Institute of National Remembrance - Commission for the Prosecutions of Crimes against the Polish Nation (IPN) continued its mission in the period covered by the report and conveyed to the citizens the knowledge about the tragic social and political events and processes (both in national as well as in individual dimensions) between 1939-1989, when the Polish Nation suffered crimes of National Socialist and Communist systems. Implementing its mission, the Institute was not involved in political arguments and interests. Results of its work are to strictly serve the truth, freedom and remembrance, and, thus, the long-term interests of the Polish Nation and Polish State. This, however, does not imply that the Institute is free from public political assessments - no public institution is and should be free from this kind of judgment. The assessments often refer to the mission of the Institute.

 

Following facts should be outlined when referred to the period between July 2003 and June 2004:

1. The Institute reasonably and economically managed the financial means from the State Budget. Within the limits of the granted budget the Institute gained possession of office space, adjusted it and renovated according to its requirements. This was due to Institute's own initiative and good cooperation with state and local authorities.

2. The Institute gathered 99% of the archival documents due on the basis of the Act on IPN. However, Internal Security Agency (ABW), Intelligence Agency (AW) and Military Information Service (WSI) have not delivered yet all the cards of persons who were subject of interest of state security organs stipulated in the act, nor have they submitted other archival documents. Nevertheless, the IPN archivists are granted access to those documents in order to proceed the statutory tasks of IPN. The heads of the above mentioned institutions have obliged to deliver the remaining documents until the end of the year 2004.

3. Documents endangered by biological or mechanical degradation have been protected against any further failure. The Institute has prepared and launched the process of rendering files produced by security services before 1990 accessible to grieved persons. At the same time IPN is thoroughly processing the gathered archival documents. The time to access documents regarding grieved persons has been reduced and it ranges from 3 month till one year, depending on the regional archival office of IPN.

4. During the period covered by the last IPN annual information the Institute has accepted 8,205 applications for rendering archival documents accessible/ status of grieved person (i.e. 3 times more than the previous year). The number includes 2,658 persons recognized as grieved parties, 5,063 persons who were not recognized as grieved parties due to lack of documentation gathered purposefully and secretly by security services, 484 persons with regard to whom the Institute possesses documents which attest cooperation with security services. In the period the Institute rendered accessible 8,454 archival units to 2,475 persons recognized as grieved parties in the meaning of the Article 6 of the Act on IPN.

5. The prosecutors of the Institute have conducted 646 cases of investigations, including 142 regarding Nazi crimes, 487 regarding communist crimes and 17 regarding other war crimes and crimes against humanity. The investigations are particularly complex due to the evidence and organization. In the period covered by the report the prosecutors interrogated 8,882 witnesses. In the period 28 acts of indictment have been filed to courts, and in other cases 49 persons have been charged. One motion of extradition had been filed. In the period the courts had issued 7 convictions, one sentence of acquittal and one verdict of discontinuance due to death of the accused. It should be stressed that the number of sentences of conviction worked out by the IPN prosecutors does not implicate grounds for evaluating reliability of the investigations and the justification for the indictment. It results from the fact that the accused often prolong the legal proceeding, claiming that their health condition precludes participation in the trial. Often they appeal against the sentence what also withholds pronouncing of the legally binding verdict. Moreover, many investigations, where the statutory aims (explanation circumstances of crimes and recognizing the grieved persons) have been met, are being discontinued because of death of the perpetrators. This refers chiefly to the crimes committed in the Stalinist period by the functionaries of State Security Ministry (MBP) and Security Office (UB). Nevertheless, IPN prosecutors are obliged to carry out that kind of investigations for the sake of the grieved parties, persons who testify about the crime or persons who act as witnesses. The legal formulations resulting from investigations, many of which have a pioneering character, allow to formulate a doctrine and to shape the court jurisdiction what should be considered as an essential contribution to the law culture of the democratic state of law.

6. The Institute has become a stable and permanent link for historic education and patriotic youth. Within four years of its activity the Institute has become a major research center. The success had been marked by important scientific conferences, network of thematic publications and two periodicals. The Institute carries out research programs about meaningful events between 1939-1949 (extermination of Jews on Polish territory; conspiracy in the region of Wielkopolska between 1939-1945; German occupation of the Łódzkie region, people sentenced for death penalty between 1944-1956; repression apparatus; resistance between 1944-1989; repressions against peasant movements, 1944-1989; martial law). Institute has engaged close cooperation with Historic Institute and Political Studies Institute of Polish Academy of Sciences, as well as with most Polish universities - on the basis of cooperation agreements.

7. Institute supports combatant organizations and constitutes a forum for soldiers and witnesses of war as well as for activists of post-war democratic opposition.

8. Institute has engaged cooperation with its equivalent institutions abroad (Czech Republic, Israel, Lithuania, Germany, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, USA). In Ukraine there is no equivalent of IPN and therefore the Institute cooperates with individual archivists and historians. IPN prosecutors closely cooperate with the German Centre for Prosecution of Nazi Crimes in Ludwigsburg, Wiesenthal Centre, US Department of Justice, as well as, within the frames of legal assistance, with prosecutors in Germany, Russia, Bialorussia, Ukraine, Lithuania, USA, Canada, and Great Britain. Serving the truth, the Institute has implemented its work into the process of the reconciliation process of our Nation with German, Russian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Bialorussian and Jewish Nations.

BUDGET OF THE INSTITUTE

Nine territorial branch offices of IPN manage their budget locally. The Warsaw branch office shares budget with the central office with regard to the fact that both offices use the same buildings and share renovation costs and IT services.
The expenses of IPN in 2003 amounted to 84,259 PLN, what constitutes 98,93 % of the plan for 2003, and 102,16 % of the expenses in 2002.
The current expenses were the highest position. Within the position the expenses for salaries amounted to 54,693 (74,98 % of the current expenses) and the expenses for goods and services were 15,981 (21,91% of the current expenses).
In comparison with 2002 the average gross month salary in 2003 had increased by 4,8%. The salary rise was financed according to the scheduled salary fund included in the Budget Act of 2003.
The financial means for prosecutors salaries were not fully used due to the fact that the number of 115 statutory posts of IPN prosecutors was not reached. According to the Act on IPN the General Prosecutor appoints IPN prosecutors and lack of his decision precluded full employment of IPN prosecutors.
Property expenses in 2003 were lower in comparison to 2002 by 3 450 000 PLN i.e. 25,56%. The expenses amounted to 10 047,000, 99,98 % of the means scheduled for investment expenses in the budget act for 2003 and increased by decision of Finance Minister regarding allowance of 49,500 from the reserve fund for computer equipment which serves to better cooperation with State Budget Department in Finance Ministry.
The renovations scheduled in 2003 regarded buildings which had been renovated since 2002. Not all of the renovation scheduled works could have been carried out as Sejm has reduced the funds for investments in 2003.
The necessary investments resulted from obligations imposed on IPN by the Act on IPN, regulations on: archival and building law, fire protection and protection of classified information as well as rules on archivisation of documents adopted by the Council of IPN. Buildings retrieved by IPN from the Treasury by the end of 2000 were in general ill-adapted to the new functions and thus they required modernization and adjustment.
In average in 2003 there were 1,175 full time positions occupied in the Institute. This means 7,01 % increase of full time positions with comparison to the previous year. According to the plan there should be 40 full time positions more. 84.4 % of IPN employees have office and scientific positions.
The reduction of budget for 2003 by 13 120,000 PLN, including 7 500,000 PLN for investment expenses resulted in postponing for 2004 of finishing works in archival rooms. Since the financial means for IPN expenses had been reduced once again in 2004 - in the amount of 9 564,000 PLN including 7 800,000 PLN for investment expenses - obliges to limit the financial means aimed at fulfilling the statutory tasks and prolongs the period of termination of investments.
The activity of Gospodarstwo Pomocnicze agency focused on editorial activity i.e. printing of IPN publications and selling of the publications. The revenue of the Gospodarstwo Pomocnicze agency in 2003 amounted to 325,000 PLN, and in the first 6 months of 2004 it was 267,000 PLN. The sale of publications is carried out by warehouses, bookstores, IPN offices and IPN shop at Towarowa 28 in Warsaw. The agency is also doing the mail-order sale of IPN publications.

PROSECUTION OF CRIMES

The prosecutors of the Institute's Commission continued previous investigations as well as launched new investigations in recently revealed crimes committed between September 1, 1939 and December 31, 1989. The notion of crime against the Polish Nation embraces the Nazi crimes, Communist crimes, crimes against peace, humanity and war crimes committed on persons of Polish nationality, disregarding the place of crime, as well as crimes committed on persons of other nationalities, provided the crimes had been committed on the territory of Polish State.
The Polish prosecutors, similarly to the Czech and German ones, prosecute only the deeds which at the moment of the commitment were forbidden by binding criminal law at the time. At that time, as today, it was forbidden, according to Polish law and UN conventions ratified in Poland, to physically abuse people during investigations, to sentence them on the basis of not biding law, or to be in charge of mass repressions and associations showing traits of criminal character within the frames of state structures.
On June 30, 2004 the prosecutors of IPN Divisional Commissions conducted 1,359 investigations, including 363 cases of Nazi crimes, 918 cases of Communist crimes and 78 cases of other crimes (war crimes and crimes against humanity).
In the cases of Nazi crimes the IPN prosecutors have finished the analysis of German decision to discontinue investigations of crimes (in accordance with German law) committed in September 1939 in Poland by the Wehrmacht against civilians. None of the German investigations in Federal German Republic resulted in conviction of the perpetrators. In general, the German prosecutors claimed in their justification of the verdicts that the perpetrators were found guilty of crimes allowed by 1907 Hague Convention regarding fighting guerilla, and not of war crimes. Prosecution of other murders committed by Werhmacht was lapsed. German prosecutors did not identify perpetrators (soldiers and officers of Wehrmacht) of crimes which are not subject of limitation.
Only a few investigations on Nazi crimes give prognosis to indict the living perpetrators. Nevertheless, during the period covered by the report IPN prosecutors in cooperation with Interpol identified 12 perpetrators of Nazi crimes. One of the perpetrators, Bohdan Kozij residing in Costa Rica, died on November 30, 2003, just after the motion for extradition had been handed over to him by the local authorities.
IPN prosecutors continue proceedings aiming at certifying the criminal character of verdicts pronounced in cases of Poles by German special courts. Respective motions have been filed to German prosecutor office via German Central Office for the Prosecution of Socio-National Crimes of Ludwigsburg. The first sentence which has been revoked was the sentence by Gorlitz prosecutor office (decision of March 10, 2004) conviction on death penalty of priest Wincenty Harasimowicz, issued on December 9, 1094.

With regard to communist crimes committed until the end of 1956 (known as Stalinist crimes) the court jurisdiction is characterized by full approval of the grounds for indictments filed to courts by IPN prosecutors against former functionaries of Public Security Office. Prosecutors accuse them of illegal arresting, physical and mental torturing of the grieved persons, who at the time were treated as political enemies. Both the proceeding of trials and justification of the sentences prove the grounds for prosecution and criminal responsibility of this category of perpetrators.
So far the courts have not shared the grounds presented in justification of indictment against Stalinist judges and prosecutors - perpetrators of the court crimes. The only sentence in a case of Stalinist judge was pronounced on April 18, 2003 at Garrison Court in Warsaw and regarded to Stalinist judge who pronounced a sentence of a longtime imprisonment for alleged dissemination of hostile propaganda. The sentence was revoked by Military District Court in Warsaw on December 3, 2003 on the following grounds: the accused (since 1975 retired - military pensioner ) is still under the protection of judge immunity, which had not been canceled. Cassation of the sentence has been filed by the General Military Prosecutor who stated that the immunity of the accused had been expired at the moment of his resignation from the position of judge. The cassation had not been accepted. The Supreme Court Military Chamber stipulated that the General Military Prosecutor has no right to file cassation in cases which pertain with the scope of IPN prosecutors' activities. It is worth mentioning that the cassation filed in the period covered with the previous report by the General Director of the Commission, who at the same time is the deputy General Prosecutor in the case of court murder, what lies within the scope of IPN activities, has not been accepted by the Supreme Court Military Chamber - on the grounds that only the Military General Prosecutor has right to file such cassation.
Currently the former military prosecutor Czesław Ł. is being prosecuted in Military District Court in Warsaw. He is charged by IPN prosecutors with participation in the court murder on captain Witold Pilecki.
In the cases of communist crimes committed after 1956 several former functionaries of Security Service (SB) have been sentenced, charged with physical and mental torturing while they carried out criminal proceedings of members of Solidarność in Konin at the time of the Martial Law in Poland.

In the case of the Katyń Massacre the prosecutors of IPN prepared analysis of the law binding in Russian Federation. Motions for legal assistance in cases of officers and soldiers murdered in September 1939 were filed to Russian General Military Prosecutor's Office. The reply of the Russian party allowed to draft the legal aspects of the expected decision which shall finalize the Russian prosecutors' investigation into the case of Katyn Massacre. In the letter of March 17, 2004 Russian General Military Prosecutor refused to give legal assistance in the case of murder of gen. Józef Olszyna-Wilczyński and captain Mieczysław Strzemeski. Both of them were taken captive and killed on September 22, 1939 by Red Army soldiers. In his legal evaluation, the IPN prosecutors stated that with regard to the Molotov - Ribbentrop Pact of August 23, 1939 the Red Army started war against Polish State on September 17, 1939. Therefore, murdering Polish soldiers who had been taken captive was qualified by IPN prosecutors as war crime which is not subject to limitation. The General Prosecutor of Russian Federation did not agree with the legal qualification and stated that Pact of August 23, 1939 was essentially a non-aggression pact between Soviet Union and Germany and thus, during the period mentioned in the motion and later the Red Army forces could not provide for any kind of assistance to German forces or their allies with regard to committing murders on Polish civilians, soldiers and prisoners of war. Thus, the acts specified in the motion could be considered solely as common crimes. In his conclusion, the General Military Prosecutor of Russian Federation claimed that prosecution of common crimes committed during the WWII is subject of limitation according to law binding in Russian Federation  for what reasons the Polish motion for legal assistance was returned. Disregarding this statement, the RF General Military Prosecutor points out in the same letter that the agreement of August 8, 1945 concluded by the allied powers aimed at saddling German soldiers, officers and member of Nazi party with criminal responsibility for war crimes committed during WWII.
General Military Prosecutor of Russian Federation applied the notion of limitation also with regard to murders committed on Polish citizens in November 1945 (the letter of November 25, 2003 on refusal to provide legal assistance with regard to the case of murder of Józef and Stanisław Łempicki, shot down by NKVD functionaries near Ciechanowiec).
In the period covered with the report 8,882 witnesses have been interrogated with regard to the investigations carried out by IPN prosecutors.
Essentially, in the investigations which were discontinued due to various reasons, the IPN prosecutors collected abundant and historically significant evidence material: testimonies of witnesses who had never been interrogated before. The material can be used for scientific purposes or for journalistic ends.

The Chief Commission cooperates with its equivalent institutions abroad, in particular with the German Central Office for the Prosecution of Socio-National Crimes of Ludwigsburg, Special Investigation Office of US Justice Department and Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem.
The service of the Institute's prosecutors differs from the public prosecutor's service. The specificity of IPN prosecutors work requires recognition of the historical context of the prosecuted crime, as well as knowledge of the law and jurisdiction binding at the time. In some cases it is necessary to interrogate a few hundred witnesses, which is a laborious process of identifying their personal data, and whereabouts, as well as interrogating often in the place of residence. Significant part of the cases must be regarded as similar, taking into account the range of the trial procedure, to investigations in organized crimes cases and economic cases carried out by the prosecutors of appellate and district offices. It results from the fact that the mechanisms of a crime, which need to be reconstructed, were complex and the number of repressed persons, perpetrators, and persons involved in the crime was high. Moreover, the crimes in the criminological perspective constitute 'criminality of state', i.e. the crimes were committed in the name of the state and its officials. The IPN prosecutors are obliged to make numerous and laborious archival queries in the state, army and government departments' archival resources. Predominantly, the prosecutors carry out investigations independent of Police services with regard to defining data relevant for the investigated case. Incomparably more often than other prosecutors the IPN prosecutors need assistance of judicial institutions and other institutions abroad with regard to gathering the evidence. The closed case files include from a dozen up to a few hundred volumes.
In many cases the interrogated witnesses express their satisfaction resulting from the legal qualification of the crime adapted by the IPN prosecutors. The testimony in the prosecutor's office is often the only possibility for the witnesses to preserve their experiences from the past, which in many cases were traumatic life experiences. Investigations, which for various reasons do not end by bringing indictments against the perpetrators of crimes, gained a name of 'historical investigations' that partly renders their character and goals.
The Director of the Chief Commission and the IPN prosecutors presented the Institute's investigative branch and its activities on scientific conferences organized by the Institute. The results of prosecution by Polish State of Nazi and communist crimes were presented during the First Expert Meeting on Genocide, War Crimes, and Crimes against Humanity, in Lyon, France, March 23-25, 2004.
The problem of recalling IPN prosecutors and their return to previously occupied position at public prosecutor's offices remains unsolved. The only possibility so far is the disciplinary procedure.

PRESERVATION AND DISSEMINATION OF DOCUMENTS

The task of preserving and disseminating records produced by Polish and foreign state security organs in the years 1939-1989 stems from the constitutional duty of the state authorities described in articles 61 and 51 of the Polish basic law. According to these provisions as well as provisions coming from the statute on the Institute of National Remembrance - Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, the Institute must also take into account demands imposed by the law on the protection of classified information, personal data and protection of persons and their possessions. These tasks are carried out by the archival department of the Institute which consists of the Office of Preservation and Dissemination of Archival Documents, branch offices of preservation and dissemination of archival documents as well as preservation and dissemination units in the Institute's delegations.
On June 30, 2004, 497 archivists were employed (one more than the previous year) at the archival department of the Institute, including 179 in the Warsaw archival office (178 permanent posts). Seventeen archivists have a Ph.D. degree, and 2 have assistant professor degrees.
In its fourth year of activity, the archival office focused on elaborating and disseminating the archival materials. The priority was to render the documents accessible to the grieved persons and researchers, as well as other authorized parties.
On June 30, 2004, the Institute's archives amounted to 79,920.65 meters of acts: 28,459.51 meters of which (35,6%) were accumulated in the Warsaw-located Office of Preservation and Dissemination of Archival Records and 51,461.14 meters (64,4%) in nine branch offices of the Institute. Compare: the state archive resources are 236,662 meters of acts.
In comparison with the previous year (on June 30, 2003, the Institute's archives amounted to 77,858.94 meters of acts) the archival resources have increased by 2,061.71 meters of acts, a 2,65%. In 2003 the increase amounted to 67%.
The process of gathering files, which the Office of Preservation and Dissemination of Archival Records started in the second half of 2000 and in the branch offices in 2001, has come to an end. The majority of the units in the archival department of the Institute reached the envisaged content level that had been planned in 2000 with regard to the estimated data provided by the institutions preserving the files of security services. From the four-year perspective it is clear that the terminal resources capacity of the Institute files had been corrected, and will not amount to 95 km but to ca. 80-81 km. It resulted from an overestimation of the seize of archival resources of the police and army forces.
The IPN archival office has completed their material with documents retrieved from already taken over archival document units. Only a few new archival document units have been assumed to the archival resources. Now IPN receives the cases which have been lent by the previous owner but not accompanied by all the documents.
Part of the documents remains to be taken over. The Institute has tried to obtain documents which belong to its statutory resources and relate to cases from so called turning point - the year 1990. At that time the state security organs were being liquidated. The Act on IPN provides for precise final dates of the documents produced by those organs. The specified documents are to be transferred to IPN. For example, the Interior Security Agency (ABW) or Intelligence Agency (AW) documents, databases, registers and card files produced until May 6, 1990 and Military Information Services (WSI) documents produced until December 31, 1990. The time limitations stipulated in the Act on IPN required laborious work which aimed at dividing the documentation (e.g. documents produced by ABW were to be divided into those for IPN and those which remain to the ABW disposal). Often it is necessary to set up and reorganize a new file. This work was done by functionaries of state security services.
The Institute has gathered 99% of the due statutory archival documents. Internal Security Agency, Intelligence Agency and Military Information Services have not yet transferred to IPN all the personal registers of the former secret collaborators of state security services, which are specified in the Act on IPN. The prolongation of the taking over process was due to the following: the State Security Office (UOP) and Interior Security Agency registers assigned for IPN were excluded from current registers, in which the UOP and ABW functionaries were making checking, necessity of checking of the excluded registers, also with regard to including them in the classified files unit, scanning of a part of the units by UOP or ABW.
Part of the state archive, supervised by the Head Director of State Archive, resources should be transferred to IPN, mainly copies of files of Polish Workers Party (PPR) and Polish United Workers Party (PZPR), which deal exclusively with state security organs, thus it is not about retrieving whole archival units.
Apart from central archival office, the most abundant archival resources are in Katowice, Wrocław, Gdańsk