The Warsaw Uprising was the largest military uprising in German-occupied Europe. The unequal fight lasted 63 days from August 1 to October 2, 1944. After years of inhumane and criminal German occupation, which brought new crimes every day, the people of Warsaw took up arms. On Monday, July 31 at 7 p.m., Colonel Antoni Chruściel "Monter", commander of the Warsaw Home Army District, signed the order to begin the Uprising and sent it to his subordinate commanders. On August 1, 1944, at 5 p.m., insurgent units attacked previously designated objects in all districts of the city. The insurgents' task was to occupy strategic points and hold them until the Red Army entered Warsaw. Although the insurgents managed to take over most of the city center with the Old Town by August 4, they failed to capture important military facilities, bridges, airports, train stations, command centers, barracks and office buildings. The Home Army consisted of roughly 50,000 young soldiers in the city. They were mainly intelligentsia, graduates of underground Warsaw secondary schools and colleges, students associated with the Home Army underground during the occupation, and members of the underground scouts.

Antoni Stefan Koper

The Institute houses the collection of Zofia and Antoni Koper, donated by their only son Piotr. The pages of the documents contain the history of the fight in the Warsaw Uprising, as well as a diary from the Uprising written by Antoni and correspondence. Antoni and Zofia were united by love; he risked his life for her and saved her from the Warsaw Ghetto. Fanny Margulies became Zofia Jabłońska (1920-2011) and married Stefan after the war.
Antoni Stefan Koper was born in 1906 in Warsaw and died in 1990 in Washington. He studied at the University of Warsaw and became a journalist. During the war he was an officer of the Home Army and as a member of the Office of Information and Propaganda of the Home Army Command, he was involved in forging documents and copying underground press. Antoni took an active part in the Uprising as a soldier, but above all as a reporter and photographer. Zofia helped the wounded as a nurse. Some of Antoni’s photographs were included in the National Uprising Album. After the uprising, he was taken prisoner by the Germans, from where he escaped to join General Maczek's armored division in Quakenbruck. Antoni was one of the editors of the "Soldier's Journal", worked in counterintelligence and dealt with the press. Zofia also arrived there. Before the war, Zofia studied journalism at the University of Warsaw. After the fall of the uprising, she was evacuated with the hospital in Mokotowska and ended up in a transit camp in Zeithan in Germany. When she reached Antoni, she served in the 2nd Battalion of the PWSK at the Armored Division from August 28, 1945 to February 25, 1947. Their son Piotr was born on January 2, 1947, in Germany.

Zofia Koper
Antoni worked tirelessly and engaged in scientific work. He wrote a doctoral thesis entitled "The Polish Press in Germany 1945-1947", which he defended at the Polish University Abroad (PUNO) in London. In the years 1947-1952, the family lived in London. The next stage of emigration was the United States. First, they settled in California, where Antoni was a lecturer at the Defense Language Institute. From 1959 he worked in Washington in a senior position at the United States Information Agency, collaborated with the radio station "Voice of America", and participated in the Association of Polish Combatants.
Antoni was honored after his death with the "Righteous Among the Nations" award, granted by the Israeli Yad Vashem Institute. The award was accepted by his wife Zofia.

The Antoni Koper Archive consists of 149 volumes and can be used in the Institute's research room.

Co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National

Heritage of the Republic of Poland