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{{short description|Polish government-affiliated institute}} |
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{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2013}} |
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{{about|the Polish institute|other uses|Institute of National Memory (disambiguation)}} |
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{{use dmy dates|date=October 2020}} |
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{{Infobox organization |
{{Infobox organization |
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|name |
| name = Institute of National Remembrance<br />''Instytut Pamięci Narodowej'' |
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|image |
| image = Logo IPN.jpg |
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|image_border = |
| image_border = |
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|size |
| size = 162px |
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|alt |
| alt = Institute of National Remembrance logo |
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|caption |
| caption = The logo of IPN{{Clear}}[[Image:Empark Mokotów Business Park ul. Postępu 2020.jpg|230px]]{{Clear}}IPN headquarters at 1 Kurtyki Street in Warsaw |
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|map |
| map = <!-- or location --> |
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|msize |
| msize = 200px |
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|malt |
| malt = IPN headquarters |
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|mcaption |
| mcaption = |
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|abbreviation = IPN |
| abbreviation = IPN |
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| formation = {{Start date and age|df=yes|1998|12|18|p=y}} |
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|motto = Our history creates our identity.<ref name="ipn.gov">[http://www.ipn.gov.pl/dokumenty/zalaczniki/2-628.pdf The Institute of National Remembrance Guide, Warsaw 2009] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612105207/http://www.ipn.gov.pl/dokumenty/zalaczniki/2-628.pdf |date=12 June 2011 }} ([[PDF]] 3.4 MB)</ref> |
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| purpose = Education, research, archive, and identification. Commemorating the Struggle and Martyrdom. Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ipn.gov.pl/en/about-the-ipn/2,Institute-of-National-Remembrance-Commission-for-the-Prosecution-of-Crimes-again.html|title=Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation|last=Remembrance|first=Institute of National|website=Institute of National Remembrance|language=en-us|access-date=2020-01-28|archive-date=27 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190527113641/https://ipn.gov.pl/en/about-the-ipn/2,Institute-of-National-Remembrance-Commission-for-the-Prosecution-of-Crimes-again.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> |
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|formation = 1998-12-18 |
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| headquarters = [[Warsaw]], Poland |
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|extinction = n/a |
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| location = 1 Kurtyki Street |
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|purpose = prosecution, archives, education, and lustration in context of crimes against the Polish nation.<ref name="Goddeeris"/> |
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| coords = |
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|headquarters = [[Warsaw]], Poland |
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| region_served = [[Republic of Poland]] |
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|location = 7 Wołoska Street |
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| membership = Staff |
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|coords = |
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| language = Polish |
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|region_served = [[Republic of Poland]] |
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| leader_title = President |
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|membership = Staff |
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| leader_name = [[Karol Nawrocki]] |
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|language = Polish |
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| main_organ = Council |
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|leader_title = President |
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| num_staff = Several hundred |
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|leader_name = [[Jarosław Szarek]] |
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| num_volunteers = |
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|main_organ = Council |
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| budget = |
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|num_staff = Several hundred |
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| affiliations = {{ubl|[[Platform of European Memory and Conscience]]|Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., partner institutions in [[Czech Republic]], Germany, [[Slovakia]], Hungary}} |
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|num_volunteers = |
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| website = {{URL|http://www.ipn.gov.pl}} |
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|budget = |
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| remarks = The IPN Headquarters in Warsaw co-ordinates the operations of eleven Branch Offices and their Delegations |
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|affiliations = {{ubl|[[Platform of European Memory and Conscience]]|Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., partner institutions in [[Czech Republic]], Germany, [[Slovakia]], Hungary}} |
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|website = {{URL|http://www.ipn.gov.pl}} |
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|remarks = The IPN Headquarters in Warsaw co-ordinates the operations of eleven Branch Offices and their Delegations |
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}} |
}} |
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The '''Institute of National Remembrance''' – '''Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation''' ({{lang-pl|Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu}}; '''''IPN''''') is a [[Polish government]] institution in charge of [[prosecution]], archives, education, and, since 2007, [[lustration]], in relation to crimes against the Polish nation.<ref name="Goddeeris"/> The ''IPN'' investigates [[Nazism|Nazi]] and [[communist crime]]s committed between 1917 and 1990, documents its findings, and disseminates them to the public.<ref name="resinst">{{Cite web |url=http://bazy.opi.org.pl/raporty/opisy/instyt/6000/i6575.htm |title=Nauka polska: Instytucje naukowe – identyfikator rekordu: i6575 |access-date=22 April 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070516153339/http://bazy.opi.org.pl/raporty/opisy/instyt/6000/i6575.htm |archive-date=16 May 2007 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref> |
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The Institute |
The '''Institute of National Remembrance''' – '''Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation''' ({{lang-pl|Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu}}, abbreviated '''IPN''') is a Polish state research institute in charge of education and archives which also includes two public prosecution service components exercising investigative, prosecution and [[Lustration in Poland|lustration]] powers. The IPN was established by the [[Polish parliament]] by the [[Act on the Institute of National Remembrance]] of 18 December 1998<ref name="IPNabout"/> through reforming and expanding the earlier '''Main Commission for the ''Investigation'' of Crimes against the Polish Nation''' of 1991, which itself had replaced a body on Nazi crimes established in 1945.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oOkVDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA243 |title=Remembrance, History, and Justice: Coming to Terms with Traumatic Pasts in Democratic Societies |last1=Tismaneanu| first1=Vladimir| last2=Iacob| first2=Bogdan| date=2015|publisher=Central European University Press|isbn=978-9-63386-092-2 |pages=243 |language=en}}</ref> |
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In 2018, IPN's mission statement was amended by the controversial [[Amendment to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance]] to include "protecting the reputation of the Republic of Poland and the Polish Nation".<ref name="The Times of Israel">{{Cite news|date=2018-02-01|title=Full text of Poland's controversial Holocaust legislation |language=en-US|work=The Times of Israel|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-of-polands-controversial-holocaust-legislation/|access-date=2019-10-04}}</ref> The IPN investigates and prosecutes [[Nazi crime|Nazi]] and [[Communist crimes (Polish legal concept)|Communist]] crimes committed between 1917 and 1990, documents its findings, and disseminates them to the public.<ref name="resinst">{{Cite web |url=http://bazy.opi.org.pl/raporty/opisy/instyt/6000/i6575.htm |title=Nauka polska: Instytucje naukowe – identyfikator rekordu: i6575 |access-date=22 April 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070516153339/http://bazy.opi.org.pl/raporty/opisy/instyt/6000/i6575.htm |archive-date=16 May 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Some scholars have criticized the IPN for politicization, especially under [[Law and Justice]] governments.<ref name="Ambrosewicz-Jacobs">[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17504902.2019.1567668 Ambrosewicz-Jacobs, Jolanta. "The uses and the abuses of education about the Holocaust in Poland after 1989."], Holocaust Studies 25.3 (2019): 329-350.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Goddeeris |first1=Idesbald |title=The Palgrave Handbook of State-Sponsored History After 1945 |date=2018 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |isbn=978-1-349-95306-6 |pages=255–269 |language=en |chapter=History Riding on the Waves of Government Coalitions: The First Fifteen Years of the Institute of National Remembrance in Poland (2001–2016)}}</ref> |
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The IPN began its activities on 1 July 2000.<ref>{{cite web |author=Instytut Pamięci Narodowej |title=15 lat Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej w liczbach |work=Komunikaty |url=http://ipn.gov.pl/wydzial-prasowy/komunikaty/briefing-prezesa-ipn-dr.-lukasza-kaminskiego-w-zwiazku-z-15-leciem-dzialalnosci-instytutu-pamieci-narodowej-warszawa,-12-czerwca-2015 |date=12 June 2015 |access-date=28 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160622210338/http://ipn.gov.pl/wydzial-prasowy/komunikaty/briefing-prezesa-ipn-dr.-lukasza-kaminskiego-w-zwiazku-z-15-leciem-dzialalnosci-instytutu-pamieci-narodowej-warszawa,-12-czerwca-2015 |archive-date=22 June 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The IPN is a founding member of the [[Platform of European Memory and Conscience]].<ref name="Platform">{{cite web |url=http://www.memoryandconscience.eu/2011/10/20/czech-prime-minister-petr-necas-the-years-of-totalitarianism-were-years-of-struggle-for-liberty/ |title=The years of totalitarianism were years of struggle for liberty |author=Czech Prime minister [[Petr Nečas]] |date=14 October 2011 |publisher=[[Platform of European Memory and Conscience]] |access-date=14 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120330062517/http://www.memoryandconscience.eu/2011/10/20/czech-prime-minister-petr-necas-the-years-of-totalitarianism-were-years-of-struggle-for-liberty/ |archive-date=30 March 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Since 2020, the IPN headquarters have been located at Postępu 18 Street in [[Warsaw]]. The IPN has eleven branches in other cities and seven delegation offices.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Remembrance|first=Institute of National|title=Branch Offices and Delegations|url=https://ipn.gov.pl/en/about-the-ipn/structure/branch-offices-and-dele/825,Branch-Offices-and-Delegations.html|access-date=2021-03-06|website=Institute of National Remembrance|language=en-us|archive-date=22 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200822085357/https://ipn.gov.pl/en/about-the-ipn/structure/branch-offices-and-dele/825,Branch-Offices-and-Delegations.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> |
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==Purpose== |
==Purpose== |
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[[File:IPN wejście.jpg|thumb|Main entrance]] |
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IPN's main areas of activity,<ref name="resinst"/> in line with its original [[mission statement]],<ref name="IPNabout">[http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/en/1/2/ About the Institute] From IPN English website. Last accessed on 20 April 2007</ref> include researching and documenting the losses which were suffered by the Polish Nation as a result of World War II and during the post-war totalitarian period.<ref name="IPNabout"/> The Institute informs about the patriotic traditions of resistance against the occupational forces,<ref name="IPNabout"/> and the Polish citizens' fight for sovereignty of the nation, including their efforts in defence of freedom and human dignity in general.<ref name="IPNabout"/> IPN investigates crimes committed on Polish soil against Polish citizens as well as people of other citizenships wronged in the country. War crimes which are not affected by [[statute of limitations]] according to [[Polish law]] include:<ref name="resinst"/> |
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The IPN's main areas of activity,<ref name="resinst"/> in line with its original [[mission statement]],<ref name="IPNabout">[http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/en/1/2/ "Mission"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070913094100/http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/en/1/2/ |date=13 September 2007 }}. From IPN English website. Last accessed on 20 April 2007</ref> include researching and documenting the losses which were suffered by the Polish Nation as a result of [[World War II]] and during the post-war totalitarian period.<ref name="IPNabout"/> The IPN informs about the patriotic traditions of resistance against the occupational forces,<ref name="IPNabout"/> and the Polish citizens' fight for sovereignty of the nation, including their efforts in defence of freedom and human dignity in general.<ref name="IPNabout"/> |
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# crimes of the Soviet and Polish communist regimes committed in the country from [[Soviet invasion of Poland|17 September 1939]] until [[fall of communism]] on 31 December 1989,<ref name="resinst"/> |
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# [[deportation]]s to the [[Soviet Union]] of Polish soldiers of [[Armia Krajowa]],<ref name="resinst"/> and other [[Polish resistance movement in World War II|Polish resistance organizations]] as well as Polish inhabitants of the [[Eastern Borderlands|former Polish eastern territories]], |
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According to the IPN, it is its duty to prosecute crimes against peace and humanity, as much as war crimes.<ref name="IPNabout"/> Its mission includes the need to compensate for damages which were suffered by the repressed and harmed people at a time when human rights were disobeyed by the state,<ref name="IPNabout"/> and educate the public about recent [[history of Poland]].<ref name="resinst"/> IPN collects, organises and archives all documents about the Polish Communist security apparatus active from 22 July 1944 to 31 December 1989.<ref name="IPNabout"/> |
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# pacifications of Polish communities between [[Vistula]] and [[Bug River|Bug]] Rivers in the years 1944 to 1947 by UB-[[NKVD]],<ref name="resinst"/> |
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# crimes committed by the law enforcement agencies of the [[Polish People's Republic]], particularly [[Ministry of Public Security of Poland]] and [[Main Directorate of Information of the Polish Army]],<ref name="resinst"/> |
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# crimes under the category of [[war crimes]] and [[crimes against humanity]].<ref name="resinst"/> |
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It is the IPN's duty to prosecute crimes against peace and humanity, as much as war crimes.<ref name="IPNabout"/> Its mission includes the need to compensate for damages which were suffered by the repressed and harmed people at a time when human rights were disobeyed by the state,<ref name="IPNabout"/> |
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and educate the public about recent [[history of Poland]].<ref name="resinst"/> IPN collects, organises and archives all documents about the Polish communist security apparatus active from 22 July 1944 to 31 December 1989.<ref name="IPNabout"/> |
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Following the election of the [[Law and Justice]] party, the |
Following the election of the [[Law and Justice]] party, the government formulated in 2016 a new IPN law. The 2016 law stipulated that the IPN should oppose publications of false information that dishonors or harms the Polish nation. It also called for popularizing history as part of "an element of patriotic education". The new law also removed the influence of academia and the judiciary on the IPN.<ref name="Goddeeris"/> |
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A |
A [[Amendment to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance|2018 amendment to the law]],<ref name="Hackmann">{{Cite journal|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2018.1528742|title=Defending the "Good Name" of the Polish Nation: Politics of History as a Battlefield in Poland, 2015–18|first=Jörg|last=Hackmann|date=2 October 2018|journal=Journal of Genocide Research|volume=20|issue=4|pages=587–606|via=Taylor and Francis+NEJM|doi=10.1080/14623528.2018.1528742|s2cid=81922100|url-access=subscription}}</ref> added article 55a that attempts to defend the "good name" of Poland.<ref name="George2019">{{Cite journal|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/721653|title=Nationalism, Democracy, and Memory Laws|first1=George|last1=Soroka|first2=Félix|last2=Krawatzek|date=13 April 2019|journal=Journal of Democracy|volume=30|issue=2|pages=157–171|via=Project MUSE|doi=10.1353/jod.2019.0032|s2cid=159294126|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Initially conceived as a criminal offense (3 years of jail) with an exemption for arts and research, following an international outcry, the article was modified to a civil offense that may be tried in civil courts and the exemption was deleted.<ref name="Hackmann"/> Defamation charges under the act may be made by the IPN as well as by accredited NGOs such as the [[Polish League Against Defamation]].<ref name="Hackmann"/> By the same law, the institution's mission statement was changed to include "protecting the reputation of the Republic of Poland and the Polish Nation".<ref name="The Times of Israel"/> |
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==Organisation== |
==Organisation== |
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IPN was created by special legislation on 18 December 1998.<ref name="IPNabout"/> The IPN is divided into:<ref name="1998_law_updated">{{in lang|pl}} [http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/pl/305/4792/ 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.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070319212128/http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/pl/305/4792/ |date=19 March 2007 }} Last accessed on 24 April 2006</ref><ref name="IPNabout"/><ref name="IPNabout_pl">{{in lang|pl}}[http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/pl/6/2262/ About the Institute] From IPN Polish website. Last accessed on 24 April 2007</ref> |
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[[Image:Wejście do Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej ul. Wołoska 7.JPG|thumb|Main entrance]] |
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IPN was created by special legislation on 18 December 1998.<ref name="IPNabout"/> The IPN is divided into:<ref name="1998_law_updated">{{in lang|pl}} [http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/pl/305/4792/ 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</ref><ref name="IPNabout"/><ref name="IPNabout_pl">{{in lang|pl}}[http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/pl/6/2262/ About the Institute] From IPN Polish website. Last accessed on 24 April 2007</ref> |
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* Main Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (''Główna Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni Przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu'') |
* Main Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (''Główna Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni Przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu'') |
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* Bureau of Provision and Archivization of Documents (''Biuro Udostępniania i Archiwizacji Dokumentów'') |
* Bureau of Provision and Archivization of Documents (''Biuro Udostępniania i Archiwizacji Dokumentów'') |
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=== Director === |
=== Director === |
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IPN is governed by the director, who has a sovereign position that is independent of the Polish state hierarchy. The director may not be dismissed during his term |
IPN is governed by the director, who has a sovereign position that is independent of the Polish state hierarchy. The director may not be dismissed during his term unless he commits a harmful act. Prior to 2016, the election of the director was a complex procedure, which involves the selection of a panel of candidates by the IPN Collegium (members appointed by the Polish Parliament and judiciary). The Polish Parliament ([[Sejm]]) then elects one of the candidates, with a required [[supermajority]] (60%). The director has a 5-year [[term of office]].<ref name="Mink2017">{{Cite journal |last=Mink |first=Georges |title=Is there a new institutional response to the crimes of Communism? National memory agencies in post-Communist countries: the Polish case (1998–2014), with references to East Germany |journal=[[Nationalities Papers]] |volume=45 |issue=6 |pages=1013–1027 |doi=10.1080/00905992.2017.1360853|year=2017 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Following 2016 legislation in the PiS controlled parliament, the former pluralist Collegium was replaced with a nine-member Collegium composed of PiS supporters, and the Sejm appoints the director after consulting with the College without an election between candidates.<ref name="Mink2017"/> |
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==== Leon Kieres ==== |
==== Leon Kieres ==== |
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[[File:Leon Kieres VII kadencja Kancelaria Senatu.jpg|thumb|142x142px|Leon Kieres]] |
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The first director of the IPN was [[Leon Kieres]], elected by the [[Sejm]] for five years on 8 June 2000 (term 30 June 2000 – 29 December 2005). The IPN granted some 6,500 people the "victim of communism" status and gathered significant archive material. The institute faced difficulties since it was new and also since the [[Democratic Left Alliance]] (containing former communists) attempted to close the institute. The publication of [[Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland]] by [[Jan T. Gross]], proved to be a lifeline for the IPN as Polish president [[Aleksander Kwaśniewski]] intervened to save the IPN since he deemed the IPN's research to be important as part of Jewish-Polish reconciliation and "apology diplomacy". <ref name="Mink2017"/> |
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The first director of the IPN was [[Leon Kieres]], elected by the [[Sejm]] for five years on 8 June 2000 (term 30 June 2000 – 29 December 2005). The IPN granted some 6,500 people the "victim of communism" status and gathered significant archive material. The IPN faced difficulties since it was new and also since the [[Democratic Left Alliance (Poland)|Democratic Left Alliance]] (containing former communists) attempted to close the IPN. The publication of ''[[Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland]]'' by [[Jan T. Gross]], proved to be a lifeline for the IPN as Polish president [[Aleksander Kwaśniewski]] intervened to save the IPN since he deemed the IPN's research to be important as part of Jewish-Polish reconciliation and "apology diplomacy".<ref name="Mink2017"/> |
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==== Janusz Kurtyka ==== |
==== Janusz Kurtyka ==== |
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[[File:Kurtyka Janusz.jpg|thumb|146x146px|Janusz Kurtyka]] |
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{{POV section|date=August 2019}} |
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The second director was [[Janusz Kurtyka]], elected on 9 December 2005 with a term that started 29 December 2005 until his death in the [[2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash|Smolensk airplane crash]] on 10 April 2010. The elections were controversial, as during the elections a leak against [[Andrzej Przewoźnik]] accusing him of collaboration with [[Służba Bezpieczeństwa]] caused him to withdraw his candidacy.<ref name="Mink2017"/> |
The second director was [[Janusz Kurtyka]], elected on 9 December 2005 with a term that started 29 December 2005 until his death in the [[2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash|Smolensk airplane crash]] on 10 April 2010. The elections were controversial, as during the elections a leak against [[Andrzej Przewoźnik]] accusing him of collaboration with [[Służba Bezpieczeństwa]] caused him to withdraw his candidacy.<ref name="Mink2017"/><ref name="PAPKP"/> Przewoźnik was cleared of the accusations only after he had lost the election.<ref name="PAPKP">{{in lang|pl}} [https://archive.today/20130416112710/http://wiadomosci.wp.pl/kat,1342,statp,cG93aWF6YW5l,wid,8120626,wiadomosc.html ''Olejniczak: Kurtyka powinien zrezygnować''], [[Polish Press Agency]], 13 December 2005, last accessed on 28 April 2007</ref> |
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In 2006, the IPN opened a "Lustration Bureau" that increased the director's power. The bureau was assigned the task of examining the past of all candidates to public office. Kurtyka widened archive access to the public |
In 2006, the IPN opened a "Lustration Bureau" that increased the director's power. The bureau was assigned the task of examining the past of all candidates to public office. Kurtyka widened archive access to the public and shifted focus from compensating victims to researching collaboration.<ref name="Mink2017"/> |
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'''Franciszek Gryciuk''' |
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[[File:Franciszek Gryciuk, 15.06.2010.jpg|thumb|165x165px|Franciszek Gryciuk]] |
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In 1999, historian [[Franciszek Gryciuk]] was appointed to the Collegium of the IPN, which he chaired 2003–2004. From June 2008 to June 2011, he was vice president of the IPN. He was acting director 2010–2011, between the death of the IPN's second president, [[Janusz Kurtyka]], in the [[2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash]] and the election of [[Łukasz Kamiński]] by the [[Sejm|Polish Parliament]] as the third director. |
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==== Łukasz Kamiński ==== |
==== Łukasz Kamiński ==== |
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[[File:Łukasz Kamiński Sejm 2016.JPG|thumb|144x144px|Łukasz Kamiński]] |
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[[Łukasz Kamiński]], was elected by the Sejm in 2011 following the death of his predecessor. Kamiński, an insider, headed the Wroclaw Regional Bureau of Public Education prior to his election. During his term the IPN faced a wide array of criticism calling for an overhaul or even replacement. Critics founds fault in the IPN being a state institution, the lack of historical knowledge of its prosecutors, a relatively high number of microhistories with a debatable methodology, overuse of the martyrology motif, research methodology, and isolationism from the wider research community. In response, Kamiński implemented several changes, including organizing public debates with outside historians to counter the charge of isolationism and has suggested refocusing on victims as opposed to agents.<ref name="Mink2017"/> |
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[[Łukasz Kamiński]], was elected by the Sejm in 2011 following the death of his predecessor. Kamiński headed the Wroclaw Regional Bureau of Public Education prior to his election. During his term, the IPN faced a wide array of criticism calling for an overhaul or even replacement. Critics founds fault in the IPN being a state institution, the lack of historical knowledge of its prosecutors, a relatively high number of microhistories with a debatable methodology, overuse of the martyrology motif, research methodology, and isolationism from the wider research community. In response, Kamiński implemented several changes, including organizing public debates with outside historians to counter the charge of isolationism and has suggested refocusing on victims as opposed to agents.<ref name="Mink2017"/> |
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==== Jarosław Szarek ==== |
==== Jarosław Szarek ==== |
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[[File:Jarosław Szarek 1(cropped).jpg|thumb|128x128px|Jarosław Szarek]] |
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[[Jarosław Szarek]] was appointed to head the IPN on 22 July 2016.<ref>[https://www.pap.pl/aktualnosci/news,568375,dr-jaroslaw-szarek-zlozyl-przed-sejmem-slubowanie-na-prezesa-ipn.html Senat zgodził się na wybór Jarosława Szarka na prezesa IPN], PAP, 22 July 2016</ref> Szarek is affiliated with PiS, and in his campaign to be elected said that "Germans were the executors of the Jedwabne crime and that they had coerced a small group of Poles to become involved". Following his appointment, Szarek dismissed Krzysztof Persak who was the coauthor of the two-volume 2002 IPN study on the [[Jedwabne pogrom]]. In subsequent months, the IPN was featured in media headlines for releasing controversial documents, additional Wałęsa documents, memory politics in schools and efforts to change communist street names, and legislation efforts.<ref name="Goddeeris"/> According to historian Idesbald Goddeeris, this marks a return of politics to the IPN.<ref name="Goddeeris"/> |
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On 22 July 2016 [[Jarosław Szarek]] was appointed to head IPN.<ref>[https://www.pap.pl/aktualnosci/news,568375,dr-jaroslaw-szarek-zlozyl-przed-sejmem-slubowanie-na-prezesa-ipn.html Senat zgodził się na wybór Jarosława Szarka na prezesa IPN], PAP, 22 July 2016</ref> He dismissed Krzysztof Persak, co-author of the 2002 two-volume IPN study on the [[Jedwabne pogrom]]. In subsequent months, IPN featured in media headlines for releasing controversial documents, including some relating to [[Lech Wałęsa]], for memory politics conducted in schools, for efforts to change Communist street names, and for legislation efforts.<ref name="Goddeeris"/> According to historian Idesbald Goddeeris, this marks a return of politics to the IPN.<ref name="Goddeeris"/> |
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==== Karol Nawrocki ==== |
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==Activities== |
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[[File:Dr Karol Nawrocki.jpg|thumb|144x144px|Karol Nawrocki]] |
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On 23 July 2021 [[Karol Nawrocki]] was appointed to head IPN.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ipn.gov.pl/en/about-the-institute/the-president-and-deput/8204,Karol-Nawrocki-PhD.html |title=Karol Nawrocki, Ph.D. President of the Institute of National Remembrance |website=IPN |date=2 June 2021 |access-date=6 July 2021 }}</ref> |
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==Public prosecutors in the IPN== |
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Two components of the IPN are specialized parts of the Public Prosecution Service of Poland, namely the Main Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation and the Lustration Bureau. Each of these two components exercises its activities autonomically from other components of the Institute and is headed by a director who is ''ex officio'' Deputy [[Public Prosecutor General (Poland)|Public Prosecutor General of Poland]], while role of the IPN Director is in their case purely accessory and includes no powers regarding conducted investigations, being limited only to providing supporting apparatus and, when vacated, presenting candidates for the offices of the two directors to the Prosecutor General who as their superior has the discretionary power to appoint or reject them. |
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===Main Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation=== |
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The Main Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (''Główna Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni Przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu'') is the oldest component of the IPN tracing its origins to 1945. It investigates and prosecutes crimes committed on Polish soil against Polish citizens as well as people of other citizenships wronged in the country. War crimes which are not affected by [[statute of limitations]] according to [[Polish law]] include:<ref name="resinst"/> |
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# Crimes of the Soviet and Polish [[Communist regime]]s committed in the country from [[Soviet invasion of Poland|17 September 1939]] until the [[Fall of Communism]] on 31 December 1989.<ref name="resinst"/> |
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# [[Deportation]]s to the [[Soviet Union]] of Polish soldiers of [[Armia Krajowa]],<ref name="resinst"/> and other [[Polish resistance movement in World War II|Polish resistance organizations]] as well as Polish inhabitants of the [[Eastern Borderlands|former Polish eastern territories]]. |
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# Pacifications of Polish communities between [[Vistula]] and [[Bug River|Bug]] rivers in the years 1944 to 1947 by UB-[[NKVD]],<ref name="resinst"/> |
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# Crimes committed by the law enforcement agencies of the [[Polish People's Republic]], particularly [[Ministry of Public Security of Poland]] and [[Main Directorate of Information of the Polish Army]].<ref name="resinst"/> |
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# Crimes under the category of [[war crimes]] and [[crimes against humanity]].<ref name="resinst"/> |
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===Lustration Bureau=== |
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{{further|Lustration in Poland}} |
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On 15 March 2007, an amendment to the Polish law regulating the IPN (enacted on 18 December 2006) came into effect. The change gave the IPN new [[lustration]] powers and expanded IPN's file access. The change was enacted by [[Law and Justice]] government in a series of legislative amendments during 2006 and the beginning of 2007.<ref name="Szczerbiak2016"/> However, several articles of the 2006-7 amendments were held unconstitutional by Poland's Constitutional Court on 11 May 2007,<ref name="BBClust">{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6648435.stm | title=Polish court strikes down spy law | work=[[BBC News]] | date= 11 May 2007 | access-date=5 June 2018}}</ref> though the IPN's lustration power was still wider than under the original 1997 law. These powers include loss of position for those who submitted false lustration declarations as well as a lustration process of candidates for senior office.<ref name="Szczerbiak2016"/> |
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==Other activities== |
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===Research=== |
===Research=== |
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[[ |
[[File:Akta Instytut Pamięci Narodowej 05.JPG|thumb|Archive at the former IPN headquarters at 28 Towarowa Street in Warsaw]] |
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The research conducted by IPN from December 2000 falls into four main topic areas:{{better source needed|date=March 2021}} |
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Following the public debate on Jan T. Gross's book ''Neighbors'', the IPN conducted an in-depth investigation into the [[Jedwabne pogrom]]. The investigation was politicized, and the IPN's director was involved in defending Poland's good name outside of Poland during the investigation.<ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ewa_Ochman/publication/236788294_Collective_Remembrance_in_Jedwabne_Unsettled_Memory_of_World_War_II_in_Postcommunist_Poland/links/59ed32910f7e9bfdeb71add5/Collective-Remembrance-in-Jedwabne-Unsettled-Memory-of-World-War-II-in-Postcommunist-Poland.pdf Wolentarska-Ochman, Ewa. "Collective remembrance in Jedwabne: Unsettled memory of World War II in postcommunist Poland."], History & Memory 18.1 (2006): 152-178.</ref> |
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* 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);<ref name="IPNabout_research">[http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/en/6/45/ Public Education Office] IPN website. Last accessed on 24 April 2007</ref> |
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** Functioning of the repression apparatus (state security and justice organs) – its organizational structure, cadres and relations with other state authority and party organs<ref name="IPNsecprog">[http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/en/42/58/ Security Apparatus and Civil Resistance Central Programme]. IPN pages, last accessed on 25 April 2007</ref> |
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While the IPN's output of new historical knowledge has been significant, it has also faced criticism from academia for one-sided bias.<ref name="Goddeeris"/> |
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** Activities of the repression apparatus directed against particular selected social groups and organizations<ref name="IPNsecprog"/> |
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** Structure and methods of functioning of the People's Poland security apparatus<ref name="IPNsecprog"/> |
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** Security apparatus in combat with the political and military underground 1944–1956<ref name="IPNsecprog"/> |
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** Activities of the security apparatus against political emigreés<ref name="IPNsecprog"/> |
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** Security apparatus in combat with the Church and freedom of belief<ref name="IPNsecprog"/> |
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** Authorities dealing with social crises and democratic opposition in the years 1956–1989 f) List of those repressed and sentenced to death<ref name="IPNsecprog"/> |
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** Bibliography of the conspiracy, resistance and repression 1944–1989<ref name="IPNsecprog"/> |
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* War, Occupation and the Polish Underground;<ref name="IPNabout_research"/><ref name="IPNwar">[http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/en/43/59/ War, Occupation and the Polish Underground State Programme]. IPN pages, last accessed on 25 April 2007</ref> |
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** deepening of knowledge about the structures and activities of the Polish Underground State<ref name="IPNwar"/> |
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** examination of the human fates in the territories occupied by the Soviet regime and of Poles displaced into the Soviet Union<ref name="IPNwar"/> |
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** assessment of sources on the living conditions under the Soviet and German Nazi occupations<ref name="IPNwar"/> |
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** evaluation of the state of research concerning the victims of the war activities and extermination policy of the Soviet and German Nazi occupiers<ref name="IPNwar"/> |
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** examining the Holocaust (Extermination of Jews) conducted by Nazis in the Polish territories<ref name="IPNwar"/><ref name="IPNJews">[http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/en/43/60/ Extermination of Jews by German Nazis in the Polish Territories Programme]. IPN pages, last accessed on 25 April 2007</ref> |
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*** Response of the Polish Underground State to the extermination of Jewish population<ref name="IPNJews"/> |
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*** The Polish Underground press and the Jewish question during the German Nazi occupation<ref name="IPNJews"/> |
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* Poles and Other Nations in the Years 1939–1989 (with a part on Poles and Ukrainians);<ref name="IPNabout_research"/><ref name="IPNOthers">[http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/en/43/61/ Poles and Other Nations in the Years 1939–1989 Programme]. IPN pages, last accessed on 25 April 2007</ref> |
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** Poles and Ukrainians<ref name="IPNOthers"/> |
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** Poles and Lithuanians<ref name="IPNOthers"/> |
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** Poles and Germans<ref name="IPNOthers"/> |
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** Communist authorities – Belarusians – Underground<ref name="IPNOthers"/> |
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** Fate of Jewish people in the People's Republic of Poland<ref name="IPNOthers"/> |
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** Gypsies in Poland<ref name="IPNOthers"/> |
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* Peasants and the People's Authority 1944–1989 (on the situation of peasants and the rural policy in the years 1944–1989)<ref name="IPNabout_research"/><ref name="IPNpeasants">[http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/en/43/62/ Peasants vis-a-vis People's Authority 1944–1989 Programme]. IPN pages, last accessed on 25 April 2007</ref> |
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** inhabitants of the rural areas during the creation of the totalitarian regime in Poland;<ref name="IPNpeasants"/> |
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** peasant life during the Sovietisation of Poland in the years 1948–1956;<ref name="IPNpeasants"/> |
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** attitudes of the inhabitants of rural areas towards the state-Church conflict in the years 1956–1970;<ref name="IPNpeasants"/> |
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** the role of peasants in the anti-Communist opposition of the 1970s and 1980s.<ref name="IPNpeasants"/> |
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===Education=== |
===Education=== |
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The IPN's Public Education Office (BEP) vaguely defined role in the IPN act is to inform society of |
The IPN's Public Education Office (BEP) vaguely defined role in the IPN act is to inform society of Communist and Nazi crimes and institutions. This vaguely defined role allowed [[Paweł Machcewicz]], BEP's director in 2000, freedom to create a wide range of activities.<ref name="Goddeeris"/> |
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Researchers at the IPN conduct not only research |
Researchers at the IPN conduct not only research but are required to take part in public outreach.<ref name="vb">{{Cite journal|last=Behr|first=Valentin|date=2017-01-02|title=Historical policy-making in post-1989 Poland: a sociological approach to the narratives of communism |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/23745118.2016.1269447|journal=European Politics and Society|volume=18|issue=1|pages=81–95|doi=10.1080/23745118.2016.1269447|s2cid=150353378|issn=2374-5118|url-access=subscription}}</ref> BEP has published music CDs,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=lKSLAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA38 The Populist Radical Right in Poland: The Patriots], [[Rafał Pankowski]], page 38</ref> DVDs, and serials. It has founded "historical clubs" for debates and lectures. It has also organized outdoor historical fairs, picnic, and games.<ref name="Goddeeris">[https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/978-1-349-95306-6_13 Goddeeris, Idesbald. "History Riding on the Waves of Government Coalitions: The First Fifteen Years of the Institute of National Remembrance in Poland (2001–2016)."] The Palgrave Handbook of State-Sponsored History After 1945. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2018. 255-269.</ref> |
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The ''IPN Bulletin'' ({{lang-pl|Biuletyn IPN}}) is a high circulation popular-scientific journal,<ref name="Transformation172"/> intended for lay readers and youth.<ref name=" |
The ''{{ill|IPN Bulletin|pl|Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej}}'' ({{lang-pl|Biuletyn IPN}}) is a high circulation popular-scientific journal,<ref name="Transformation172"/> intended for lay readers and youth.<ref name="vb"/> Some 12,000 of 15,000 copies of the ''Bulletin'' are distributed free of charge to secondary schools in Poland, and the rest are sold in bookstores.<ref name="Transformation172">[https://books.google.com/books?id=bd8VQ5-BC-MC&pg=PT184 The Post-communist Condition: Public and Private Discourses of Transformation], John Benjamins Publishing Company, page 172, chapter by Marta Kurkowska-Budzan</ref> The ''Bulletin'' contains: popular-scientific and academic articles, polemics, manifestos, appeals to readers, promotional material on the IPN and BEP, denials and commentary on reports in the news, as well as multimedia supplements.<ref name="Transformation172"/> |
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The IPN also publishes the ''Remembrance and Justice'' ({{lang-pl|Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość}}) scientific journal.<ref name="Transformation172"/> |
The IPN also publishes the ''{{ill|Remembrance and Justice|pl|Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość}}'' ({{lang-pl|Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość}}) scientific journal.<ref name="Transformation172"/> |
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The IPN has issued several board games to help educate people about recent Polish history, including: |
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====Board games==== |
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* ''{{ill|303 (board game)|pl|303 (gra planszowa)|lt=303}}'' – a game about the [[Battle of Britain]] that focuses on the [[No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron|Polish 303 Squadron]]. |
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The Institution of National Remembrance has created several board games to help educate people about recent Polish history |
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* ''303'' – a game about the [[Battle of Britain]] that focuses on the [[No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron|Polish 303 Squadron]] |
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* ''[[Kolejka (game)|Kolejka]]'' – a game about being forced to queue for basic household products during the Communist era. |
* ''[[Kolejka (game)|Kolejka]]'' – a game about being forced to queue for basic household products during the Communist era. |
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=== |
===Naming of monuments=== |
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In 2008, the chairman of the IPN wrote to local administrations, calling for the addition of the word "German" before "Nazi" to all monuments and tablets commemorating Germany's victims, stating that "Nazis" is not always understood to relate specifically to Germans. Several scenes of atrocities conducted by Germany were duly updated with [[commemorative plaque]]s clearly indicating the nationality of the perpetrators. The IPN also requested better documentation and commemoration of crimes that had been perpetrated by the [[Soviet Union]].<ref name="fakty.interia">{{cite web |url=http://fakty.interia.pl/polska/news/akcja-ipn-mordowali-niemcy-nie-nazisci,1225157 |title=Akcja IPN: Mordowali "Niemcy", nie "naziści" |trans-title=IPN initiative: Murderers "German", not "Nazis" |date=9 December 2008 |website=Interia |language=pl |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120212135355/http://fakty.interia.pl/polska/news/akcja-ipn-mordowali-niemcy-nie-nazisci,1225157 |archive-date=12 February 2012}}</ref> |
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{{POV section|date=September 2019}} |
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{{details|Lustration in Poland}} |
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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 communist security apparatus, the [[Służba Bezpieczeństwa]]: revealing secret agents and collaborators (a process called ''[[lustration]]'').<ref name="ChicTrib">Tom Hundley, [http://www.popmatters.com/pm/news/article/8307/poland-looks-back-in-anger/ Poland looks back in anger], 1 December 2006, ''[[Chicago Tribune]]''</ref> |
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The Polish government also asked [[UNESCO]] to officially change the name "Auschwitz Concentration Camp" to "Former Nazi German Concentration Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau", to clarify that the camp had been built and operated by [[Nazi Germany]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/secondworldwar/story/0,,2112948,00.html |title=Poles claim victory in battle to rename Auschwitz |last=Tran |first=Mark |date=27 June 2007 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=11 November 2018}}</ref><ref name="The Jewish Journal">{{cite news |url=https://jewishjournal.com/news/world/13028/ |title=Auschwitz Might Get Name Change |last=Spritzer |first=Dinah |date=27 April 2006 |newspaper=[[The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles|The Jewish Journal]] |access-date=11 November 2018}}</ref><ref name="jpost.com">{{cite news |url=http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Yad-Vashem-for-renaming-Auschwitz |title=Yad Vashem for renaming Auschwitz |date=11 May 2006 |agency=Associated Press |newspaper=[[The Jerusalem Post]] |access-date=31 March 2018}}</ref><ref name="EUX.TV">{{cite web |url=https://www.expatica.com/de/news/country-news/UNESCO-approves-Auschwitz-name-change_146793.html |title=UNESCO approves Poland's request to rename Auschwitz |date=27 June 2007 |website=Expatica |publisher=Expatica Communications B.V. |access-date=19 October 2017}}</ref> In 2007, UNESCO's [[World Heritage Committee]] changed the camp's name to "Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940–1945)."<ref name="unesco">{{cite web |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/363 |title=World Heritage Committee approves Auschwitz name change |date=28 June 2007 |website=UNESCO World Heritage Committee |access-date=11 November 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/apr/01/secondworldwar.unitednations |title=Auschwitz may be renamed to reinforce link with Nazi era |first=Nicholas |last=Watt |date=1 April 2006 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=27 July 2012}}</ref> Previously some German media, including ''[[Der Spiegel]]'', had called the camp "Polish".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4863026.stm |title=Poland seeks Auschwitz renaming |date=31 March 2006 |website=BBC News |access-date=11 November 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jun/27/secondworldwar.marktran |title=Poles claim victory in battle to rename Auschwitz |first=Mark |last=Tran |date=27 June 2007 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=27 July 2012 }}</ref> |
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Following the election of a Law and Justice government in 2005, in a series of legislative amendments during 2006 and the beginning of 2007 file access and lustration powers were radically expanded.<ref name="Szczerbiak2016"/> However, several articles of the 2006-7 amendments were judged unconstitutional by Poland's Constitutional Court on 11 May 2007.<ref name="BBClust">{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6648435.stm | title=Polish court strikes down spy law | work=[[BBC News]] | date= May 11, 2007 | accessdate=June 5, 2018}}</ref> Following the court ruling the IPN's lustration power was still wider in relation to the original 1997 law, and include loss of position for those who submitted false lustration declarations as well as a lustration process of candidates for senior office as well as .<ref name="Szczerbiak2016"/> |
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===Publications=== |
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An incident which drew criticism involved the "[[Wildstein list]]", a partial list of persons who allegedly worked for the communist-era Polish intelligence service, copied in 2004 from IPN archives (without IPN permission) by journalist [[Bronisław Wildstein]] and published on the Internet in 2005. The list gained much attention in Polish media and politics, and IPN security procedures and handling of the matter came under criticism.<ref name="Wild">Wojciech Czuchnowski, ''[http://serwisy.gazeta.pl/wyborcza/1,68586,3339691.html Bronisław Wildstein: człowiek z listą]'', [[Gazeta Wyborcza]], last accessed on 12 May 2006</ref><ref name="Szczerbiak2016">[http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/63436/1/EastEuropeanPolitics-Accepted%20Manuscript.pdf Szczerbiak, Aleks. "Deepening democratisation? Exploring the declared motives for “late” lustration in Poland." East European Politics 32.4 (2016): 426-445.]</ref> |
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Since 2019, the Institute publishes the ''Institute of National Remembrance Review'' ({{ISSN|2658-1566}}), a yearly [[peer-reviewed]] [[academic journal]] in English, with Anna Karolina Piekarska as [[editor-in-chief]].. |
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Individuals opposed by neo-''Endeks'' (modern-day adherents of [[National Democracy]] principles), such as liberal clergy, independent journalists, [[Jacek Kuroń]], and [[Zygmunt Bauman]], have been targeted with "leaks" from the IPN archives about their alleged past communist ties.<ref>Grabowski, Jan, "Rewriting the History of Polish-Jewish Relations from a Nationalist Perspective: The Recent Publications of the Institute of National Remembrance", Yad Vashem Studies 36 (2008).</ref> |
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In 2006 there was widespread protest against the IPN's publications about Kuroń. Nine Solidarity activists wrote the Polish president, complaining that the IPN was systematically slinging dirt at the Solidarity movement. In response, 200 individuals signed an open letter defending the IPN and stating that "[The] [[history of Solidarity]] and [[anti-communist resistance in Poland]] cannot be damaged by [[scholarly]] studies and [the] resulting increase in our knowledge of the past."<ref name="PAPdefends">[https://wiadomosci.wp.pl/list-w-obronie-historykow-z-ipn-6036750867465345a List w "obronie historyków z IPN"], [[Polish Press Agency]] article reprinted on [[Wirtualna Polska]]. Last accessed on 20 April 2007.</ref> |
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In 2008 two IPN employees, [[Sławomir Cenckiewicz]] and [[Piotr Gontarczyk]], published a book, ''SB a Lech Wałęsa. Przyczynek do biografii'' (The Security Service and Lech Wałęsa: A Contribution to a Biography). Reading more as political indictment than scholarship, major controversy ensued.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ktcvDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA406&dq=Gontarczyk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj4kM3zw5LbAhXPmLQKHYY9DScQ6AEIQTAD#v=onepage&q=Gontarczyk&f=false Totalitarian Societies and Democratic Transition: Essays in memory of Victor Zaslavsky], pages 406-7, Vladislav Zubok, CEU Press</ref> The book's premise was that in the 1970s the [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] leader and later President of Poland [[Lech Wałęsa]] was a secret [[informant]] of the Polish communist [[Służba Bezpieczeństwa|Security Service]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/2126507/Lech-Walesa-was-Communist-spy,-claims-book.html|title=Lech Walesa was Communist spy, claims book|work=Daily Telegraph|date=14 June 2008|accessdate=4 October 2008|author=Harry de Quetteville|place=Berlin}}</ref> Michael Szporer writes that the book should have been more nuanced in its judgment of anti-communist leaders, and that it unfairly singled out Wałęsa.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ke0MMyghGr8C&pg=PA283&dq=%22Piotr+Gontarczyk%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjUucCT_5bbAhXECOwKHcs7CO44ChDoAQgmMAA#v=onepage&q=Gontarczyk&f=false Solidarity: The Great Workers Strike of 1980], Michael Szporer, Lexington Books, 2012, p. 286.</ref> |
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As of 2012 some 10% of IPN's personnel (215 workers of which 26 are prosecutors) are in the Lustration office. Between 2007 and 2012, prepared four internet catalogs of: former Communist officials, security officers, those targeted by Security, and of people presently holding public office. In the same period, the IPN handled nearly 150,000 "vetting declaration.<ref name="Stola2012"/> |
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==Criticism== |
==Criticism== |
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===Politicization=== |
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In 2005, after [[Law and Justice]]'s (''PiS'') electoral victory, the ''IPN'' focused on crimes against the Polish nation.<ref name="Ambrosewicz-Jacobs"/> Part of PiS's platform was ''historical policy'' ({{lang-pl|polityka historyczna}}) on the national and international level to promote the Polish point of view. During PiS's control of the government between 2005 and 2007, the ''IPN'' was the focus of heated public controversies, in particular in regard to the past of [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] leader [[Lech Wałęsa]]. As a result, in scholarly literature the ''IPN'' has been referred to as a "Ministry of Memory" or as an institution involved in "memory games".<ref name="Behr2016">[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23745118.2016.1269447 Behr, Valentin. "Historical policy-making in post-1989 Poland: a sociological approach to the narratives of communism." European Politics and Society 18.1 (2017): 81-95.]</ref> |
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According to {{ill|Georges Mink|fr|Georges Mink}}, common criticisms of the IPN include its dominance in the Polish research field, which is guaranteed by a budget that far supersedes that of any similar academic institution; the "thematic monotony ... of micro-historical studies ... of no real scientific interest" of its research; its focus on "[[Hagiography|martyrology]]"; and various criticisms of methodology and ethics.<ref name="Mink2017" /> Some of these criticisms have been addressed by Director [[Łukasz Kamiński]] during his tenure and who according to Mink "has made significant changes"; however, Minsk, writing in 2017, was also concerned with the recent administrative and personnel changes in IPN, including the election of [[Jarosław Szarek]] as director, which he posits are likely to result in further the politicization of the IPN.<ref name="Mink2017" /> According to Valentin Behr, IPN research into the Communist era is valuable, positing that "the resources at its disposal have made it unrivalled as a research centre in the academic world"; at the same time, he said that the research is mostly focused on the era's negative aspects, and that it "is far from producing a critical approach to history, one that asks its own questions and is methodologically pluralistic." He added that in recent years that problem is being ameliorated as the IPN's work "has somewhat diversified as its administration has taken note of criticism on the part of academics."<ref name="vb" /> |
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Historian [[Dariusz Stola]] concludes that the ''IPN'' is a ''Ministry of Memory'', but bureaucratic in nature and not [[Orwellian]]. Stola notes that ironically the ''IPN'' has come to resemble past communist institutions that it was set up to deal with: centralist, heavy-handed, bureaucratic, ineffective, and focused on growth and quantity over quality.<ref name="Stola2012">Stola, Dariusz. "Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance: A Ministry of Memory?." The convolutions of historical politics (2012), page 54, quote: Thus the secret of IPN this paper may reveal is the following: this is indeed a Ministry of Memory, but not of the Orwellian type. It is a regular continental European bureaucracy, with usual deficiencies of its kind, and a part of Polish government administration, which is not famous for its effectiveness. Relatively safe from major threats, be it a hostile political takeover, budget cuts or competition, it is increasingly self-centered and cost inefficient. In this aspect IPN paradoxically resembles the institutions of the communist period it is to deal with: bureaucratic, centralist, heavy, inclined to extensive growth and quantity rather than quality of production, and decreasingly effective</ref> |
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According to Robert Traba,<ref name="Traba 2016">{{Cite journal |last=Traba |first=Robert |date=2016 |title=Two Dimensions of History: An Opening Sketch |url=http://rcin.org.pl/Content/64236/WA248_83643_P-I-2524_traba-two_o.pdf |journal=Teksty Drugie |volume=1 |pages=36–81}}</ref> "under the ... IPN, tasks related to the 'national politics of memory' were – unfortunately – merged with the mission of independent academic research. In the public mind, there could be only one message flowing from the institute's name: memory and history as a science are one. The problem is that nothing could be further from the truth, and nothing could be more misleading. What the IPN’s message presents, in fact, is the danger that Polish history will be grossly over-simplified."{{r|Traba 2016|p=43}} Traba states that "at the heart of debate today is a confrontation between those who support traditional methods and categories of research, and those who support newly defined methods and categories. ... Broadening the research perspective means the enrichment of the historian's instrumentarium.'" He puts the IPN research, in a broad sense, in the former; he states that "[a] solid, workshop-oriented, traditional, and positivist historiography ... which defends itself by the integrity of its analysis and its diversified source base" but criticizes its approach for leading to a "falsely conceived mission to find 'objective truth' at the expense of 'serious study of event history', and a 'simplified claim that only 'secret' sources, not accessible to ordinary mortals', can lead to that objective truth." Traba quotes historian [[Wiktoria Śliwowska]], who wrote: "The historian must strive not only to reconstruct a given reality, but also to understand the background of events, the circumstances in which people acted. It is easy to condemn, but difficult to understand a complicated past. ... [Meanwhile, in the IPN] thick volumes are being produced, into which are being thrown, with no real consideration, further evidence in criminating various persons now deceased (and therefore not able to defend themselves), and elderly people still alive – known and unknown."{{r|Traba 2016|pp=57-58}} Traba posits that "there is ... a need for genuine debate that does not revolve around [the files] in the IPN archives, 'lustration,' or short-term and politically inspired discussions designed to establish the 'only real' truth", and suggests that adopting varied perspectives and diverse methodologies might contribute to such debate.{{r|Traba 2016|p=67}} |
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According to Professor Jerzy Kornas<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.np.uek.krakow.pl/en/pracownicy/jerzy-kornas|title=Prof. dr hab. Jerzy Kornaś - Katedra Nauk Politycznych UEK|website=www.np.uek.krakow.pl|access-date=2020-01-22}}</ref>, head of University of Krakow's Political Sciences Department, "The Institute of National Remembrance takes an active part in distorting history. The institution, which is simultaneously granted research and proprietorial powers, claims the right to state the "official version" of historical truth.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ежи|first=Корнась|date=2017|title=Пределы дедемократизации польской политической системы|url=https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/predely-dedemokratizatsii-polskoy-politicheskoy-sistemy|journal=Современная Европа|issue=7 (79)|issn=0201-7083}}</ref> |
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During PiS's control of the government between 2005 and 2007, the IPN was the focus of heated public controversies, in particular in regard to the pasts of [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] leader [[Lech Wałęsa]] and [[Polish United Workers' Party|PZPR]] secretary [[Wojciech Jaruzelski]].<ref name=vb/> As a result, the ''IPN'' has been referred to as "a political institution at the centre of 'memory games'".<ref name=vb/><ref name="Stryjek 2018">{{Cite journal |last=Stryjek |first=Tomasz |date=2018 |title=The Hypertrophy of Polish Remembrance Policy after 2015: Trends and Outcomes |journal=Zoon Politikon |volume=1 |issue=9 |pages=43–66|doi=10.4467/2543408XZOP.18.003.10059 |doi-access=free |s2cid=159124162 }}</ref><ref name="Michlic 2020">{{Cite conference |last=Michlic |first=Joanna Beata |date=2020 |title=History "Wars" and the Battle for Truth and National Memory |conference=Constructions and Instrumentalization of the Past |pages=115}}</ref> |
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Historian Wiktoria Śliwowska<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ihpan.edu.pl/|title=Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla PAN – Instytut Historii PAN|website=ihpan.edu.pl|language=pl|access-date=2020-01-22}}</ref> finds that in the IPN, "thick volumes are being produced, into which are being thrown, with no real consideration, further evidence incriminating various persons now deceased (and therefore not able to defend them selves), and elderly people still alive - known and unknown." She finds that the IPN portrays that the communist-led Polish People's Republic throughout its existence "was a UB kingdom, which no one was able to resist."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Traba|first=Robert|date=2016|title=Two Dimensions of History: An Opening Sketch|url=http://tekstydrugie.pl/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Teksty_Drugie_en_2016_-1.pdf|journal=Teksty Drugie|volume=1|pages=58|via=}}</ref> |
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In 2008, two IPN employees, [[Sławomir Cenckiewicz]] and [[Piotr Gontarczyk]], published a book, ''{{ill|SB a Lech Wałęsa|pl|SB a Lech Wałęsa. Przyczynek do biografii}}'' (The Security Service and Lech Wałęsa: A Contribution to a Biography) which caused a major controversy.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ktcvDwAAQBAJ&dq=Gontarczyk&pg=PA406 Totalitarian Societies and Democratic Transition: Essays in memory of Victor Zaslavsky], pages 406-7, Vladislav Zubok, CEU Press</ref> The book's premise was that in the 1970s the [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] leader and later president of Poland [[Lech Wałęsa]] was a secret [[informant]] of the [[Służba Bezpieczeństwa|Polish Communist Security Service]].<ref>{{cite news |author=Harry de Quetteville |date=14 June 2008 |title=Lech Walesa was Communist spy, claims book |work=The Daily Telegraph |place=Berlin |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/2126507/Lech-Walesa-was-Communist-spy,-claims-book.html |url-status=dead |access-date=4 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080617132346/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/2126507/Lech-Walesa-was-Communist-spy,-claims-book.html |archive-date=17 June 2008}}</ref> |
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According to Joana Kaluzna, lecturer in University of Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznan's Department of Political Systems<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wnpid.amu.edu.pl/dla-pracownika/pracownicy-wydzialu/zaklad-systemow-politycznych/joanna-kaluzna|title=Joanna Kałużna - Wydział Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa UAM|last=UAM|first=Administrator strony|website=wnpid.amu.edu.pl|language=pl|access-date=2020-01-22}}</ref>, the IPN primarily emphasizes negative features of the communist-led Polish People's Republic, which allows it to discredit public activities of persons involved in the communist period. Kaluzna observes that the IPN overlooks achievements made in the period of 1944-1989, such as advancement of society, eliminating illiteracy, urbanization, migration from the countryside to the cities, equal industrialization of the country, and universal health care and education. Kaluzna finds that the IPN activities may consolidate support from young people for liberal economics and its lack of socialist ideas or a wider social economy.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Joanna|first=Kaluzna|date=2014|title=Educational policy Institute of National Remembrance, as an expression of the historical policy of the state in Formationing the attitudes of school children|url=https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/educational-policy-institute-of-national-remembrance-as-an-expression-of-the-historical-policy-of-the-state-in-formationing-the-attitudes-of|journal=PolitBook|issue=2|issn=2227-1538}}</ref> Kaluzna further criticized the IPN for lacking sufficient attention to traumas of ethnic groups, disabled classes, women, and sexual minorities. <ref name=":0" /> |
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In 2018, the IPN hired [[Tomasz Greniuch]], a historian who in his youth was associated with [[National Radical Camp|a far-right group]]. When he was promoted to a regional director of the Wrocław branch in February 2021, his past came to media attention and resulted in criticism of Greniuch and IPN. Greniuch issued an apology for his past behavior and resigned within weeks.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-02-22 |title=Polish historian with far-right past resigns from state job |url=https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/polish-historian-with-farright-past-resigns-from-state-job-historian-historian-polish-government-controversy-b1805614.html |access-date=2023-08-30 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Walenciak |first1= Weronika|last2=Dobrosz-Oracz|first2=Justyna |title=Opozycja: Prezes IPN do dymisji. "Napluto w twarz żołnierzom AK" |work= Wyborcza.pl |url=https://wyborcza.pl/7,82983,26816496,opozycja-prezes-ipn-do-dymisji-napluto-w-twarz-zolnierzom.html?disableRedirects=true |access-date=2023-08-26|language=Polish}}</ref> |
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In 2008, [[Adam Michnik]] said that the ''IPN'' is "engaging in activities that destroy this memory. Today's memory police resort to the hateful methods of the communist secret services and direct them at a victim of this very secret service. These policemen violate the truth and fundamental ethical principles."<ref>[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2008/09/25/on-the-side-of-geremek/ On the Side of Geremek], New York Review of Books, 25 September 2008, [[Adam Michnik]]</ref> |
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===Organizational and methodological concerns=== |
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Concerns have been raised of politicization of the ''IPN'', starting with its legal mandate (no comparable institution in any other European country holds prosecutorial power) and continuing to its choice of staff, which at times tended toward particular political views.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cultures-of-history.uni-jena.de/politics/poland/remaking-polish-national-history-reenactment-over-reflection/ |title= Remaking Polish National History: Reenactment over Reflection |last=Peters |first=Florian |work=Cultures of History Forum |publisher=[[Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena]]|language=en |access-date=2018-03-27}}</ref><ref name="Mink2017">{{Cite journal |last=Mink |first=Georges |title=Is there a new institutional response to the crimes of Communism? National memory agencies in post-Communist countries: the Polish case (1998–2014), with references to East Germany |journal=[[Nationalities Papers]] |volume=45 |issue=6 |pages=1013–1027 |doi=10.1080/00905992.2017.1360853|year=2017 }}</ref> |
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Valentin Behr writes that the IPN is most "concerned with the production of an official narrative about Poland's recent past" and therefore lacks innovation in its research, while noting that situation is being remedied under recent leadership. He writes that the IPN "has mainly taken in historians from the fringes of the academic field" who were either unable to obtain a prominent academic position or ideologically drawn to the IPN's approach, and that "in the academic field, being an 'IPN historian' can be a stigma"; Behr explains this by pointing to a generational divide in Polish academia, visible when comparing IPN to other Polish research outlets, and claims: "Hiring young historians was done deliberately to give the IPN greater autonomy from the academic world, considered as too leftist to describe the dark sides of the communist regime." He says that the IPN has created opportunities for many history specialists who can carry dedicated research there without the need for an appointment at another institution, and for training young historians, noting that "the IPN is now the leading employer of young PhD students and PhDs in history specialized in contemporary history, ahead of Polish universities".<ref name=vb/> |
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Historian [[Dariusz Stola]] states that the IPN is very bureaucratic in nature, comparing it to a "regular continental European bureaucracy, with usual deficiencies of its kind", and posits that in this aspect the IPN resembles the former Communist institutions it is supposed to deal with, equally "bureaucratic, centralist, heavy, inclined to extensive growth and quantity rather than quality of production".<ref name="Stola 2012">Stola, Dariusz. "Poland's Institute of National Remembrance: A Ministry of Memory?" The convolutions of historical politics (2012), pp. 54-55.</ref> |
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Several scholars have criticized the ''IPN'' for turning in recent years, with the rise of the [[Law and Justice#In majority government: 2015–present|Law and Justice government]] and the [[Act on the Institute of National Remembrance#2018 amendment|2018 amendment to the ''IPN'' law]], from objective historical research towards [[historical revisionism]].<ref name="Ambrosewicz-Jacobs">[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17504902.2019.1567668 Ambrosewicz-Jacobs, Jolanta. "The uses and the abuses of education about the Holocaust in Poland after 1989."], Holocaust Studies 25.3 (2019): 329-350.</ref><ref name="Haaretz 2019-10-03">{{Cite news |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-the-fake-nazi-death-camp-wikipedia-s-longest-hoax-exposed-1.7942233 |title=The Fake Nazi Death Camp: Wikipedia's Longest Hoax, Exposed |last=Benjakob |first=Omer |date=2019-10-03 |work=Haaretz |access-date=2019-10-03 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAPIn8oBVzU |title=העולם היום - 06.10.19 |date=2019-10-06 |time=5:28 |last=ורדי |first=מואב}}</ref> |
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An incident which caused controversy involved the "[[Wildstein list]]", a partial list of persons who allegedly worked for the communist-era Polish intelligence service, copied in 2004 from IPN archives (without IPN permission) by journalist [[Bronisław Wildstein]] and published on the Internet in 2005. The list gained much attention in Polish media and politics, and IPN security procedures and handling of the matter came under criticism.<ref name="Wild">Wojciech Czuchnowski, ''[https://archive.today/20130416131410/http://serwisy.gazeta.pl/wyborcza/1,68586,3339691.html Bronisław Wildstein: człowiek z listą]'', [[Gazeta Wyborcza]], last accessed on 12 May 2006</ref><ref name="Szczerbiak2016">{{Cite web|url=http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/63436/1/EastEuropeanPolitics-Accepted%20Manuscript.pdf|title=Szczerbiak, Aleks. "Deepening democratisation? Exploring the declared motives for "late" lustration in Poland." East European Politics 32.4 (2016): 426-445.|date=October 2016 |last1=Szczerbiak |first1=Aleks }}</ref> |
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Following the disruption of the 2019 [[New Polish School of Holocaust Scholarship (conference)|New Polish School of Holocaust Scholarship conference]] in Paris,<ref name="BehrIPN2019">{{Cite journal|language=fr|url=https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-02177454/document|last=Behr|first=Valentin|title=Entre histoire et propagande. Les contributions de l'Institut polonais de la mémoire nationale à la mise en récit de la Seconde Guerre mondiale|journal=Allemagne d'Aujourd'hui|issue=228|doi=10.3917/all.228.0082|date=2019|pages=82–92}}</ref> the ''IPN'' was criticized by French higher-education minister [[Frédérique Vidal]],<ref name="BehrIPN2019"/><ref name="lemonde20190304">{{cite news|url=https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2019/03/04/tensions-entre-la-pologne-et-la-france-apres-l-incident-de-l-ehess_5431359_3210.html|title=La Pologne minimise les incidents lors d'un colloque sur la Shoah à Paris|author=Jakub Iwaniuk|newspaper=[[Le Monde]]|date=4 March 2019|language=fr}}</ref> who said the disturbances had been "highly regrettable" and "anti-Semitic", and that the disturbances organized by ''[[Gazeta Polska]]'' activists appeared to have been condoned by the ''IPN'', whose representative did not condemn the disruption and which criticized the conference in social-media remarks that were re-tweeted by the [[Embassy of Poland, Paris|Polish Embassy in Paris]].<ref>[http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2019/03/01/97001-20190301FILWWW00147-colloque-sur-la-shoah-a-paris-la-france-proteste-aupres-de-la-pologne.php Colloquium on the Shoah in Paris: France protests with Poland], [[Le Figaro]], 1 March 2019</ref> |
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=== Polish-Belarusian diplomatic incident around the rehabilitation of Romuald Rajs === |
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In March 2019, a diplomatic incident occurred between the governments of Belarus and Poland owing to IPN activities aimed at rehabilitating a former member of the Polish Home Army, Romuald Rajs, executed in 1949 by a sentence of a Polish court for banditry and organizing killings in 1946 on ethnic and religious grounds of 79 Belarusian peasants. The IPN claimed on 11 March 2019 that Rajs "did not act with the intention of destroying the Belarusian or Orthodox community living in the current territory of Poland." |
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IPN declared Rajs not guilty based on a law of February 23, 1991 " invalidating decisions made against persons repressed for activities in favor of the independent existence of the Polish state."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://regnum.ru/news/society/2588661.html|website=regnum.ru|access-date=2020-01-22}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://eng.belta.by/politics/view/belarusian-parliament-outraged-over-justification-of-war-criminal-romuald-rajs-in-poland-119387-2019|title=Belarusian Parliament outraged over justification of war criminal Romuald Rajs in Poland|date=2019-03-12|website=eng.belta.by|language=en-EN|access-date=2020-01-22}}</ref> |
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On March 12, 2019, the press secretary of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry told reporters that the Belarusian government demanded from Warsaw public official explanations regarding the rehabilitation of Rajs. The Polish ambassador to Belarus was called to the Belarusian ministry to give explanations. <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://regnum.ru/news/polit/2589456.html|website=regnum.ru|access-date=2020-01-22}}</ref> |
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On March 25, 2019, a spokesman for the Belarusian Foreign Ministry commented on the IPN, stating “it’s impossible to justify criminals like Rajs".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.iarex.ru/news/65451.html|title=МИД Белоруссии принял объяснения Варшавы по карателю «Бурому» - ИА REX|website=www.iarex.ru|language=ru|access-date=2020-01-22}}</ref> |
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===Employee incidents=== |
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In September 2017, a historian in charge of education in [[Lublin]] for the IPN, wrote in a column in ''[[Gazeta Polska]]'' that "after the aggression of Germany into Poland, the situation of the Jews did not look very bad" and "although the [Nazi] occupation authorities took over, they ordered the wearing of armbands with the star of David, charged them heavy taxes, began to designate Jews-only zones only for the Jews, but at the same time permitted the creation of [[Judenrat]], that is, organs of self-government."<ref name="JTA20171024"/> In 2014, the same historian said in an expert opinion to a Polish court that the Nazi party was a leftist party and that the [[swastika]] is an ambiguous symbol.<ref name="JTA20171024"/> These statements were widely criticized by other historians including [[Dariusz Libionka]], and the IPN issued a statement saying that the "In connection with the thesis in the article by Tomasz Panfil in the Gazeta Polska, the Institute of National Remembrance declares that position presented there is in no way compatible with the historical knowledge about the situation of the Jewish population in Poland after September 1, 1939." and that it expects the historian "will, in his scientific and journalistic activities, show diligence and respect to the principles of historical and research reliability."<ref>[https://www.timesofisrael.com/polish-institute-rebuffs-historian-who-said-nazi-invasion-not-that-bad-for-jews/ Polish institute rebuffs historian who said Nazi invasion not that bad for Jews], ''[[Times of Israel]]'' (JTA), 5 October 2017</ref> In October 2017, education minister [[Anna Zalewska]] presented the historian with a medal for "special merits for education".<ref name="JTA20171024">[https://www.timesofisrael.com/poland-honors-historian-who-said-nazi-invasion-wasnt-so-bad-for-jews/ Poland honors historian who said Nazi invasion wasn’t so bad for Jews], Times of Israel (JTA), 24 October 2017</ref> |
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In October 2017, the [[Simon Wiesenthal Center]] urged the IPN to fire the deputy director of its publishing office because he had published several books by [[Holocaust denier]] [[David Irving]]. The IPN responded that the official "is not a Holocaust denier himself so there is no reason to dismiss him".<ref>[https://www.apnews.com/28bf4c4b4faf4fea87eb8989896c8b84/Poland-urged-to-fire-publisher-of-works-by-Holocaust-denier Poland urged to fire publisher of works by Holocaust denier], AP, 3 October 2017</ref><ref>[http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/polish-body-urged-to-sack-official-who-published-david-irvings-books/ Polish body urged to sack official who published David Irving’s books], Jewish News, 3 October 2017</ref> |
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==See also== |
==See also== |
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*[[Laws against Holocaust denial]] |
*[[Laws against Holocaust denial]] |
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*[[Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression]] |
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*[[Ukrainian Institute of National Memory]] |
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==Notes== |
==Notes== |
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==External links== |
==External links== |
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* [http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/en IPN Home Page] (English) |
* [http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/en IPN Home Page] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017124841/http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/en/ |date=17 October 2012 }} (English) |
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* {{in lang|pl}} '''old''' [https://web.archive.org/web/20070929224659/http://ks.sejm.gov.pl/proc3/ustawy/31_u.htm 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'') |
* {{in lang|pl}} '''old''' [https://web.archive.org/web/20070929224659/http://ks.sejm.gov.pl/proc3/ustawy/31_u.htm 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'') |
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* {{in lang|en}} '''old''' [http://www.ipn.gov.pl/wai/en/32/46/ Act of 18 December 1998 on the Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation] |
* {{in lang|en}} '''old''' [http://www.ipn.gov.pl/wai/en/32/46/ Act of 18 December 1998 on the Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930012334/http://isip.sejm.gov.pl/servlet/Search?todo=open&id=WDU19981551016 |date=30 September 2007 }} |
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{{National memory institutions}} |
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{{Authority control}} |
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{{Anti-communism in Europe since 1989}} |
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{{Truth and Reconciliation Commission}} |
{{Truth and Reconciliation Commission}} |
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{{Authority control}} |
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[[Category:Institute of National Remembrance| ]] |
[[Category:Institute of National Remembrance| ]] |
Revision as of 16:02, 8 May 2024
![]() | |
Abbreviation | IPN |
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Formation | 18 December 1998 |
Purpose | Education, research, archive, and identification. Commemorating the Struggle and Martyrdom. Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation.[1] |
Headquarters | Warsaw, Poland |
Location |
|
Region served | Republic of Poland |
Membership | Staff |
Official language | Polish |
President | Karol Nawrocki |
Main organ | Council |
Affiliations |
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Staff | Several hundred |
Website | www |
Remarks | The IPN Headquarters in Warsaw co-ordinates the operations of eleven Branch Offices and their Delegations |
The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (Polish: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state research institute in charge of education and archives which also includes two public prosecution service components exercising investigative, prosecution and lustration powers. The IPN was established by the Polish parliament by the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance of 18 December 1998[2] through reforming and expanding the earlier Main Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against the Polish Nation of 1991, which itself had replaced a body on Nazi crimes established in 1945.[3]
In 2018, IPN's mission statement was amended by the controversial Amendment to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance to include "protecting the reputation of the Republic of Poland and the Polish Nation".[4] The IPN investigates and prosecutes Nazi and Communist crimes committed between 1917 and 1990, documents its findings, and disseminates them to the public.[5] Some scholars have criticized the IPN for politicization, especially under Law and Justice governments.[6][7]
The IPN began its activities on 1 July 2000.[8] The IPN is a founding member of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience.[9] Since 2020, the IPN headquarters have been located at Postępu 18 Street in Warsaw. The IPN has eleven branches in other cities and seven delegation offices.[10]
Purpose
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/IPN_wej%C5%9Bcie.jpg/220px-IPN_wej%C5%9Bcie.jpg)
The IPN's main areas of activity,[5] in line with its original mission statement,[2] include researching and documenting the losses which were suffered by the Polish Nation as a result of World War II and during the post-war totalitarian period.[2] The IPN informs about the patriotic traditions of resistance against the occupational forces,[2] and the Polish citizens' fight for sovereignty of the nation, including their efforts in defence of freedom and human dignity in general.[2]
According to the IPN, it is its duty to prosecute crimes against peace and humanity, as much as war crimes.[2] Its mission includes the need to compensate for damages which were suffered by the repressed and harmed people at a time when human rights were disobeyed by the state,[2] and educate the public about recent history of Poland.[5] IPN collects, organises and archives all documents about the Polish Communist security apparatus active from 22 July 1944 to 31 December 1989.[2]
Following the election of the Law and Justice party, the government formulated in 2016 a new IPN law. The 2016 law stipulated that the IPN should oppose publications of false information that dishonors or harms the Polish nation. It also called for popularizing history as part of "an element of patriotic education". The new law also removed the influence of academia and the judiciary on the IPN.[11]
A 2018 amendment to the law,[12] added article 55a that attempts to defend the "good name" of Poland.[13] Initially conceived as a criminal offense (3 years of jail) with an exemption for arts and research, following an international outcry, the article was modified to a civil offense that may be tried in civil courts and the exemption was deleted.[12] Defamation charges under the act may be made by the IPN as well as by accredited NGOs such as the Polish League Against Defamation.[12] By the same law, the institution's mission statement was changed to include "protecting the reputation of the Republic of Poland and the Polish Nation".[4]
Organisation
IPN was created by special legislation on 18 December 1998.[2] The IPN is divided into:[14][2][15]
- 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)[14]
- local chapters.
On 29 April 2010, acting president Bronislaw Komorowski signed into law a parliamentary act that reformed the Institute of National Remembrance.[16]
Director
IPN is governed by the director, who has a sovereign position that is independent of the Polish state hierarchy. The director may not be dismissed during his term unless he commits a harmful act. Prior to 2016, the election of the director was a complex procedure, which involves the selection of a panel of candidates by the IPN Collegium (members appointed by the Polish Parliament and judiciary). The Polish Parliament (Sejm) then elects one of the candidates, with a required supermajority (60%). The director has a 5-year term of office.[17] Following 2016 legislation in the PiS controlled parliament, the former pluralist Collegium was replaced with a nine-member Collegium composed of PiS supporters, and the Sejm appoints the director after consulting with the College without an election between candidates.[17]
Leon Kieres
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/Leon_Kieres_VII_kadencja_Kancelaria_Senatu.jpg/100px-Leon_Kieres_VII_kadencja_Kancelaria_Senatu.jpg)
The first director of the IPN was Leon Kieres, elected by the Sejm for five years on 8 June 2000 (term 30 June 2000 – 29 December 2005). The IPN granted some 6,500 people the "victim of communism" status and gathered significant archive material. The IPN faced difficulties since it was new and also since the Democratic Left Alliance (containing former communists) attempted to close the IPN. The publication of Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland by Jan T. Gross, proved to be a lifeline for the IPN as Polish president Aleksander Kwaśniewski intervened to save the IPN since he deemed the IPN's research to be important as part of Jewish-Polish reconciliation and "apology diplomacy".[17]
Janusz Kurtyka
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/21/Kurtyka_Janusz.jpg/100px-Kurtyka_Janusz.jpg)
The second director 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 elections were controversial, as during the elections a leak against Andrzej Przewoźnik accusing him of collaboration with Służba Bezpieczeństwa caused him to withdraw his candidacy.[17][18] Przewoźnik was cleared of the accusations only after he had lost the election.[18]
In 2006, the IPN opened a "Lustration Bureau" that increased the director's power. The bureau was assigned the task of examining the past of all candidates to public office. Kurtyka widened archive access to the public and shifted focus from compensating victims to researching collaboration.[17]
Franciszek Gryciuk
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Franciszek_Gryciuk%2C_15.06.2010.jpg/100px-Franciszek_Gryciuk%2C_15.06.2010.jpg)
In 1999, historian Franciszek Gryciuk was appointed to the Collegium of the IPN, which he chaired 2003–2004. From June 2008 to June 2011, he was vice president of the IPN. He was acting director 2010–2011, between the death of the IPN's second president, Janusz Kurtyka, in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash and the election of Łukasz Kamiński by the Polish Parliament as the third director.
Łukasz Kamiński
Łukasz Kamiński, was elected by the Sejm in 2011 following the death of his predecessor. Kamiński headed the Wroclaw Regional Bureau of Public Education prior to his election. During his term, the IPN faced a wide array of criticism calling for an overhaul or even replacement. Critics founds fault in the IPN being a state institution, the lack of historical knowledge of its prosecutors, a relatively high number of microhistories with a debatable methodology, overuse of the martyrology motif, research methodology, and isolationism from the wider research community. In response, Kamiński implemented several changes, including organizing public debates with outside historians to counter the charge of isolationism and has suggested refocusing on victims as opposed to agents.[17]
Jarosław Szarek
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/85/Jaros%C5%82aw_Szarek_1%28cropped%29.jpg/100px-Jaros%C5%82aw_Szarek_1%28cropped%29.jpg)
On 22 July 2016 Jarosław Szarek was appointed to head IPN.[19] He dismissed Krzysztof Persak, co-author of the 2002 two-volume IPN study on the Jedwabne pogrom. In subsequent months, IPN featured in media headlines for releasing controversial documents, including some relating to Lech Wałęsa, for memory politics conducted in schools, for efforts to change Communist street names, and for legislation efforts.[11] According to historian Idesbald Goddeeris, this marks a return of politics to the IPN.[11]
Karol Nawrocki
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Dr_Karol_Nawrocki.jpg/96px-Dr_Karol_Nawrocki.jpg)
On 23 July 2021 Karol Nawrocki was appointed to head IPN.[20]
Public prosecutors in the IPN
Two components of the IPN are specialized parts of the Public Prosecution Service of Poland, namely the Main Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation and the Lustration Bureau. Each of these two components exercises its activities autonomically from other components of the Institute and is headed by a director who is ex officio Deputy Public Prosecutor General of Poland, while role of the IPN Director is in their case purely accessory and includes no powers regarding conducted investigations, being limited only to providing supporting apparatus and, when vacated, presenting candidates for the offices of the two directors to the Prosecutor General who as their superior has the discretionary power to appoint or reject them.
Main Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation
The Main Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (Główna Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni Przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu) is the oldest component of the IPN tracing its origins to 1945. It investigates and prosecutes crimes committed on Polish soil against Polish citizens as well as people of other citizenships wronged in the country. War crimes which are not affected by statute of limitations according to Polish law include:[5]
- Crimes of the Soviet and Polish Communist regimes committed in the country from 17 September 1939 until the Fall of Communism on 31 December 1989.[5]
- Deportations to the Soviet Union of Polish soldiers of Armia Krajowa,[5] and other Polish resistance organizations as well as Polish inhabitants of the former Polish eastern territories.
- Pacifications of Polish communities between Vistula and Bug rivers in the years 1944 to 1947 by UB-NKVD,[5]
- Crimes committed by the law enforcement agencies of the Polish People's Republic, particularly Ministry of Public Security of Poland and Main Directorate of Information of the Polish Army.[5]
- Crimes under the category of war crimes and crimes against humanity.[5]
Lustration Bureau
On 15 March 2007, an amendment to the Polish law regulating the IPN (enacted on 18 December 2006) came into effect. The change gave the IPN new lustration powers and expanded IPN's file access. The change was enacted by Law and Justice government in a series of legislative amendments during 2006 and the beginning of 2007.[21] However, several articles of the 2006-7 amendments were held unconstitutional by Poland's Constitutional Court on 11 May 2007,[22] though the IPN's lustration power was still wider than under the original 1997 law. These powers include loss of position for those who submitted false lustration declarations as well as a lustration process of candidates for senior office.[21]
Other activities
Research
The research conducted by IPN from December 2000 falls into four main topic areas:[better source needed]
- 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);[23]
- Functioning of the repression apparatus (state security and justice organs) – its organizational structure, cadres and relations with other state authority and party organs[24]
- Activities of the repression apparatus directed against particular selected social groups and organizations[24]
- Structure and methods of functioning of the People's Poland security apparatus[24]
- Security apparatus in combat with the political and military underground 1944–1956[24]
- Activities of the security apparatus against political emigreés[24]
- Security apparatus in combat with the Church and freedom of belief[24]
- Authorities dealing with social crises and democratic opposition in the years 1956–1989 f) List of those repressed and sentenced to death[24]
- Bibliography of the conspiracy, resistance and repression 1944–1989[24]
- War, Occupation and the Polish Underground;[23][25]
- deepening of knowledge about the structures and activities of the Polish Underground State[25]
- examination of the human fates in the territories occupied by the Soviet regime and of Poles displaced into the Soviet Union[25]
- assessment of sources on the living conditions under the Soviet and German Nazi occupations[25]
- evaluation of the state of research concerning the victims of the war activities and extermination policy of the Soviet and German Nazi occupiers[25]
- examining the Holocaust (Extermination of Jews) conducted by Nazis in the Polish territories[25][26]
- Poles and Other Nations in the Years 1939–1989 (with a part on Poles and Ukrainians);[23][27]
- Peasants and the People's Authority 1944–1989 (on the situation of peasants and the rural policy in the years 1944–1989)[23][28]
- inhabitants of the rural areas during the creation of the totalitarian regime in Poland;[28]
- peasant life during the Sovietisation of Poland in the years 1948–1956;[28]
- attitudes of the inhabitants of rural areas towards the state-Church conflict in the years 1956–1970;[28]
- the role of peasants in the anti-Communist opposition of the 1970s and 1980s.[28]
Education
The IPN's Public Education Office (BEP) vaguely defined role in the IPN act is to inform society of Communist and Nazi crimes and institutions. This vaguely defined role allowed Paweł Machcewicz, BEP's director in 2000, freedom to create a wide range of activities.[11]
Researchers at the IPN conduct not only research but are required to take part in public outreach.[29] BEP has published music CDs,[30] DVDs, and serials. It has founded "historical clubs" for debates and lectures. It has also organized outdoor historical fairs, picnic, and games.[11]
The IPN Bulletin (Polish: Biuletyn IPN) is a high circulation popular-scientific journal,[31] intended for lay readers and youth.[29] Some 12,000 of 15,000 copies of the Bulletin are distributed free of charge to secondary schools in Poland, and the rest are sold in bookstores.[31] The Bulletin contains: popular-scientific and academic articles, polemics, manifestos, appeals to readers, promotional material on the IPN and BEP, denials and commentary on reports in the news, as well as multimedia supplements.[31]
The IPN also publishes the Remembrance and Justice (Polish: Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość) scientific journal.[31]
The IPN has issued several board games to help educate people about recent Polish history, including:
- 303 – a game about the Battle of Britain that focuses on the Polish 303 Squadron.
- Kolejka – a game about being forced to queue for basic household products during the Communist era.
Naming of monuments
In 2008, the chairman of the IPN wrote to local administrations, calling for the addition of the word "German" before "Nazi" to all monuments and tablets commemorating Germany's victims, stating that "Nazis" is not always understood to relate specifically to Germans. Several scenes of atrocities conducted by Germany were duly updated with commemorative plaques clearly indicating the nationality of the perpetrators. The IPN also requested better documentation and commemoration of crimes that had been perpetrated by the Soviet Union.[32]
The Polish government also asked UNESCO to officially change the name "Auschwitz Concentration Camp" to "Former Nazi German Concentration Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau", to clarify that the camp had been built and operated by Nazi Germany.[33][34][35][36] In 2007, UNESCO's World Heritage Committee changed the camp's name to "Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940–1945)."[37][38] Previously some German media, including Der Spiegel, had called the camp "Polish".[39][40]
Publications
Since 2019, the Institute publishes the Institute of National Remembrance Review (ISSN 2658-1566), a yearly peer-reviewed academic journal in English, with Anna Karolina Piekarska as editor-in-chief..
Criticism
According to Georges Mink , common criticisms of the IPN include its dominance in the Polish research field, which is guaranteed by a budget that far supersedes that of any similar academic institution; the "thematic monotony ... of micro-historical studies ... of no real scientific interest" of its research; its focus on "martyrology"; and various criticisms of methodology and ethics.[17] Some of these criticisms have been addressed by Director Łukasz Kamiński during his tenure and who according to Mink "has made significant changes"; however, Minsk, writing in 2017, was also concerned with the recent administrative and personnel changes in IPN, including the election of Jarosław Szarek as director, which he posits are likely to result in further the politicization of the IPN.[17] According to Valentin Behr, IPN research into the Communist era is valuable, positing that "the resources at its disposal have made it unrivalled as a research centre in the academic world"; at the same time, he said that the research is mostly focused on the era's negative aspects, and that it "is far from producing a critical approach to history, one that asks its own questions and is methodologically pluralistic." He added that in recent years that problem is being ameliorated as the IPN's work "has somewhat diversified as its administration has taken note of criticism on the part of academics."[29]
According to Robert Traba,[41] "under the ... IPN, tasks related to the 'national politics of memory' were – unfortunately – merged with the mission of independent academic research. In the public mind, there could be only one message flowing from the institute's name: memory and history as a science are one. The problem is that nothing could be further from the truth, and nothing could be more misleading. What the IPN’s message presents, in fact, is the danger that Polish history will be grossly over-simplified."[41]: 43 Traba states that "at the heart of debate today is a confrontation between those who support traditional methods and categories of research, and those who support newly defined methods and categories. ... Broadening the research perspective means the enrichment of the historian's instrumentarium.'" He puts the IPN research, in a broad sense, in the former; he states that "[a] solid, workshop-oriented, traditional, and positivist historiography ... which defends itself by the integrity of its analysis and its diversified source base" but criticizes its approach for leading to a "falsely conceived mission to find 'objective truth' at the expense of 'serious study of event history', and a 'simplified claim that only 'secret' sources, not accessible to ordinary mortals', can lead to that objective truth." Traba quotes historian Wiktoria Śliwowska, who wrote: "The historian must strive not only to reconstruct a given reality, but also to understand the background of events, the circumstances in which people acted. It is easy to condemn, but difficult to understand a complicated past. ... [Meanwhile, in the IPN] thick volumes are being produced, into which are being thrown, with no real consideration, further evidence in criminating various persons now deceased (and therefore not able to defend themselves), and elderly people still alive – known and unknown."[41]: 57–58 Traba posits that "there is ... a need for genuine debate that does not revolve around [the files] in the IPN archives, 'lustration,' or short-term and politically inspired discussions designed to establish the 'only real' truth", and suggests that adopting varied perspectives and diverse methodologies might contribute to such debate.[41]: 67
During PiS's control of the government between 2005 and 2007, the IPN was the focus of heated public controversies, in particular in regard to the pasts of Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa and PZPR secretary Wojciech Jaruzelski.[29] As a result, the IPN has been referred to as "a political institution at the centre of 'memory games'".[29][42][43]
In 2008, two IPN employees, Sławomir Cenckiewicz and Piotr Gontarczyk, published a book, SB a Lech Wałęsa (The Security Service and Lech Wałęsa: A Contribution to a Biography) which caused a major controversy.[44] The book's premise was that in the 1970s the Solidarity leader and later president of Poland Lech Wałęsa was a secret informant of the Polish Communist Security Service.[45]
In 2018, the IPN hired Tomasz Greniuch, a historian who in his youth was associated with a far-right group. When he was promoted to a regional director of the Wrocław branch in February 2021, his past came to media attention and resulted in criticism of Greniuch and IPN. Greniuch issued an apology for his past behavior and resigned within weeks.[46][47]
Organizational and methodological concerns
Valentin Behr writes that the IPN is most "concerned with the production of an official narrative about Poland's recent past" and therefore lacks innovation in its research, while noting that situation is being remedied under recent leadership. He writes that the IPN "has mainly taken in historians from the fringes of the academic field" who were either unable to obtain a prominent academic position or ideologically drawn to the IPN's approach, and that "in the academic field, being an 'IPN historian' can be a stigma"; Behr explains this by pointing to a generational divide in Polish academia, visible when comparing IPN to other Polish research outlets, and claims: "Hiring young historians was done deliberately to give the IPN greater autonomy from the academic world, considered as too leftist to describe the dark sides of the communist regime." He says that the IPN has created opportunities for many history specialists who can carry dedicated research there without the need for an appointment at another institution, and for training young historians, noting that "the IPN is now the leading employer of young PhD students and PhDs in history specialized in contemporary history, ahead of Polish universities".[29]
Historian Dariusz Stola states that the IPN is very bureaucratic in nature, comparing it to a "regular continental European bureaucracy, with usual deficiencies of its kind", and posits that in this aspect the IPN resembles the former Communist institutions it is supposed to deal with, equally "bureaucratic, centralist, heavy, inclined to extensive growth and quantity rather than quality of production".[48]
An incident which caused controversy involved the "Wildstein list", a partial list of persons who allegedly worked for the communist-era Polish intelligence service, copied in 2004 from IPN archives (without IPN permission) by journalist Bronisław Wildstein and published on the Internet in 2005. The list gained much attention in Polish media and politics, and IPN security procedures and handling of the matter came under criticism.[49][21]
See also
- Laws against Holocaust denial
- Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression
- Ukrainian Institute of National Memory
Notes
- ^ Remembrance, Institute of National. "Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation". Institute of National Remembrance. Archived from the original on 27 May 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Mission" Archived 13 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine. From IPN English website. Last accessed on 20 April 2007
- ^ Tismaneanu, Vladimir; Iacob, Bogdan (2015). Remembrance, History, and Justice: Coming to Terms with Traumatic Pasts in Democratic Societies. Central European University Press. p. 243. ISBN 978-9-63386-092-2.
- ^ a b "Full text of Poland's controversial Holocaust legislation". The Times of Israel. 1 February 2018. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Nauka polska: Instytucje naukowe – identyfikator rekordu: i6575". Archived from the original on 16 May 2007. Retrieved 22 April 2007.
- ^ Ambrosewicz-Jacobs, Jolanta. "The uses and the abuses of education about the Holocaust in Poland after 1989.", Holocaust Studies 25.3 (2019): 329-350.
- ^ Goddeeris, Idesbald (2018). "History Riding on the Waves of Government Coalitions: The First Fifteen Years of the Institute of National Remembrance in Poland (2001–2016)". The Palgrave Handbook of State-Sponsored History After 1945. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 255–269. ISBN 978-1-349-95306-6.
- ^ Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (12 June 2015). "15 lat Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej w liczbach". Komunikaty. Archived from the original on 22 June 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
- ^ Czech Prime minister Petr Nečas (14 October 2011). "The years of totalitarianism were years of struggle for liberty". Platform of European Memory and Conscience. Archived from the original on 30 March 2012. Retrieved 14 October 2011.
- ^ Remembrance, Institute of National. "Branch Offices and Delegations". Institute of National Remembrance. Archived from the original on 22 August 2020. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
- ^ a b c d e Goddeeris, Idesbald. "History Riding on the Waves of Government Coalitions: The First Fifteen Years of the Institute of National Remembrance in Poland (2001–2016)." The Palgrave Handbook of State-Sponsored History After 1945. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2018. 255-269.
- ^ a b c Hackmann, Jörg (2 October 2018). "Defending the "Good Name" of the Polish Nation: Politics of History as a Battlefield in Poland, 2015–18". Journal of Genocide Research. 20 (4): 587–606. doi:10.1080/14623528.2018.1528742. S2CID 81922100 – via Taylor and Francis+NEJM.
- ^ Soroka, George; Krawatzek, Félix (13 April 2019). "Nationalism, Democracy, and Memory Laws". Journal of Democracy. 30 (2): 157–171. doi:10.1353/jod.2019.0032. S2CID 159294126 – via Project MUSE.
- ^ a b (in Polish) 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. Archived 19 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine Last accessed on 24 April 2006
- ^ (in Polish)About the Institute From IPN Polish website. Last accessed on 24 April 2007
- ^ [1] Archived 28 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c d e f g h Mink, Georges (2017). "Is there a new institutional response to the crimes of Communism? National memory agencies in post-Communist countries: the Polish case (1998–2014), with references to East Germany". Nationalities Papers. 45 (6): 1013–1027. doi:10.1080/00905992.2017.1360853.
- ^ a b (in Polish) Olejniczak: Kurtyka powinien zrezygnować, Polish Press Agency, 13 December 2005, last accessed on 28 April 2007
- ^ Senat zgodził się na wybór Jarosława Szarka na prezesa IPN, PAP, 22 July 2016
- ^ "Karol Nawrocki, Ph.D. President of the Institute of National Remembrance". IPN. 2 June 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
- ^ a b c Szczerbiak, Aleks (October 2016). "Szczerbiak, Aleks. "Deepening democratisation? Exploring the declared motives for "late" lustration in Poland." East European Politics 32.4 (2016): 426-445" (PDF).
- ^ "Polish court strikes down spy law". BBC News. 11 May 2007. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
- ^ a b c d Public Education Office IPN website. Last accessed on 24 April 2007
- ^ a b c d e f g h Security Apparatus and Civil Resistance Central Programme. IPN pages, last accessed on 25 April 2007
- ^ a b c d e f War, Occupation and the Polish Underground State Programme. IPN pages, last accessed on 25 April 2007
- ^ a b c Extermination of Jews by German Nazis in the Polish Territories Programme. IPN pages, last accessed on 25 April 2007
- ^ a b c d e f g Poles and Other Nations in the Years 1939–1989 Programme. IPN pages, last accessed on 25 April 2007
- ^ a b c d e Peasants vis-a-vis People's Authority 1944–1989 Programme. IPN pages, last accessed on 25 April 2007
- ^ a b c d e f Behr, Valentin (2 January 2017). "Historical policy-making in post-1989 Poland: a sociological approach to the narratives of communism". European Politics and Society. 18 (1): 81–95. doi:10.1080/23745118.2016.1269447. ISSN 2374-5118. S2CID 150353378.
- ^ The Populist Radical Right in Poland: The Patriots, Rafał Pankowski, page 38
- ^ a b c d The Post-communist Condition: Public and Private Discourses of Transformation, John Benjamins Publishing Company, page 172, chapter by Marta Kurkowska-Budzan
- ^ "Akcja IPN: Mordowali "Niemcy", nie "naziści"" [IPN initiative: Murderers "German", not "Nazis"]. Interia (in Polish). 9 December 2008. Archived from the original on 12 February 2012.
- ^ Tran, Mark (27 June 2007). "Poles claim victory in battle to rename Auschwitz". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 November 2018.
- ^ Spritzer, Dinah (27 April 2006). "Auschwitz Might Get Name Change". The Jewish Journal. Retrieved 11 November 2018.
- ^ "Yad Vashem for renaming Auschwitz". The Jerusalem Post. Associated Press. 11 May 2006. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
- ^ "UNESCO approves Poland's request to rename Auschwitz". Expatica. Expatica Communications B.V. 27 June 2007. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
- ^ "World Heritage Committee approves Auschwitz name change". UNESCO World Heritage Committee. 28 June 2007. Retrieved 11 November 2018.
- ^ Watt, Nicholas (1 April 2006). "Auschwitz may be renamed to reinforce link with Nazi era". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
- ^ "Poland seeks Auschwitz renaming". BBC News. 31 March 2006. Retrieved 11 November 2018.
- ^ Tran, Mark (27 June 2007). "Poles claim victory in battle to rename Auschwitz". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
- ^ a b c d Traba, Robert (2016). "Two Dimensions of History: An Opening Sketch" (PDF). Teksty Drugie. 1: 36–81.
- ^ Stryjek, Tomasz (2018). "The Hypertrophy of Polish Remembrance Policy after 2015: Trends and Outcomes". Zoon Politikon. 1 (9): 43–66. doi:10.4467/2543408XZOP.18.003.10059. S2CID 159124162.
- ^ Michlic, Joanna Beata (2020). History "Wars" and the Battle for Truth and National Memory. Constructions and Instrumentalization of the Past. p. 115.
- ^ Totalitarian Societies and Democratic Transition: Essays in memory of Victor Zaslavsky, pages 406-7, Vladislav Zubok, CEU Press
- ^ Harry de Quetteville (14 June 2008). "Lech Walesa was Communist spy, claims book". The Daily Telegraph. Berlin. Archived from the original on 17 June 2008. Retrieved 4 October 2008.
- ^ "Polish historian with far-right past resigns from state job". The Independent. 22 February 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
- ^ Walenciak, Weronika; Dobrosz-Oracz, Justyna. "Opozycja: Prezes IPN do dymisji. "Napluto w twarz żołnierzom AK"". Wyborcza.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 26 August 2023.
- ^ Stola, Dariusz. "Poland's Institute of National Remembrance: A Ministry of Memory?" The convolutions of historical politics (2012), pp. 54-55.
- ^ Wojciech Czuchnowski, Bronisław Wildstein: człowiek z listą, Gazeta Wyborcza, last accessed on 12 May 2006
External links
- IPN Home Page Archived 17 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine (English)
- (in Polish) 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)
- (in English) old Act of 18 December 1998 on the Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation Archived 30 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine