Search for: [Abstract = "A reflection on the functioning of care for children and adolescents in Poland after World War II is far from full in Polish historiography.Although the postulate to centralise social care, coordinate it and increase the state’s participation in it, was put forward as early as 1944, in 1945–1947 political circumstances made it impossible for social care to be subject of endeavours of the communists.In these post\-war years, the actual care for children and young people was totally dominated by social organisations. Children and adolescents were placed mainly in 380 children’s homes run by nuns, which made 43% of the total number of children’s homes residents in Poland. The “successes” of the Polish authorities in their first year of rule were limited to the takeover of a few charity organisations that were allowed to exist under the German occupation of Poland\: the Central Welfare Council \(Polish\: Rada Główna Opiekuńcza\) and Polish Red Cross \(Polski Czerwony Krzyż\).The later “competition” of the Polish Socialist Party \(Polish acronym\: PPS\) and Polish People’s Party \(PSL\), together with what we usually call “civic society” influenced the “minimalism” of political ideas of the Polish Workers’ Party \(Polska Partia Robotnicza\) about this sphere of social reality, reflected mainly in pushing for the principle to build nurseries and kindergartens and in distribution of founds through the two PPR’s “own” ministries\: the Ministry of Industry and Ministry of Supply. The Ministry of Industry, led by a PPR’s strong man, Hilary Minc, together with the Ministry of Supply and Trade, headed by an another PPR member, Jerzy Sztachelski, were the most important tools in the communist realisation of social care modelled on the Soviet examples.When finally the state control became possible \(1949–1950\), a majority of social organisations \(including the charity ones\) was suppressed or integrated. Such was the fate of children and adolescents organisations\: the Polish YMCA , Central Committee of Social Care \(Centralny Komitet Opieki Społecznej\), Society of Orphans’ Nests and Kościuszko’s Villages \(Towarzystwo Gniazd Sierocych i Wiosek Kościuszkowskich\), “Caritas” and tens of smaller ones."]

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