including his confidential report of 7 Jan. 1942 about the foreign policy of Edvard Beneš’s government. In Czech and English.
Correspondence and newspaper clippings. In Czech, Slovak, and English.
Correspondence between Edvard Beneš and Sforza. In French.
Activities of the organization in the United States. Primarily in Slovak.
Sent by Vladimír S. Hurban, Czechoslovak envoy extraordinary, to Cordell Hull, American secretary of state, 5 April. In English.
Correspondence and other items received from Smutný, chancellor in the government of Edvard Beneš, May 1939-Jan. 1940. Copies of letters from Papánek to Smutný, Aug.-Oct. 1943. Primarily in Czech and Slovak.
News clippings, reports, and notes. In English and Czech.
Secret dispatches between the foreign ministry in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and Papánek, the Czechoslovak United Nations delegate. In Czech.
Items documenting his dismissal in March 1948 from the United Nations. In English and Czech.
Bound volume of verbatim records of meetings concerning Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia in Feb. 1948.
Protest of Nazi actions by Czechoslovak educators in exile.
Confidential reports and other material from the Czechoslovak Information Service in the United States to Edvard Beneš and the Czechoslovak embassy in Washington. Includes discussion of American attitudes towards the Soviets. In English, Czech, and French.
Primarily letters concerning Voska’s offer of intelligence activities to Edvard Beneš’s government. Mostly in Czech.
Confidential report addressed to Edvard Beneš. Zatkovich, as leader of Carpatho-Ukrainians in the United States, described wartime activities of his ethnic group. In English.