Government Delegation for Poland

The first Government Delegate, appointed in December 1940, was Cyryl Ratajski, followed by Jan Piekałkiewicz, arrested by the Gestapo in 1943, and then Jan Stanisław Jankowski, from 1944 a deputy prime minister heading the Home Council of Ministers. The Delegation had departments mirroring the pre-war ministries – internal affairs, information and press, education, justice, labour and welfare and others – as well as special courts. It was advised by a body representing the political parties, from 1944 the Council of National Unity. The Council to Aid Jews, Żegota, operated under the Delegation.

The Delegation prepared an administration for liberation; during Operation Tempest its officials were to reveal themselves to the Red Army. In March 1945 the NKVD treacherously arrested Jankowski and other underground leaders, who were tried in the Trial of the Sixteen. On 1 July 1945 the Delegation and the Council of National Unity dissolved themselves.