crimes committed by totalitarian regimes - Ministrstvo za pravosodje

Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes
It was, and still is, obvious that unpunished crimes, resulting from the essence of the political and legal
system ruling in Poland in the years 1944–89, were being committed by officers of the Communist
regime throughout the period in question. Thus the Act, as drafted by the Extraordinary Commission,
specified the course of prosecution of Communist crimes within the period between 1939 and 1990,
neglecting the term of the Stalinist crime.
The Extraordinary Commission resulted in the Seym of the Republic of Poland passing the Act of
18 December 1998 on The Institute of National Remembrance – the Commission for the Prosecution of
Crimes against the Polish Nation (Instytut Pamieci Narodowej – Komisja Scigania Zbrodni przeciwko
Narodowi Polskiemu).
1.1.
The Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation
The preamble of the Act on The Institute of National Remembrance – the Commission for the
Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, indicates the foundations and leading principles that
this jural act was supposed to satisfy. These principles include, as follows:
– Keeping in memory the vast number of victims, enormity of losses and damage inflicted upon the
Polish Nation during the Second World War and after its ending;
– The Polish Nation’s patriotic tradition of waging a fight against occupants, Nazism and
Communism;
– The deeds of Poles performed in order to re-establish independent Poland and to secure freedom
and human dignity;
– The obligation to prosecute crimes against peace, humanity as well as war crimes;
– As well as the duty to express gratification and make compensation in order to redress all the
injustice done by the State as a result of violating human rights.
Moreover, the legislator included in the preamble that they believed that unlawful acts of the
authorities against its nation neither should be hidden under cover nor should be forgotten.
The Act on The Institute of National Remembrance – the Commission for the Prosecution of
Crimes against the Polish Nation entered into force in 1999. In 2000 the Central Commission for the
Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation was established, as an investigation department of
the Institute. Its prosecutors launched and carry out investigations concerning crimes committed with
respect to persons of Polish nationality or Polish citizens of other nationalities, which were defined as
non-limited with respect to the period of prescription, as well as ones concerning Communist crimes
committed in the period from 17 September 1939 to 31 July 1990.
The Central Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, as well as the
Branch Commissions for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, operates in cities wherein
Courts Of Appeals are domiciled. Prosecutors of the Central Commission supervise investigations run
by prosecutors of the Branch Commissions.
The Act stipulates that investigations are carried out based on the provisions of the Polish Code of
Criminal Procedure, by prosecutors employed at The Institute of National Remembrance. Simultaneously,
full commitment was secured by the Institute’s prosecutors with respect to investigating crimes, as defined
in the Act, which was effected by means of the organisational exclusion of such persons from the structures
of the public prosecution authorities. The organisational placement within the structure of The Institute of
National Remembrance aimed also to exclude putting political pressure on the Institute’s employees.
The objective scope of crime prosecution was specified in Article 1 Point 1 Letter a of the Act,
indicating that such acts are included as committed with respect to persons of Polish nationality or Polish
citizens of other nationalities in the period from 1 September 1939 until 31 July 1990, that constitute:
– Nazi crimes;
– Communist crimes;
– Other crimes against peace, humanity, as well as war crimes.
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