Institute of National Remembrance

File:IPN logo.jpg

IPN Logo

Institute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (Polish: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej — Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu; IPN) is a Polish government-affiliated research institute specializing in recent history of Poland and legal science.

Its main purpose is investigating Nazi and Communist crimes committed in Poland, documenting them, providing this documentation to the public, prosecuting those who committed such crimes, and educating the public in this respect.

Purpose

IPN goals and mission statement include:

• researching and documenting
  • losses which were suffered by the Polish Nation as a result of the World War II and the post-war period
  • patriotic traditions of fighting against occupants, Nazism and Communism
  • Polish citizens' efforts to fight for an independent Polish State, in defense 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 limitations according to Polish law, such as:
    • deportations of Polish soldiers of Armia Krajowa and other Polish resistance organizations, as well as Polish inhabitants of former Polish eastern territories to the Soviet Union
    • crimes committed by communist law enforcement agencies, particulary Ministry of Public Security of Poland and Main Directorate of Information of the Polish Army
    • pacification of Polish lands between Vistula and Bug rivers in the years 1944 to 1947 by NKVD
    • communist crimes related to Poland committed from 17 September 1939 to 31 December 1989
    • crimes that fall under the category of war crimes and crimes against humanity
• 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
• documenting and educating the public about recent history of Poland

IPN collects, archives and organizes documents of Polish communist security apparatus (22 July 1944 to 31 December 1989).

Organization

IPN was created by a speciall bill on 18 December 1998.

IPN is governed by the Chairman. Chairman is chosen by supermajority (60%) of the Polish parliament (Sejm) with the approval of Senate of Poland on a request by a Collegium of IPN. 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 current chairman is Janusz Kurtyka, elected on 9 December 2005 (term started 29 December 2005).

Elections of new IPN president in December 2005 were accompanied with lustration scandal. Janosz Kurtyka, current IPN president, was rivaled by Andrzej Przewoznik, also historian from Krakow Jaggielonian University. But Przewoznik was discredited by suddenly appeared documents which were confirming his connections with secret services. The scandal was aggravated by the fact, that these documents were coming from Krakow IPN unit, which was headed by Przewoznik himself..

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 (Biuro Edukacji Publicznej)
• Local chapters

Activities

The research conducted by IPN from December 2000 fall 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);
• War, Occupation and the Polish Underground;
• Poles and Other Nations in the Years 1939-1989 (with a part on Poles and Ukrainians);
• Peasants vis-a-vis People's Authority 1944-1989 (on the situation of peasants and the rural policy in the years 1944-1989)
• lustration.

Current lustration by IPN is obligatory for all teachers, journalists, diplomats, ministers, members of parliament, public notaries, local government officials and judges. Each year IPN issues 40 000 certificates for individuals confirming their status as individuals "which never cooperated with secret services". In January, 2005, the rightist journalist Bronislav Vildstein copied from IPN computer the list of 240 000 individuals and published it on the internet. .

IPN also censured popular in Poland movie "Four tankmen and a dog".

Among the most widely reported case investigated by the IPN thus far is the Jedwabne Pogrom. Other cases include:

• Bloody Sunday (1939)
• German camps in occupied Poland during World War II
• Holocaust in Poland
• Kielce pogrom
• Koniuchy massacre
• Massacre of Lwów professors
• Massacres of Poles in Volhynia
• Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles
• NKVD prisoner massacres
• Occupation of Poland (1939-1945)
• Operation Wisła
• Pawłokoma massacre
• Ponary massacre
• Poznań 1956 protests
• Przyszowice massacre
• Red Army atrocities
• Salomon Morel
• Special Courts
• Wąsosz pogrom

IPN is involved in dissemination of its research results in the form of publications (particulary the "IPN Bulletin"), exhibitions, seminars and in other way. Since December 2000 IPN has organized over 30 academic conferences.

Criticism

Wildstein list

Wildstein list refers to the partial list of names of people persecuted by communist government and its agents which was illegaly carried out from IPN archives in 2004 by journalist Bronisław Wildsein 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 were criticized.

Use of IPN by the government of Poland

One of the most controversial aspects of IPN is a byproduct of their organizing of previously secret archives of Polish security apparatus: revealing secret agents and collaborators (a process called lustration)

Some of Polish journalists are strong in their evaluation of IPN. Helena Luczivo of Gazeta Wyborcza maintains that "The use of state security dossiers to discredit and defame political opponents is not a new method. The same weapon was used by communists Gomulka and Gerek and during martial law period in Poland"..

In 2006 and 2007 the use of IPN by the Polish government - primarily the ruling Prawo i Sprawiedliwość party - came under criticism by some journalists and politicians. One of the major policy changes of the PiS party was to raise the issue of unresolved crimes from the times of communist People's Republic of Poland. The critics of the government noted the abandonment of the thick line policy, which is forcing of all politicians, civil servants and others in positions of public trust to undergo a background check by the IPN. Since the results of those background checks are public, it is alledged that the motive of the PiS government is not justice but a smear campaign on their opposition. Further, IPN itself has been criticized for reliance on possibly falsified documents of Polish communist secret police (Służba Bezpieczeństwa). In addition to pro-opposition media in Poland, that issue has also been picked by some media outlets outside Poland, such as The Guardian, Chicago Tribune or Newsday. The Guardian drew a parallel to McCarthyism in United States and journalist Matthew McAllester of Newsday described the events as a political witch hunt. NTV Russian TV channel, named IPN as "unofficial political police". Russian magazine Ogonyok reported that IPN is a governmental, and not academic, organization which "performs criminal prosecution functions" and "rewrites history". Ogonyok described IPN as "Ministry of Truth" referring to George Orwell "1984" novel. . IPN was named by Italian newspaper "La Stampa", "a factory of national vengeance"..

Support of IPN in Jaceck Kuronia affair

A number of distinguished Solidarity movement memebers, like Jaceck Kuronia, were convicted by IPN, including most recently archbiscup Stanislav Velgus nominated for Warsaw Mithropolit. . After critical publications in Polish press about IPN activities and defamation by IPN of Solidarnosc movement, an open letter was published in 2006, declaring that :

"History of Solidarity and anti-communist opposition in Poland cannot be damaged neither by scientific studies of sources, nor by resulting from it increase in our knowledge of the past. History of anti-totalitarian opposition is a property of millions of Poles and not to one social, or politicial group which usurps the right to decide which parts of national past should be disseminated and which should be silenced".

This letter was signed by former Prime Minister of Poland, Jan Olszewski, mayor of Zakopane, Piotr Bąk, Polish-American professor and member of United States Holocaust Memorial Council Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, professors Tomasz Gąsowski, Tomasz Gąsowski, Piotr Franaszek and Maria Dzielska of Jagiellonian University, professor Marek Czachor of Gdańsk University of Technology, journalists and writers Marcin Wolski and Ryszard Kapuściński, Solidarity cofunder Anna Walentynowicz, and dozens of others.

External links

• IPN Home Page (English)
• "Poland's controversial lustration trials", from "Central Europe Review"