The records of the Polish Activities League (PAL) comprise six linear feet with an additional four oversize volumes and one financial ledger on microfilm. The record group is organized into the following series: Background Information, Organizational Files, Scrapbooks, and Photographs. Much of the record group is in Polish.
The Detroit Polish Activities League has a history extending back to 1915 when, in response to the First World War, the Detroit Polish Women's Relief Committee was formed. The Committee coordinated the activities of already existing Polish women's charitable organizations on behalf of war victims in Poland.
After the War, the Committee turned its attention closer to home. It decided to become a permanent social service agency, serving the needs of Polish families and individuals in metropolitan Detroit. Thus the group affiliated with the League of Catholic Women, changed its name to the Committee for Polish Affairs, and set up headquarters in the League's St. Anne's Community House.
Having gained experience and confidence under the aegis of the League of Catholic Women, the Committee nevertheless felt the need to move beyond the scope of Catholic charities. Accordingly, in 1924 the Committee became the Polish Activities League and opened St. Elizabeth's Community House to serve as its new headquarters.
The Polish Activities League (PAL) aimed at helping Polish immigrants adjust to their new lives without resorting to hasty, and in PAL's judgment, ill-advised, attempts at "Americanization." Instead, PAL offered a wide variety of social services intended to bolster, not erode, Polish ethnicity, especially in language and religion. Some of these services included care for Polish veterans, monetary aid to indigent Poles, and the seeking out of immigrants, especially girls and young women, in order to help them find employment. PAL also counseled families with marital problems and cooperated with the courts in helping juvenile delinquents. PAL taught courses in English, citizenship, and organized numerous clubs in the Community Houses.
PAL was originally a women's organization, but a men's division was formed in 1928. Around the same time PAL opened a summer camp for children (St. Mary's) and began publishing a monthly bilingual magazine for women, that unfortunately did not survive the Depression. In 1932 PAL opened a Relief Restaurant and a Polish Veteran's Home.
Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939 focused PAL's attention overseas once more. The organization sent food, clothing and money to Poland. In addition, they sent three petitions to President Roosevelt protesting Nazi atrocities. After Pearl Harbor, PAL not only supported the U.S. War effort, but also began to train social workers for rehabilitation work in Poland. The emergence of a communist government in Poland ended this plan, however.
After the war PAL began a weekly series of radio broadcasts in Polish and opened St. Mary's Home for the Aged (subsequently moved to Livonia) and bought St. Anne's Community House from the League of Catholic Women. As the old neighborhoods began to change, however, PAL found a diminishing clientele for its services. In 1956 PAL was put under the jurisdiction of the Catholic Youth Organization, and with this protection managed to survive, although St. Anne's Community House was forced to close in 1973.
