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The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state research institute in charge of education and archives with investigative and lustration powers. The IPN was established by the
Polish parliament The parliament of Poland is the bicameral legislature of Poland. It is composed of an upper house (the Senate) and a lower house (the Sejm). Both houses are accommodated in the ''Sejm'' complex in Warsaw. The Constitution of Poland does not ...
by the
Act on the Institute of National Remembrance The Act on the Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Ustawy o Instytucie Pamięci Narodowej - Komisji Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu) is a 1998 Polish law that ...
of 18 December 1998, which incorporated the earlier Main Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation of 1991. IPN itself had replaced a body on Nazi crimes established in 1945. In 2018, IPN's mission statement was amended by the controversial
Amendment to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance The Amendment to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance of 2018 is a Polish law that penalizes public speech which attributes responsibility for the Holocaust to Poland or the Polish nation. Article 2a, addressing crimes against "Polis ...
to include "protecting the reputation of the Republic of Poland and the Polish Nation". The IPN investigates
Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
and
Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
crimes committed between 1917 and 1990, documents its findings, and disseminates them to the public. Some scholars have criticized the IPN for politicization, especially under
Law and Justice Law and Justice ( pl, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość , PiS) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Poland. Its chairman is Jarosław Kaczyński. It was founded in 2001 by Jarosław and Lech Kaczyński as a direct su ...
governments.Ambrosewicz-Jacobs, Jolanta. "The uses and the abuses of education about the Holocaust in Poland after 1989."
Holocaust Studies 25.3 (2019): 329-350.
The IPN began its activities on 1 July 2000. The IPN is a founding member of the
Platform of European Memory and Conscience Platform may refer to: Technology * Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run * Platform game, a genre of video games * Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models * Weapons platform, a system or ...
. Since 2020, the IPN headquarters have been located at Postępu 18 Street in
Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
. The IPN has eleven branches in other cities and seven delegation offices.


Purpose

The IPN's main areas of activity, in line with its original
mission statement A mission statement is a short statement of why an organization exists, what its overall goal is, the goal of its operations: what kind of product or service it provides, its primary customers or market, and its geographical region of operation ...
,"Mission"
From IPN English website. Last accessed on 20 April 2007
include researching and documenting the losses which were suffered by the Polish Nation as a result of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and during the post-war totalitarian period. The IPN informs about the patriotic traditions of resistance against the occupational forces, and the Polish citizens' fight for sovereignty of the nation, including their efforts in defence of freedom and human dignity in general. The 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 A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In m ...
according to
Polish law The Polish law or legal system in Poland has been developing since the first centuries of Polish history, over 1,000 years ago. The public and private laws of Poland are codified. The supreme law in Poland is the Constitution of Poland. Poland ...
include: # Crimes of the Soviet and Polish
Communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...
s committed in the country from 17 September 1939 until the
Fall of Communism The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Nat ...
on 31 December 1989. #
Deportation Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...
s to the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
of Polish soldiers of
Armia Krajowa The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) esta ...
, and other Polish resistance organizations as well as Polish inhabitants of the former Polish eastern territories. # Pacifications of Polish communities between
Vistula The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in ...
and Bug rivers in the years 1944 to 1947 by UB-
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...
, # Crimes committed by the law enforcement agencies of the
Polish People's Republic The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...
, particularly
Ministry of Public Security of Poland The Ministry of Public Security ( pl, Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego), commonly known as UB or later SB, was the secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage agency operating in the Polish People's Republic. From 1945 to 1954 it w ...
and
Main Directorate of Information of the Polish Army ''Główny Zarząd Informacji Wojska Polskiego'' (''GZI WP'' - "Main Directorate of Information of the Polish Army"), was a name of a first military Police and counter-espionage organ of the Polish People's Army in communist Poland during and aft ...
. # Crimes under the category of war crimes and
crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
. According to the IPN, it is its duty to prosecute crimes against peace and humanity, as much as war crimes. 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, and educate the public about recent
history of Poland The history of Poland spans over a thousand years, from medieval tribes, Christianization and monarchy; through Poland's Golden Age, expansionism and becoming one of the largest European powers; to its collapse and partitions, two world wars ...
. IPN collects, organises and archives all documents about the Polish Communist security apparatus active from 22 July 1944 to 31 December 1989. Following the election of the
Law and Justice Law and Justice ( pl, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość , PiS) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Poland. Its chairman is Jarosław Kaczyński. It was founded in 2001 by Jarosław and Lech Kaczyński as a direct su ...
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. A 2018 amendment to the law, added article 55a that attempts to defend the "good name" of Poland. 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. Defamation charges under the act may be made by the IPN as well as by accredited NGOs such as the
Polish League Against Defamation The Polish League Against Defamation ( pl, Fundacja Reduta Dobrego Imienia – Polska Liga Przeciw Zniesławieniom, lit=Good Name Redoubt – Polish League Against Defamation) is a right-wing nationalist non-governmental organization based in W ...
. 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".


Organisation

IPN was created by special legislation on 18 December 1998. The IPN is divided into: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
About the Institute
From IPN Polish website. Last accessed on 24 April 2007
* Main Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (''Główna Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni Przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu'') * Bureau of Provision and Archivization of Documents (''Biuro Udostępniania i Archiwizacji Dokumentów'') * Bureau of Public Education (or Public Education Office, ''Biuro Edukacji Publicznej'') * Lustration Bureau (''Biuro Lustracyjne'') (new bureau, since October 2006) * local chapters. On 29 April 2010, acting president Bronislaw Komorowski signed into law a parliamentary act that reformed the Institute of National Remembrance.


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 The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of t ...
) then elects one of the candidates, with a required
supermajority A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority ru ...
(60%). The director has a 5-year
term of office A term of office, electoral term, or parliamentary term is the length of time a person serves in a particular elected office. In many jurisdictions there is a defined limit on how long terms of office may be before the officeholder must be subject ...
. 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.


Leon Kieres

The first director of the IPN was
Leon Kieres Leon Kieres (born 26 May 1948) is a Polish lawyer and politician. He was the president of the Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (Institute of National Remembrance) (8 June 2000 – 22 December 2005), a judge of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal. Bio ...
, elected by the
Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of t ...
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 The Democratic Left Alliance () was a social-democratic political party in Poland. It was formed in 9 July 1991 as an electoral alliance of centre-left parties, and became a single party on 15 April 1999. It was the major coalition party in Po ...
(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 Jan Tomasz Gross (born 1947) is a Polish-American sociologist and historian. He is the Norman B. Tomlinson '16 and '48 Professor of War and Society, emeritus, and Professor of History, emeritus, at Princeton University. Gross is the author o ...
, proved to be a lifeline for the IPN as Polish president
Aleksander Kwaśniewski Aleksander Kwaśniewski (; born 15 November 1954) is a Polish politician and journalist. He served as the President of Poland from 1995 to 2005. He was born in Białogard, and during communist rule, he was active in the Socialist Union of Poli ...
intervened to save the IPN since he deemed the IPN's research to be important as part of Jewish-Polish reconciliation and "apology diplomacy".


Janusz Kurtyka

The second director was
Janusz Kurtyka Janusz Marek Kurtyka (13 August 1960 – 10 April 2010) was a Polish historian, and from December 2005 until his death in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash, the second president of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN). Kurtyka was bo ...
, 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 Andrzej Przewoźnik (13 May 1963 – 10 April 2010) was a Polish historian who served as Secretary of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites. He died in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash near the city of Smolensk, ...
accusing him of collaboration with
Służba Bezpieczeństwa The Ministry of Public Security ( pl, Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego), commonly known as UB or later SB, was the secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage agency operating in the Polish People's Republic. From 1945 to 1954 it w ...
caused him to withdraw his candidacy. Przewoźnik was cleared of the accusations only after he had lost the election.''Olejniczak: Kurtyka powinien zrezygnować''
Polish Press Agency The Polish Press Agency ( pl, Polska Agencja Prasowa, PAP) is Poland's national news agency, producing and distributing political, economic, social, and cultural news as well as events information. The agency has 14 news desks in its headquarters ...
, 13 December 2005, last accessed on 28 April 2007
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. Franciszek Gryciuk In 1999, historian
Franciszek Gryciuk Franciszek Gryciuk (born 1948 in Kobylany) is a Polish historian. He has served as Vice President and Acting President of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN). He holds a doctorate in history from the University of Warsaw, and works at t ...
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 Janusz Marek Kurtyka (13 August 1960 – 10 April 2010) was a Polish historian, and from December 2005 until his death in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash, the second president of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN). Kurtyka was bo ...
, in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash and the election of
Łukasz Kamiński Łukasz Andrzej Kamiński (born 3 June 1973) is a Polish historian, specializing in the history of Poland after 1945, particularly the period of Soviet occupation and the Polish People's Republic. He is the President of the European Union's Plat ...
by the
Polish Parliament The parliament of Poland is the bicameral legislature of Poland. It is composed of an upper house (the Senate) and a lower house (the Sejm). Both houses are accommodated in the ''Sejm'' complex in Warsaw. The Constitution of Poland does not ...
as the third director.


Łukasz Kamiński

Łukasz Kamiński Łukasz Andrzej Kamiński (born 3 June 1973) is a Polish historian, specializing in the history of Poland after 1945, particularly the period of Soviet occupation and the Polish People's Republic. He is the President of the European Union's Plat ...
, 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.


Jarosław Szarek

On 22 July 2016
Jarosław Szarek Jarosław Szarek (born 1963) is a Polish journalist, writer and historian. Employee of the Bureau of Public Education of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN). He specializes in the recent communist-era history of Poland. Szarek was appoin ...
was appointed to head IPN. He dismissed Krzysztof Persak, co-author of the 2002 two-volume IPN study on the
Jedwabne pogrom The Jedwabne pogrom was a massacre of Polish Jews in the town of Jedwabne, German-occupied Poland, on 10 July 1941, during World War II and the early stages of the Holocaust. At least 340 men, women and children were murdered, some 300 of whom ...
. In subsequent months, IPN featured in media headlines for releasing controversial documents, including some relating to
Lech Wałęsa Lech Wałęsa (; ; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who served as the President of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 election, Wałęsa became the first democratica ...
, for memory politics conducted in schools, for efforts to change Communist street names, and for legislation efforts. According to historian Idesbald Goddeeris, this marks a return of politics to the IPN.


Karol Nawrocki

On 23 July 2021
Karol Nawrocki Karol Tadeusz Nawrocki (born March 3, 1983, in Gdańsk) is a Polish historian. He is the current head of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN). He also served as the director of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk from 2017 to 20 ...
was appointed to head IPN.


Activities


Research

The research conducted by IPN from December 2000 falls into four main topic areas: * Security Apparatus and Civil Resistance (with separate sub-projects devoted to Political Processes and Prisoners 1944–1956, Soviet Repressions and Crimes committed against Polish Citizens and Martial Law: a Glance after Twenty Years);Public Education Office
IPN website. Last accessed on 24 April 2007
** Functioning of the repression apparatus (state security and justice organs) – its organizational structure, cadres and relations with other state authority and party organsSecurity Apparatus and Civil Resistance Central Programme
IPN pages, last accessed on 25 April 2007
** Activities of the repression apparatus directed against particular selected social groups and organizations ** Structure and methods of functioning of the People's Poland security apparatus ** Security apparatus in combat with the political and military underground 1944–1956 ** Activities of the security apparatus against political emigreés ** Security apparatus in combat with the Church and freedom of belief ** Authorities dealing with social crises and democratic opposition in the years 1956–1989 f) List of those repressed and sentenced to death ** Bibliography of the conspiracy, resistance and repression 1944–1989 * War, Occupation and the Polish Underground;War, Occupation and the Polish Underground State Programme
IPN pages, last accessed on 25 April 2007
** deepening of knowledge about the structures and activities of the Polish Underground State ** examination of the human fates in the territories occupied by the Soviet regime and of Poles displaced into the Soviet Union ** assessment of sources on the living conditions under the Soviet and German Nazi occupations ** evaluation of the state of research concerning the victims of the war activities and extermination policy of the Soviet and German Nazi occupiers ** examining the Holocaust (Extermination of Jews) conducted by Nazis in the Polish territoriesExtermination of Jews by German Nazis in the Polish Territories Programme
IPN pages, last accessed on 25 April 2007
*** Response of the Polish Underground State to the extermination of Jewish population *** The Polish Underground press and the Jewish question during the German Nazi occupation * Poles and Other Nations in the Years 1939–1989 (with a part on Poles and Ukrainians);Poles and Other Nations in the Years 1939–1989 Programme
IPN pages, last accessed on 25 April 2007
** Poles and Ukrainians ** Poles and Lithuanians ** Poles and Germans ** Communist authorities – Belarusians – Underground ** Fate of Jewish people in the People's Republic of Poland ** Gypsies in Poland * Peasants and the People's Authority 1944–1989 (on the situation of peasants and the rural policy in the years 1944–1989)Peasants vis-a-vis People's Authority 1944–1989 Programme
IPN pages, last accessed on 25 April 2007
** inhabitants of the rural areas during the creation of the totalitarian regime in Poland; ** peasant life during the Sovietisation of Poland in the years 1948–1956; ** attitudes of the inhabitants of rural areas towards the state-Church conflict in the years 1956–1970; ** the role of peasants in the anti-Communist opposition of the 1970s and 1980s.


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 Paweł Mateusz Machcewicz (born April 27, 1966 in Warsaw) is a Polish historian and university professor. Biography Machcewicz graduated in 1989 from the Department of History at the University of Warsaw. In 1990 he became a research analyst at t ...
, BEP's director in 2000, freedom to create a wide range of activities. Researchers at the IPN conduct not only research but are required to take part in public outreach. BEP has published music CDs, DVDs, and serials. It has founded "historical clubs" for debates and lectures. It has also organized outdoor historical fairs, picnic, and games.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.
The ''IPN Bulletin'' ( pl, Biuletyn IPN) is a high circulation popular-scientific journal, intended for lay readers and youth. 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.The Post-communist Condition: Public and Private Discourses of Transformation
John Benjamins Publishing Company, page 172, chapter by Marta Kurkowska-Budzan
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. The IPN also publishes the ''Remembrance and Justice'' ( pl, Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość) scientific journal. The IPN has issued several board games to help educate people about recent Polish history, including: * ''303'' – a game about the
Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...
that focuses on the Polish 303 Squadron. * '' Kolejka'' – a game about being forced to queue for basic household products during the Communist era.


Lustration

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 Law and Justice ( pl, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość , PiS) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Poland. Its chairman is Jarosław Kaczyński. It was founded in 2001 by Jarosław and Lech Kaczyński as a direct su ...
government in a series of legislative amendments during 2006 and the beginning of 2007. However, several articles of the 2006-7 amendments were held unconstitutional by Poland's Constitutional Court on 11 May 2007, 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. 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 Bronisław Wildstein (born 11 June 1952, Olsztyn, Poland) is a former Polish dissident, a journalist, freelance author and, from 11 May 2006 to 28 February 2007, was the chief executive officer of ''Telewizja Polska'' (Polish state-owned televis ...
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.Wojciech Czuchnowski,
Bronisław Wildstein: człowiek z listą
',
Gazeta Wyborcza ''Gazeta Wyborcza'' (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It is the first Polish daily newspaper after the era of "real socialism" and one of Poland's newspapers of record, covering the g ...
, last accessed on 12 May 2006
In 2008, two IPN employees,
Sławomir Cenckiewicz Sławomir Cenckiewicz (born 20 July 1971) is a Polish historian and journalist. Life A former employee of the Institute of National Remembrance, since 2016 Cenckiewicz is president of the Polish Army's History Office. He gained much media attent ...
and
Piotr Gontarczyk Piotr Gontarczyk (born 29 April 1970 in Żyrardów, Poland) is a poles, Polish historian with a doctor (title), doctorate in history and political science. He is employed by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance. He specializes in the W ...
, published a book, ''SB a Lech Wałęsa. Przyczynek do biografii'' (The Security Service and Lech Wałęsa: A Contribution to a Biography) which caused a major controversy. The book's premise was that in the 1970s the Solidarity leader and later president of Poland
Lech Wałęsa Lech Wałęsa (; ; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who served as the President of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 election, Wałęsa became the first democratica ...
was a secret
informant An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a “snitch”) is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law-enforcement world, where informan ...
of the Polish Communist Security Service.


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 plaque A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, typically attached to a wall, stone, or other ...
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 The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. The Polish government also asked
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
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 Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
. In 2007, UNESCO's
World Heritage Committee The World Heritage Committee selects the sites to be listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the World Heritage List and the List of World Heritage in Danger, defines the use of the World Heritage Fund and allocates financial assistance ...
changed the camp's name to "Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940–1945)." Previously some German media, including ''
Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...
'', had called the camp "Polish".


Publications

Since 2019, the Institute publishes the ''Institute of National Remembrance Review'' (), a yearly
peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...
academic journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and d ...
in English, with Anna Karolina Piekarska as
editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...
..


Criticism

According to , 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 A martyrology is a catalogue or list of martyrs and other saints and beati arranged in the calendar order of their anniversaries or feasts. Local martyrologies record exclusively the custom of a particular Church. Local lists were enriched by na ...
"; and various criticisms of methodology and ethics. Some of these criticisms have been addressed by Director
Łukasz Kamiński Łukasz Andrzej Kamiński (born 3 June 1973) is a Polish historian, specializing in the history of Poland after 1945, particularly the period of Soviet occupation and the Polish People's Republic. He is the President of the European Union's Plat ...
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 Jarosław Szarek (born 1963) is a Polish journalist, writer and historian. Employee of the Bureau of Public Education of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN). He specializes in the recent communist-era history of Poland. Szarek was appoin ...
as director, which he posits are likely to result in further the politicization of the IPN. 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." According to Robert Traba, "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." 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 " 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 Wiktoria Śliwowska (1931–2021) was a Polish historian, author and employee of the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences, specializing in the Polish-Russian relations. She published books on Russian Literature and history, as we ...
, 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. ... eanwhile, in the IPNthick 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." Traba posits that "there is ... a need for genuine debate that does not revolve around
he files He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
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. 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 Lech Wałęsa (; ; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who served as the President of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 election, Wałęsa became the first democratica ...
and
PZPR The Polish United Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other lega ...
secretary
Wojciech Jaruzelski Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski (; 6 July 1923 – 25 May 2014) was a Polish military officer, politician and ''de facto'' leader of the Polish People's Republic from 1981 until 1989. He was the First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party b ...
. As a result, the ''IPN'' has been referred to as "a political institution at the centre of 'memory games'".


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 praises IPN for creating hiring 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". Historian
Dariusz Stola Dariusz Stola (born 11 December 1963 in Warsaw, Poland) is a professor of history at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences.Stola, Dariusz. "Poland's Institute of National Remembrance: A Ministry of Memory?" The convolutions of historical politics (2012), pp. 54-55.


See also

*
Laws against Holocaust denial Sixteen European countries, along with Canada and Israel, have laws against Holocaust denial, the denial of the systematic genocidal killing of approximately six million Jews in Europe by Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. Many countries also h ...
* Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression


Notes


External links


IPN Home Page
(English) * old''

(''Ustawa z dnia 18 grudnia 1998 r. o Instytucie Pamięci Narodowej – Komisji Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu'') * old''
Act of 18 December 1998 on the Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation
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