airplane. Money was collected not only in Poland - on October 1, 1936 Theophil Starzynski, President of The Polish Falcons of America called for help raise American money in support of the military equipment needs of Poland, threatened by Nazi Germany. Also, Poles from Yugoslavia collected by June 1939 the amount of 380,118 dinars. Polish government divided everything into two groups - cash money and other items. The money was immediately used for purchases of arms and ammunition, distributed to several divisions of the Army. Usually, locals would support their own garrison - e.g. in 1938 children from Elementary School Number 6 in Płock collected money for a machine gun, presented to the Płock garrison. According to professor Wojciech Roszkowski, in the years 1936-1939 about 3 million Poles provided the Fund with their money or valuables. World War II and its aftermath In September 1939, with the fall of Poland imminent after several weeks of hostilities (see: Polish September Campaign) such items as jewelry, gold and silver were taken to France, by minister and diplomat Waclaw Jedrzejewicz as well as other members of the government. Also, during the war, money and valuables were collected among Polish communities of United States and Canada. In 1945 the Polish government in exile in London decided that FON sources would be used to help members of the disbanded Armia Krajowa. Two years later, the so-called "Committee of the Three" (General Stanisław Tatar, Colonels Marian Utnik and Stanisław Nowicki), who administered the fund, decided to send it back to Communist-controlled Poland. Until March 1948 it was overseen by the Ministry of Treasury, then passed to the National Bank of Poland. In 1951 parts of it (around 122 kilograms) were smelted into gold bars; fate of some of them is still unknown. What remains, are silver gifts, which are now stored in the Royal Castle in Warsaw. References http://portalwiedzy.onet.pl/33336,haslo.html http://www.sierpc.com.pl/historia.php?strona=def1.html http://encyklopedia.interia.pl/haslo?hid=75132 https://web.archive.org/web/20090403074235/http://www.smzk.vip.interia.pl/wrzesien_1939_Polska.htm http://www.kampaniawrzesniowa.pl/ogol.php?nazwa=1.6.1. Marta Maclewska, Anna Szczecina, Borys Paszkiewicz. Zamek Królewski (Warsaw, Poland). OCLC: 84713362 External links A decree of President Moscicki, creating the Fund Receipt signed by Marian Rzeznicki from Knyszyn, stating that Jewish community of the town gave 15 zlotys for FON Boguslaw Kaczynski’s speech about Jan Kiepura and his participation in FON Letter of a Polish MP Andrzej Osnowski, inquiring about fate of gold bars http://www.polishfalcons.org/aboutus/history/timeline.html 1936 establishments in Poland Military history of Poland during World War II Economic history of Poland