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Institute of National Remembrance

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IPN Logo

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 specializing in the recent history of Poland and legal science.

It investigates Nazi and Communist crimes committed in Poland, documents its findings and disseminates the results of its investigations to the public. It also prosecutes those who allegedly committed such crimes and has a public education role.

Since 15 March 2007 IPN has also became an important institution in the lustration process - providing certificates for individuals declaring that they had no ties with the security apparatus of the Polish People's Republic.

Purpose

IPN's goals and mission statement include:

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

Organization

IPN was created by a special 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)
  • Bureau of Provision and Archivization of Documents (Biuro Udostępniania i Archiwizacji Dokumentów)
  • Bureau of Public Education (Biuro Edukacji Publicznej)
  • Lustration Bureau (Biuro Lustracyjne) (new bureau, since October 2006)
  • Local chapters

Activities

Research

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)

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

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.

Lustration

On 18 December 2006 the Polish law regulating IPN has been chancged (in effect since 15 March 2007), giving IPN new powers and replacing the old lustration institution, the Spokseman for Public Interest (Rzecznik Interesu Publicznego). According to the novelized 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 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.

Lustration laws have been adopted by several other post-communist countries (for example in Germany - Vergangenheitsbewältigung).. First Polish lustration laws were addopted in 1997; only since 2007 they officially involve IPN.

Criticism

Wildstein list

Wildstein list refers to the partial list of names of people persecuted by the communist government and its agents which was illegally removed from IPN archives 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 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 by the government

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)

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.

Kuroń and Wielgus affairs

Much controversy was caused when in late 2006 Polish newspaper Życie Warszawy interpreted some of IPN presented alleging 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 understating 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 criticism

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 totalitarianism 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 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. ^ Template:Pl icon Nowelizacja ustawy z dnia 18 grudnia 1998 r. o Instytucie Pamięci Narodowej – Komisji Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu oraz ustawy z dnia 18 października 2006 r. o ujawnianiu informacji o dokumentach organów bezpieczeństwa państwa z lat 1944–1990 oraz treści tych dokumentów. Last accessed on 24 April 2006
  3. ^ About the Institute From IPN English website. Last accessed on 20 April 2007
  4. Template:Pl iconAbout the Institute About the Institute From IPN Polish website. Last accessed on 24 April 2007
  5. ^ Public Education Office IPN website. Last accessed on 24 April 2007
  6. Template:Pl icon Najważniejsze wiadomości - Informacje i materiały pomocnicze dla organów realizujących postanowienia ustawy lustracyjnej IPN News. Last accessed on 24 April 2007
  7. Template:Pl icon Biuro Lustracyjne IPN w miejsce Rzecznika Interesu Publicznego, Gazeta Wyborcza, 15 March 2007, Last accessed on 24 April 2007
  8. ^ Mark S. Ellis, Purging the past: The Current State of Lustration Laws in the Former Communist Bloc (pdf), Law and Contemporary Problems, Vol. 59, No. 4, Accountability for International Crimes and Serious Violations of Fundamental Human Rights (Autumn, 1996), pp. 181-196]
  9. Wojciech Czuchnowski, Bronisław Wildstein: człowiek z listą, Gazeta Wyborcza, last accessed on 12 May 2006
  10. Template:Pl icon Olejniczak: Kurtyka powinien zrezygnować, Polish Press Agency, 13 December 2005, last accessed on 20 April 2007
  11. ^ Tom Hundley, Poland looks back in anger, 1 December 2006, Chicago Tribune
  12. ^ Matthew McAllester, Poland's dirty laundry, 12 February 2007, Newsday
  13. Daniel McLaughlin, Fear of McCarthy-style purge as Poles face sack for secret police links, Wednesday July 26, 2006, The Guardian
  14. ^ Template:Pl icon Kuroń prowadził negocjacje z SB, Życie Warszawy, 29 August 2006, last accessed on 20 April 2007.
  15. ^ 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.
  16. Archbishop's prompt resignation prompts Vatican embarrassment, relief Catholic News Service, 2007-01-08
  17. "Poland's controversial lustration trials", Central Europe Review, Vol 2, No 3011 September 2000, last accessed on 20 April 2007
  18. ^ List w "obronie historyków z IPN", Polish Press Agency article reprinted on Wirtualna Polska. Last accessed on 20 April 2007.
  19. Copy of a letter, Tezusz, Last accessed on 20 April 2007

External links

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