Institute of National Remembrance
Encyclopedia
Institute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation is a Polish government-affiliated research institute
with lustration
prerogatives and prosecution powers founded by specific legislation. It specialises in the legal
and historical
sciences and in particular the recent history of Poland
. IPN investigates both Nazi
and Communist crime
s committed in Poland, documents its findings and disseminates the results of its investigations to the public.
The Institute was established by the Polish Parliament on December 18, 1998. The Institute started its activities on July 1, 2000.
According to a new law which went into effect on March 15, 2007, IPN was to be mandated to carry out lustration
procedures prescribed by Polish law. However, key articles of that law were judged unconstitutional by Poland's constitutional court
on May 11, 2007 so the role of IPN in the lustration process is at present unclear.
The IPN is a founding member organisation of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience
.
include:
IPN collects, archives and organises documents about the Polish communist security apparatus (22 July 1944 to 31 December 1989).
(60%) of the Polish Parliament (Sejm
) with the approval of the Senate of Poland
on a request by a Collegium of IPN. The chairman has a 5-year term of office
. The first chairman of the IPN was Leon Kieres
, elected by the Sejm
for five years in 8 June 2000 (term 30 June 2000–29 December 2005). The second chairman was Janusz Kurtyka
, elected on 9 December 2005 with a term that started 29 December 2005 until his death in the Smolensk airplane crash
on 10 April 2010. The current chairman is Łukasz Kamiński (since 2011).
The IPN is divided into:
On 29 April 2010, acting president Bronislaw Komorowski
signed into law a parliamentary act that reformed the Institute of National Remembrance.
Among the most widely reported case investigated by the IPN thus far is the Jedwabne Pogrom
, an infamous pogrom of Polish Jews "committed directly by Poles, but inspired by the Germans" in 1941. A selection of other cases include:
s, panel discussions, film reviews, workshop
s and school lessons. Since December 2000 IPN has organized over 30 academic conference
s (particularly the Warsaw Congress of Science organized every year in September); 22 exhibitions in various museum
s and educational competitions involving thousands of students. "IPN Bulletin" is of an informative and popular-scientific
character and contains articles pertaining to the history of Poland in the years 1939-1990 as well as describes the current IPN activities. "Remembrance and Justice" appears every half a year and is a scientific historical magazine. IPN also publishes books which are usually edited as collections of documents, reports and memories, but also scientific elaborations (78 of such publications have appeared till April 2007).
The Public Education Office co-operates on a permanent basis with the Ministry of National Education and Sport, having signed a Co-operation Agreement in 2001. IPN gives opinions of curricula and textbooks on history that are used in Polish schools
and is involved in teacher training activities. The IPN also co-organizes postgraduate diploma studies on history at the Jagiellonian University
and the University of Maria Curie-Skłodowska.
powers. However, key articles of that law were judged unconstitutional by Poland's Constitutional Court on May 11, 2007, making the role of IPN in lustration unclear and putting the whole process into question.
). One incident which drew criticism involved the so-called Wildstein list
; a partial list of names of people who allegedly worked for the communist era Polish intelligence service, which was copied from IPN archives (without IPN permission) in 2004 by journalist Bronisław Wildstein and published in the Internet in 2005. The list gained much attention in Polish media and politics, and during that time IPN security procedures and handling of the matter came under criticism.
, the incumbent IPN president, was contested by Andrzej Przewoźnik
. Przewoźnik's candidature received a severe setback after documents were found which suggested his possible co-operation with Służba Bezpieczeństwa, the Communist Poland's internal intelligence agency and secret police. Przewoźnik was eventually cleared of the accusations, but not before he lost the election.
was published, declaring that :
This letter was signed by a former Prime Minister of Poland, Jan Olszewski
; the Mayor
of Zakopane
, Piotr Bąk; Polish-American Professor and member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council Marek Jan Chodakiewicz
; Professors Maria Dzielska, Piotr Franaszek and Tomasz Gąsowski of the Jagiellonian University
; Professor Marek Czachor of Gdańsk University of Technology
, journalist and writer Marcin Wolski
; Solidarity
co-founder Anna Walentynowicz
and dozens of others.
Research institute
A research institute is an establishment endowed for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research...
with lustration
Lustration
Lustration is the government process regulating the participation of former communists, especially informants of the communist secret police, in the successor political appointee positions or in civil service positions in the period after the fall of the various European Communist states in 1989 –...
prerogatives and prosecution powers founded by specific legislation. It specialises in the legal
Legal science
Legal Science is one of the social sciences which deals with the institutions and principles that particular societies have developed:Legal science is one of the main components in the civil law tradition .Legal science is primarily the creation of German legal scholars of the middle and late...
and historical
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
sciences and in particular the recent history of Poland
History of Poland
The History of Poland is rooted in the arrival of the Slavs, who gave rise to permanent settlement and historic development on Polish lands. During the Piast dynasty Christianity was adopted in 966 and medieval monarchy established...
. IPN investigates both Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and Communist crime
Communist crime
Communist crimes , is a legal definition used notably in Polish criminal law. The concept is also used more broadly internationally, and is employed by human rights NGOs as well as government agencies such as the Foundation for the Investigation of Communist Crimes, the Institute for Information on...
s committed in Poland, documents its findings and disseminates the results of its investigations to the public.
The Institute was established by the Polish Parliament on December 18, 1998. The Institute started its activities on July 1, 2000.
According to a new law which went into effect on March 15, 2007, IPN was to be mandated to carry out lustration
Lustration
Lustration is the government process regulating the participation of former communists, especially informants of the communist secret police, in the successor political appointee positions or in civil service positions in the period after the fall of the various European Communist states in 1989 –...
procedures prescribed by Polish law. However, key articles of that law were judged unconstitutional by Poland's constitutional court
Constitutional Tribunal of Poland
The Constitutional Tribunal of the Republic of Poland is a judicial body established to resolve disputes on the constitutionality of the activities of state institutions; its main task is to supervise the compliance of statutory law with the Constitution....
on May 11, 2007 so the role of IPN in the lustration process is at present unclear.
The IPN is a founding member organisation of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience
Platform of European Memory and Conscience
The Platform of European Memory and Conscience is an educational project of the European Union bringing together government institutions and organisations from EU countries active in research, documentation, awareness raising and education about the crimes of totalitarian regimes...
.
Purpose
IPN's main areas of activity and mission statementMission statement
A mission statement is a statement of the purpose of a company or organization. The mission statement should guide the actions of the organization, spell out its overall goal, provide a path, and guide decision-making...
include:
- researching and documenting
- losses which were suffered by the Polish Nation as the result of World War II and during the post-war period
- patriotic traditions of resistance against occupation
- Polish citizens' efforts to fight for an independent Polish State, in defence of freedom and human dignity
- crimes committed on Polish citizens, Polish people of other citizenships and citizens of other countries if wronged on Polish territories which are not affected by statute of limitationsStatute of limitationsA statute of limitations is an enactment in a common law legal system that sets the maximum time after an event that legal proceedings based on that event may be initiated...
according to Polish law, such as:- crimes of the Soviet and Polish communist regimes related to Poland and committed from 17 September 1939Soviet invasion of Poland (1939)The 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland was a Soviet military operation that started without a formal declaration of war on 17 September 1939, during the early stages of World War II. Sixteen days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west, the Soviet Union did so from the east...
until fall of communism on December 31, 1989 - deportationDeportationDeportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
s to the Soviet UnionSoviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
of Polish soldiers of Armia KrajowaArmia KrajowaThe Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
and other Polish resistance organizationsPolish resistance movement in World War IIThe Polish resistance movement in World War II, with the Home Army at its forefront, was the largest underground resistance in all of Nazi-occupied Europe, covering both German and Soviet zones of occupation. The Polish defence against the Nazi occupation was an important part of the European...
as well as Polish inhabitants of the former Polish eastern territories - pacificationPeacePeace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...
of Polish communities between VistulaVistulaThe Vistula is the longest and the most important river in Poland, at 1,047 km in length. The watershed area of the Vistula is , of which lies within Poland ....
and BugBug RiverThe Bug River is a left tributary of the Narew river flows from central Ukraine to the west, passing along the Ukraine-Polish and Polish-Belarusian border and into Poland, where it empties into the Narew river near Serock. The part between the lake and the Vistula River is sometimes referred to as...
Rivers in the years 1944 to 1947 by NKVDNKVDThe People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin.... - crimes committed by the law enforcement agencies of the Polish People's Republic, particularly Ministry of Public Security of PolandMinistry of Public Security of PolandThe Ministry of Public Security of Poland was a Polish communist secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage service operating from 1945 to 1954 under Jakub Berman of the Politburo...
and Main Directorate of Information of the Polish Army - crimes under the category of war crimes and crimes against humanity
- crimes of the Soviet and Polish communist regimes related to Poland and committed from 17 September 1939
- the duty to prosecute crimes against peace, humanity and war crimes
- the need to compensate for damages which were suffered by the repressed and harmed people in the times when human rights were disobeyed by the state
- educating the public about recent history of PolandHistory of PolandThe History of Poland is rooted in the arrival of the Slavs, who gave rise to permanent settlement and historic development on Polish lands. During the Piast dynasty Christianity was adopted in 966 and medieval monarchy established...
IPN collects, archives and organises documents about the Polish communist security apparatus (22 July 1944 to 31 December 1989).
Organisation
IPN was created by special legislation on 18 December 1998. IPN is governed by the Chairman. This chairman is chosen by a supermajoritySupermajority
A supermajority or a qualified majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level or type of support which exceeds a simple majority . In some jurisdictions, for example, parliamentary procedure requires that any action that may alter the rights of the minority has a supermajority...
(60%) of the Polish Parliament (Sejm
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
) with the approval of the Senate of Poland
Senate of Poland
The Senate is the upper house of the Polish parliament, the lower house being the 'Sejm'. The history of the Polish Senate is rich in tradition and stretches back over 500 years, it was one of the first constituent bodies of a bicameral parliament in Europe and existed without hiatus until the...
on a request by a Collegium of IPN. The chairman has a 5-year term of office
Term of office
Term of office or term in office refers to the length of time a person serves in a particular office.-Prime Minister:In the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister has no term limits...
. The first chairman of the IPN was Leon Kieres
Leon Kieres
Leon Kieres is a Polish lawyer and politician. He was the president of a Instytut Pamięci Narodowej ....
, elected by the Sejm
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
for five years in 8 June 2000 (term 30 June 2000–29 December 2005). The second chairman was Janusz Kurtyka
Janusz Kurtyka
Janusz Marek Kurtyka was a Polish historian, and from December 2005 until his death in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash, the second president of the Instytut Pamięci Narodowej ....
, elected on 9 December 2005 with a term that started 29 December 2005 until his death in the Smolensk airplane crash
2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash
The 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash occurred on 10 April 2010, when a Tupolev Tu-154M aircraft of the Polish Air Force crashed near the city of Smolensk, Russia, killing all 96 people on board...
on 10 April 2010. The current chairman is Łukasz Kamiński (since 2011).
The IPN is divided into:
- Main Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (Główna Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni Przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu)
- Bureau of Provision and Archivization of Documents (Biuro Udostępniania i Archiwizacji Dokumentów)
- Bureau of Public Education (or Public Education Office, Biuro Edukacji Publicznej)
- Lustration Bureau (Biuro Lustracyjne) (new bureau, since October 2006)
- local chapters.
On 29 April 2010, acting president Bronislaw Komorowski
Bronislaw Komorowski
Bronisław Maria Komorowski is the President of Poland. As Marshal of the Sejm , Komorowski exercised powers and duties of head of state following the death of President Lech Kaczyński in a plane crash on 10 April 2010...
signed into law a parliamentary act that reformed the Institute of National Remembrance.
Research
The research conducted by IPN from December 2000 falls into four main topical areas:- Security Apparatus and Civil Resistance (with separate sub-projects devoted to Political Processes and Prisoners 1944-1956, Soviet Repressions and Crimes committed against Polish Citizens and Martial Law: a Glance after Twenty Years);
- Functioning of the repression apparatus (state security and justice organs) - its organizational structure, cadres and relations with other state authority and party organs
- Activities of the repression apparatus directed against particular selected social groups and organizations
- Structure and methods of functioning of the People's Poland security apparatus
- Security apparatus in the combat with political and military underground 1944-1956
- Activities of the security apparatus against political emigreés
- Security apparatus in combat with the Church and freedom of belief
- Authorities vis-a-vis social crises and democratic opposition in the years 1956-1989 f) List of those repressed and sentenced to death
- Bibliography of the conspiracy, resistance and repression 1944-1989
- War, Occupation and the Polish Underground;
- deepening of knowledge about the structures and activities of the Polish Underground State
- examination of the human fates in the territories occupied by the Soviet regime and of Poles displaced into the Soviet Union
- assessment of sources on the life conditions under the Soviet and German Nazi occupations
- evaluation of the state of research concerning the victims of the war activities and extermination policy of the Soviet and German Nazi occupiers
- examining the Holocaust (Extermination of Jews) conducted by Nazis in the Polish territories
- Response of the Polish Underground State to the extermination of Jewish population
- The Polish Underground press and the Jewish question during the German Nazi occupation
- Poles and Other Nations in the Years 1939-1989 (with a part on Poles and Ukrainians);
- Poles and Ukrainians
- Poles and Lithuanians
- Poles and Germans
- Communist authorities - Belarusians - Underground
- Fate of Jewish people in the People's Republic of Poland
- Gypsies in Poland
- Peasants vis-a-vis People's Authority 1944-1989 (on the situation of peasants and the rural policy in the years 1944-1989)
- inhabitants of the rural areas vis-a-vis the creation of the totalitarian regime in Poland;
- peasants vis-a-vis the Sovietisation of Poland in the years 1948-1956;
- attitudes of the inhabitants of rural areas towards the state-Church conflict in the years 1956-1970;
- the role of peasants in the anti-Communist opposition of the 1970s and 1980s.
Among the most widely reported case investigated by the IPN thus far is the Jedwabne Pogrom
Jedwabne pogrom
The Jedwabne pogrom of July 1941 during German occupation of Poland, was a massacre of at least 340 Polish Jews of all ages. These are the official findings of the Institute of National Remembrance, "confirmed by the number of victims in the two graves, according to the estimate of the...
, an infamous pogrom of Polish Jews "committed directly by Poles, but inspired by the Germans" in 1941. A selection of other cases include:
- Bloody Sunday (1939), an alleged massacre of ethnic Germans by Poles after the German invasion of Poland
- German camps in occupied Poland during World War IIGerman camps in occupied Poland during World War IIThe German camps in occupied Poland during World War II were built by Nazi Germany in the course of its Occupation of Poland both in areas annexed by Germany and in General Gouvernment...
, the system of extermination, concentration, labor and POW camps operated by the German Nazis in occupied Poland - Holocaust in PolandHolocaust in PolandThe Holocaust, also known as haShoah , was a genocide officially sanctioned and executed by the Third Reich during World War II. It took the lives of three million Polish Jews, destroying an entire civilization. Only a small percentage survived or managed to escape beyond the reach of the Nazis...
, persecution of the Jews by the German Nazi occupation government in Poland - Katzmann ReportKatzmann ReportThe Katzmann Report is one of the most important testimonies relating to the Holocaust in Poland and extermination of Polish Jews...
, a detailed German report on extermination of Polish Jews - Kielce pogromKielce pogromThe Kielce pogrom was an outbreak of violence against the Jewish community in the city of Kielce, Poland on July 4, 1946, perpetrated by a mob of local townsfolk and members of the official government forces of the People's Republic of Poland...
, a post-war pogrom of Polish Jews by Poles - Koniuchy massacreKoniuchy massacreThe Koniuchy massacre was a massacre of civilians carried out by a Soviet partisan unit along with a contingent of Jewish partisans under their command during the Second World War in the Polish village of Koniuchy on January 29, 1944.-Massacre:A small local self defence unit was created to defend...
, a massacre carried out by Jewish and Soviet partisan - Kraków pogromKraków pogromThe Kraków pogrom refers to the events that occurred on August 11, 1945, in the city of Kraków, Poland, which resulted in one dead and five wounded victims.-Background:...
. - Massacre of Lwów professorsMassacre of Lwów professorsIn July 1941, 25 Polish academics from the city of Lwów, Poland ; now in Ukraine) were killed by Nazi German occupation forces along with their families and guests...
, the mass execution of approximately 45 Polish professors of the University of Lwów - Massacres of Poles in VolhyniaMassacres of Poles in VolhyniaThe Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia were part of an ethnic cleansing operation carried out by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army West in the Nazi occupied regions of the Eastern Galicia , and UPA North in Volhynia , beginning in March 1943 and lasting until the end of...
, an ethnic cleansing conducted by Ukrainians in Volhynia during World War II - Nazi crimes against ethnic PolesNazi crimes against ethnic PolesIn addition to about 2.9 million Polish Jews , about 2.8 million non-Jewish Polish citizens perished during the course of the war...
, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against ethnic Poles by Nazi Germany during World War II - NKVD prisoner massacres, a series of mass executions committed by Soviet NKVD against Polish prisoners
- Occupation of Poland (1939-1945) and treatment of Polish citizens by the occupants in that period
- Operation Vistula, the 1947 deportation of southeastern Poland's UkrainianUkrainiansUkrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
, BoykoBoykoBoyko or Boiko are a distinctive group of Ukrainian highlanders or mountain-dwellers of the Carpathian highlands. The Boykos inhabited the central and the western half of the Carpathians in Ukraine, including the Dolynskyi and a part of the Rozhniativskyi Raions in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast ,...
and Lemko populations by the post-war Soviet installed communist government of Poland in cooperation with Czechoslovakia and Soviet Union to the Western territories attached to Poland from Germany after WWII, the so called "Recovered TerritoriesRecovered TerritoriesRecovered or Regained Territories was an official term used by the People's Republic of Poland to describe those parts of pre-war Germany that became part of Poland after World War II...
" - Pawłokoma massacre, a massacre in 1945 of Ukrainian civilians by Polish partisans
- Ponary massacrePonary massacreThe Ponary massacre was the mass-murder of 100,000 people, mostly Polish Jews, by German SD and SS and Lithuanian Nazi collaborators Sonderkommando collaborators...
, the mass-murder of about 100,000 people performed by Germans and Lithuanians on Poles and Jews - Poznań 1956 protestsPoznan 1956 protestsThe Poznań 1956 protests, also known as Poznań 1956 uprising or Poznań June , were the first of several massive protests of the Polish people against the communist government of the People's Republic of Poland...
, the first of several massive protests of the Polish people against the communist government of the People's Republic of Poland - Przyszowice massacrePrzyszowice massacreThe Przyszowice massacre was a massacre perpetrated by the Red Army against civilian inhabitants of the Polish village of Przyszowice in Upper Silesia during the period January 26 to January 28, 1945. Sources vary on the number of victims, which range from 54 to over 60 – and possibly as many as 69...
committed by Red Army on Polish villagers of Poland and other Red Army atrocitiesRed Army atrocitiesWar crimes perpetrated by the armed forces of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union from 1919 to 1991 include acts committed by the regular army—the Red Army —as well as the NKVD, including the NKVD's Internal Troops. In some cases, these crimes may have been committed on express orders of the early...
in Poland - Salomon MorelSalomon MorelSalomon Morel was a Polish Communist official and an accused war criminal. After the end of World War II, he became the commander of the infamous Zgoda labour camp...
, a case of a Polish Jew running post-war camp were political prisoners were persecuted - Special CourtsSpecial CourtsSpecial Courts were the underground courts organized by the Polish Government in Exile during World War II in occupied Poland. The courts determined punishments for the citizens of Poland who were subject to the Polish law before the war.-History:After the Polish Defense War of 1939...
, the underground courts organized by the Polish Government in Exile - Wąsosz pogromWasosz pogromThe Wąsosz pogrom was the mass murder of Jewish residents of Wąsosz in Nazi German occupied Poland that took place on July 7, 1941, during World War II.- Circumstances surrounding the pogrom :...
, a pogrom of Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland - ŻegotaZegota"Żegota" , also known as the "Konrad Żegota Committee", was a codename for the Polish Council to Aid Jews , an underground organization of Polish resistance in German-occupied Poland from 1942 to 1945....
, Polish underground organization with the purpose of aiding persecuted Jews in German occupied Poland.
Education
IPN is involved in dissemination of its research results in the form of publications (particularly the "IPN Bulletin" and "Remembrance and Justice" periodicals), exhibitions, seminarSeminar
Seminar is, generally, a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some particular subject, in which everyone present is...
s, panel discussions, film reviews, workshop
Workshop
A workshop is a room or building which provides both the area and tools that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods...
s and school lessons. Since December 2000 IPN has organized over 30 academic conference
Academic conference
An academic conference or symposium is a conference for researchers to present and discuss their work. Together with academic or scientific journals, conferences provide an important channel for exchange of information between researchers.-Overview:Conferences are usually composed of various...
s (particularly the Warsaw Congress of Science organized every year in September); 22 exhibitions in various museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
s and educational competitions involving thousands of students. "IPN Bulletin" is of an informative and popular-scientific
Popular science
Popular science, sometimes called literature of science, is interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is broad-ranging, often written by scientists as well as journalists, and is presented in many...
character and contains articles pertaining to the history of Poland in the years 1939-1990 as well as describes the current IPN activities. "Remembrance and Justice" appears every half a year and is a scientific historical magazine. IPN also publishes books which are usually edited as collections of documents, reports and memories, but also scientific elaborations (78 of such publications have appeared till April 2007).
The Public Education Office co-operates on a permanent basis with the Ministry of National Education and Sport, having signed a Co-operation Agreement in 2001. IPN gives opinions of curricula and textbooks on history that are used in Polish schools
Education in Poland
Since changes made in 2009 Education in Poland starts at the age of five or six for the 0 class and six or seven years in the 1st class of primary school . It is compulsory that children do one year of formal education before entering 1st class at no later than 7 years of age...
and is involved in teacher training activities. The IPN also co-organizes postgraduate diploma studies on history at the Jagiellonian University
Jagiellonian University
The Jagiellonian University was established in 1364 by Casimir III the Great in Kazimierz . It is the oldest university in Poland, the second oldest university in Central Europe and one of the oldest universities in the world....
and the University of Maria Curie-Skłodowska.
Lustration
On 18 December 2006 Polish law regulating IPN was changed and came into effect on 15 March 2007. This change gave IPN new lustrationLustration
Lustration is the government process regulating the participation of former communists, especially informants of the communist secret police, in the successor political appointee positions or in civil service positions in the period after the fall of the various European Communist states in 1989 –...
powers. However, key articles of that law were judged unconstitutional by Poland's Constitutional Court on May 11, 2007, making the role of IPN in lustration unclear and putting the whole process into question.
Role in lustration and Wildstein list
One of the most controversial aspects of IPN is a by-product of its role in collecting and publishing previously secret archives from the Polish security apparatus: revealing secret agents and collaborators (a process called lustrationLustration
Lustration is the government process regulating the participation of former communists, especially informants of the communist secret police, in the successor political appointee positions or in civil service positions in the period after the fall of the various European Communist states in 1989 –...
). One incident which drew criticism involved the so-called Wildstein list
Wildstein List
The Wildstein List is a list which contains the names of some 162,617 individuals who are believed to either have worked for the Polish Służba Bezpieczeństwa , or who SB considered recruiting , or who were under investigation by SB...
; a partial list of names of people who allegedly worked for the communist era Polish intelligence service, which was copied from IPN archives (without IPN permission) in 2004 by journalist Bronisław Wildstein and published in the Internet in 2005. The list gained much attention in Polish media and politics, and during that time IPN security procedures and handling of the matter came under criticism.
IPN presidential election
The election of a new IPN president in December 2005 was controversial. Janusz KurtykaJanusz Kurtyka
Janusz Marek Kurtyka was a Polish historian, and from December 2005 until his death in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash, the second president of the Instytut Pamięci Narodowej ....
, the incumbent IPN president, was contested by Andrzej Przewoźnik
Andrzej Przewoźnik
Andrzej Przewoźnik was a Polish historian, Secretary of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites....
. Przewoźnik's candidature received a severe setback after documents were found which suggested his possible co-operation with Służba Bezpieczeństwa, the Communist Poland's internal intelligence agency and secret police. Przewoźnik was eventually cleared of the accusations, but not before he lost the election.
Praise
IPN actions have also attracted support. In 2006 an open letterOpen letter
An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally....
was published, declaring that :
"History of SolidarityHistory of SolidarityThe history of Solidarity , a Polish non-governmental trade union, begins in August 1980, at the Lenin Shipyards at its founding by Lech Wałęsa and others. In the early 1980s, it became the first independent labor union in a Soviet-bloc country...
and anti-communist resistance in PolandAnti-communist resistance in PolandAnti-communist resistance in Poland can be divided into two types: the armed partisan struggle, mostly led by former Armia Krajowa and Narodowe Siły Zbrojne soldiers, which ended in the late 1950s , and the non-violent, civil-resistance struggle that culminated in the creation and victory of the...
cannot be damaged by scientific studies and resulting increase in our knowledge of the past. History of opposition to totalitarianismTotalitarianismTotalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
belongs to millions of Poles and not to one social or political group which usurps the right to decide which parts of national history should be discussed and which forgotten."
This letter was signed by a former Prime Minister of Poland, Jan Olszewski
Jan Olszewski
Jan Ferdynand Olszewski is a Polish lawyer and political figure. He is best known for serving as Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland from 1991 to 1992....
; the Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Zakopane
Zakopane
Zakopane , is a town in southern Poland. It lies in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998 it was in of Nowy Sącz Province, but since 1999 it has been in Lesser Poland Province. It had a population of about 28,000 as of 2004. Zakopane is a...
, Piotr Bąk; Polish-American Professor and member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council Marek Jan Chodakiewicz
Marek Jan Chodakiewicz
Marek Jan Chodakiewicz is a Polish-American historian specializing in East Central European history of the 19th and 20th century. His historical works include: After the Holocaust: Polish-Jewish Relations in the Wake of World War II, and Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland...
; Professors Maria Dzielska, Piotr Franaszek and Tomasz Gąsowski of the Jagiellonian University
Jagiellonian University
The Jagiellonian University was established in 1364 by Casimir III the Great in Kazimierz . It is the oldest university in Poland, the second oldest university in Central Europe and one of the oldest universities in the world....
; Professor Marek Czachor of Gdańsk University of Technology
Gdansk University of Technology
The Gdańsk University of Technology is a technical university in Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz, and one of the oldest universities in Poland. It has nine faculties and more than 24 thousand undergraduate, as well as about 400 doctoral students...
, journalist and writer Marcin Wolski
Marcin Wolski
Marcin Wolski is a Polish writer, journalist and satirist. As a journalist, he writes for Wprost, Gazeta Polska and Tygodnik Solidarność. Many of his novels mix elements of science fiction, fantasy and political fiction and he was nominated for Janusz A. Zajdel Award 3 times.-References:...
; Solidarity
Solidarity
Solidarity is a Polish trade union federation that emerged on August 31, 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa. It was the first non-communist party-controlled trade union in a Warsaw Pact country. Solidarity reached 9.5 million members before its September 1981 congress...
co-founder Anna Walentynowicz
Anna Walentynowicz
Anna Walentynowicz was a Polish free trade union activist. Her firing in August 1980 was the event that ignited the strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk that very quickly paralyzed the Baltic coast and a giant wave of strikes in Poland...
and dozens of others.
External links
- IPN Home Page (English) old Act of 18 December 1998 on the Institute of National Remembrance - Commission for Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (Ustawa z dnia 18 grudnia 1998 r. o Instytucie Pamięci Narodowej - Komisji Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu) old Act of 18 December 1998 on the Institute of National Remembrance - Commission for Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation