Archiwum osobiste Anny Poray-Wybranowskiej (1919-2013) w zasobie Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej

Anna Poray-Wybranowska née Popiel was an exceptional person. Born in Ściborzyce (Cracow Voivodeship), she grew up in Kostrzynek and Mościska – her parents’ estate (Zofia née Krasicki and Wacław Popiel). After the war broke out, she managed to go to Italy, where in 1944 she graduated from political science at the University of Perugia. Before the end of the war, she joined the 2nd Polish Corps and was involved in the Women’s Auxiliary Service. In 1947, after settling in England, she married Jan Poray-Wybranowski, an officer of the National Armed Forces. After leaving Europe with her husband and children she lived in Argentina for several years, and then in the United States. After her husband’s death (1959), she moved to Canada and settled permanently in Montreal. She worked in university
libraries, where she was a pioneer in the computerization of their collections. She was also actively involved in the life of the Polish community in Canada. She managed, among others, The Library of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in Montreal, for many years she was also the secretary of the Institute. From the late 1970s, she devoted herself to documenting the help provided by Poles to Jews during World War II. She intensively collected archives, correspondence with institutions, offices and private persons. Her determination and stubbornness led to Yad Vashem recognizing over 100 Poles as Righteous Among the Nations. According to her last will, the documentation she collected was taken over in 2019 by the Archives of the Institute of National Remembrance. It is a very extensive personal
archive, amounting to a total of 319 archival units, and its most significant part consists of materials documenting Polish aid to Jews during the German occupation, which is valuable for historians.