| Polish: Komitet Narodowy Amerykanów Polskiego Pochodzenia | |
| Formation | June 20–21, 1942 |
|---|---|
| Dissolved | 1959 |
| Purpose | Defending Polish independence and territorial integrity in the aftermath of World War II |
Official language | English, Polish |
Key people | Wacław Jędrzejewicz, Ignacy Matuszewski, Henryk Floyar-Rajchman, Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski |
Parent organization | Polish American Congress (uniting in 1944) |
National Committee of Americans of Polish Extraction, (Polish: Komitet Narodowy Amerykanów Polskiego Pochodzenia or KNAPP)also known as the National Committee of Americans of Polish Descent or its Polish abbreviation KNAPP , was a Polish-American organization active in the years 1942-1959 in the United States.
KNAPP was created in 1942 by Polish activists in the United States to lobby for Poland's independence during World War II. The organization viewed Stalin as a threat to Poland, and campaigned against British and American politicians as they made concessions giving Poland to the Soviet Union. Many Polish Americans joined the cause of the KNAPP and other Polonia organizations during World War II; the group's membership and public visibility peaked in 1944. In 1944, KNAPP started a nationwide Polish American Congress to assemble Polish American leaders for an annual meeting in Buffalo, New York.
Following the Yalta Agreement, KNAPP issued messages to its supporters in outrage that the Allies had not honored Poland's pre-war borders and effectively handed Poland to the USSR. The organization continued in the postwar years lobbying American politicians to raise awareness of atrocities committed against Poles in the Soviet Union.