Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 16:27, 25 April 2007

Template:Totallydisputed

Institute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (Template:Lang-pl; IPN) is a Polish government-affiliated research institute and lustration institution 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, lustration, 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).

The IPN is divided into:

• Main Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (Główna Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni Przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu)
• Lustration bureau (Biuro Lustracyjne.)
• 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.

According to the Chapter 5a of the Law of December 18, 1998 "On the Instutute of National Remembrance", Lustration bureau of the Instutute of National Remembrance performs the following Lustration functions:

1. maintains the register of lustration statements;
2. analyzes lustration statements and collects the information necessary for its correct assesment;
3. prepares procedure of lustration;
4. notifies respective bodies about non-perfomance by non-judicial bodies of obligations in accordance with this Law;
5. prepares and publishes catalogues containing personal data on individuals, against whom there are saved documents:

a) produced by this individual or with its participation in connection with its activities as a secret informator or assistant in operative colleting of information
b) from the content of which it follows that this individual was regarded by security services as a secret informator or assistant in operative colleting of information.

Current lustration by IPN is obligatory for 53 categories including all teachers, journalists, diplomats, ministers, members of parliament, public notaries, local government officials, judges, prosecutors, tax advisers, attorneys, all academics (pracownicy nauki i szkolnictwa wyzszego). 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 Wildstein copied from IPN computer the list of 240 000 individuals and published it on the internet. .

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.

Elections of the IPN president

Elections of new IPN president in December 2005 were also criticized. Janusz Kurtyka, current IPN president, was challenged by Andrzej Przewoźnik, a historian from Jagiellonian University. Przewoźnik candidature received a sever blow documents were found indicating he had connections with secret services. Przewoźnik was eventually cleared from he accusations, but in the meantime he lost the IPN elections.

Use of IPN to search for communist collaborators

One of the most controversial aspects of IPN is their function of researching and certifying information from the 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 Łuczywo 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".. Gazeta Wyborcza itself admits to employing former collaborator Leszek Maleszka who spied on opposition members. A priest Michał Czajkowski who blessed the foundation of new office by Gazeta Wyborcza and friend of the newspaper was also revealed as communist agent. After initially denying it and Wyborcza journalist writing in his defence, Czajkowski admitted his guild and collaboration with communist era security aparatus .

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 lustration 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.

These accusations also were shared by Russian Magazine Ogonyok, NTV Russian TV channel, Italian newspaper La Stampa, Russian analytical magazine GoblalRus.

Kuroń and Wielgus affairs

Much controversy was caused when in late 2006 Polish newspaper Życie Warszawy interpreted some of IPN presented alledging that one of the most popular Polish politicians, the recently deceased Jacek Kuroń, might have had contacts with the communist secret police. Antoni Dudek of IPN issued a statement that IPN takes no stance in this discussion, and the new documents only contribute to a better understaing of the history of Polish Roundtable Agreement.

Similar controversy was caused after revelation that Stanisław Wielgus, former Roman Catholic archbishop of Warsaw, was a communist secret police informer. Archbishop Wielgus is the highest-ranking Church leader to admit that he agreed to spy for an East European communist state.

Similar documents, catalogued and made public by IPN research, surfaced several in Polish politics, with varying accusations as to what faction of Polish politicians is trying to use them to damage another faction. Such discussions were common in Polish politics even before IPN centralized the communist archives: Jan Olszewski's government in 1992 after the Interior Minister, Antoni Macierewicz, was accused of using such documents for political gain. Later Vice-Premier Janusz Tomaszewski was forced to resign merely because he was called before the lustration court in 2000. Such documents also were mentioned during Polish presidential election, 2000, when it was alleged two recent Polish presidents and candidates to the elections, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, and Lech Wałęsa, might have had contacts with communist secret police.

Response to Kuron affair

IPN actions have also attracted support as well. In 2006 an open letter was published, declaring that :

"History of Solidarity and anti-communist resistance in Poland cannot be damaged by scientific studies and resulting increase in our knowledge of the past. History of opposition to totalitarism belongs to millions of Poles and not of one social or politicial group which usurps the right to decide which parts of national history should be discussed and which forgotten."

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 Maria Dzielska, Piotr Franaszek and Tomasz Gąsowski 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.

References

1. ^ Nauka polska: Instytucje naukowe - identyfikator rekordu: i6575
2. ^ About the Institute From IPN Polish website. Last accessed on 20 April 2007
3. the Law of December 18, 1998 "On the Instutute of National Remembrance"
4. ^ MagazineOgonyok editorial "With scribe and sword" No7, 12-18 February, 2007
5. Wojciech Czuchnowski, Bronisław Wildstein: człowiek z listą, Gazeta Wyborcza, last accessed on 12 May 2006
6. Template:Pl icon Olejniczak: Kurtyka powinien zrezygnować, Polish Press Agency, 13 December 2005, last accessed on 20 April 2007
7. ^ Tom Hundley, Poland looks back in anger, 1 December 2006, Chicago Tribune
8. ^ Matthew McAllester, Poland's dirty laundry, 12 February 2007, Newsday
9. Daniel McLaughlin, Fear of McCarthy-style purge as Poles face sack for secret police links, Wednesday July 26, 2006, The Guardian
10. NTV TV channel news report "Ideologists of lustration suggest full clean-up of Poland" April 21, 2007
11. Albert Akopyan "Selective national memory", 16 March 2007, GlobalRus analytical journal
12. ^ Template:Pl icon [http://wiadomosci.wp.pl/wiadomosc.html?kat=9912&wid=8480045&rfbawp=1156840986.043 Kuroń prowadził negocjacje z SB, Życie Warszawy, 29 August 2006, last accessed on 20 April 2007.
13. ^ Template:Pl icon Dudek: dokumenty o negocjacjach Kuronia z SB nie są przełomem, Polish Press Agency, 29 August 2006, last accessed on 20 April 2007.
14. Archbishop's prompt resignation prompts Vatican embarrassment, relief Catholic News Service, 2007-01-08
15. "Poland's controversial lustration trials", Central Europe Review, Vol 2, No 3011 September 2000, last accessed on 20 April 2007
16. ^ List w "obronie historyków z IPN", Polish Press Agency article reprinted on Wirtualna Polska. Last accessed on 20 April 2007.
17. Copy of a letter, Tezusz, Last accessed on 20 April 2007

External links

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

• 1998 establishments
• Organizations based in Poland
• History of Poland (1989–present)