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Institute of National Remembrance, Ulica Janusza Kurtyki 1, Warsaw (2026)

01/06/2026

Protect Memory Before It's Lost

Time moves relentlessly forward. Paper crumbles, ink fades, and photographs lose their quality. Even more quickly, knowledge about whom and what family heirlooms relate to disappears. If we do not act today, tomorrow may be too late.

➡Across Europe, we are witnessing historical materials being destroyed, dispersed, or sold. Every such case is an irreparable loss.

➡The IPN has established the Archive Full of Memory to counter this process. Archives are not merely about the past, they are an investment in the future, a foundation for education, research, and national identity.

➡By donating family heirlooms and historical memorabilia passed down through generations, you can have a real impact on how history is told to future generations. It is an act of responsibility and care for the truth.

➡Memory will not preserve itself. It needs people who choose to protect it. Save history! It is our choices that will determine whether the past survives in the consciousness of future generations.

➡Save history. Preserve, don’t profit. Remembrance is priceless. Learn more about the project, donation guidelines, and ways to collaborate:
👉 https://archiwumpamieci.pl/?lang=en

Find out how you can easily contribute to building our shared memory. Save history.

01/06/2026

On Children’s Day, we wish all children, big and small, joy, safety, kindness and many reasons to smile.

➡In these archival photographs, we see children in different times and places: at fairs and toy stalls, during summer camps, winter days in the mountains and Children’s Day celebrations.

➡Above all, we see joy: in a balloon held tightly in one hand, sweets shared with children, toys carefully chosen, games played together and moments that must have felt wonderfully ordinary.

➡Today, we are sharing a few archival glimpses of childhood across different moments of the 20th century.

Happy !

31/05/2026

The memory of Poles deported to Kazakhstan remains alive

➡️ On 30 May, a ceremonial gala, “Distinguished Poles for Kazakhstan”, was held in Astana to mark the 90th anniversary of the deportation of the Polish population from Soviet Ukraine to Kazakhstan. The event was attended by Mateusz Szpytma, Deputy President of the IPN.

➡️ Addressing Poles living in Kazakhstan, the IPN Deputy President thanked them for their daily and demanding work to preserve Polish identity, promote historical education and support development. He also spoke about the importance of remembering the fate of Poles deported to Kazakhstan and the need to cultivate history and national identity among the Polish diaspora.

💬 “Today’s gala is not only an opportunity to honour people who have rendered great service to the Polish community in Kazakhstan. It is also an expression of our shared memory, solidarity and responsibility for history. May the memory of the deported Poles remain alive, as a testimony to suffering, but also to extraordinary strength, dignity and faithfulness to the Homeland,” Mateusz Szpytma said.

➡️ During the ceremony, commemorative medals were presented and the Polish-language album "Gdyby przedmioty umiały mówić… Ocalone w artefaktach losy Polaków deportowanych do Kazachstanu" (“If Objects Could Speak... The Fate of Poles Deported to Kazakhstan, Preserved in Artefacts”), published by the IPN and the Union of Poles in Kazakhstan, was presented.

🎞️ A video prepared by the IPN International Cooperation Office to mark the 90th anniversary of the Soviet deportations was also screened.

➡️ Earlier, the IPN delegation visited the ALZhIR Museum and Memorial Complex in Akmol, formerly Malinovka. The memorial site was established on the grounds of the former Akmola Camp for Wives of Traitors to the Motherland, the largest women’s camp within the Soviet Gulag system. At the monument commemorating the victims, the delegation paid tribute to those murdered and laid flowers.

➡️ On 31 May, the IPN exhibition “The Polish Operation of the NKVD in 1937-1938” was presented at the National Academic Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Astana. The exhibition recalls the mass repression and murder of Poles living in the Soviet Union almost 90 years ago.

➡️ In 1937-1938, the Soviets murdered at least 111,000 Poles living in the western regions of the Soviet Union and sent thousands more to labour camps, including in Kazakhstan.

💬 “May this exhibition be an opportunity for reflection and remembrance. May it remind us of the value of freedom, human dignity and solidarity between people. Today, let us pay tribute to all victims of repression, and to those who, despite traumatic experiences, preserved their humanity and passed on a testimony of truth to the next generations,” said Mateusz Szpytma as he opened the exhibition.

➡️ He emphasised that preserving the memory of these events is our duty: the memory of the victims and their suffering, but also of the courage and strength of spirit of those who, despite repression, preserved their culture, language and faith.

🎗️ The exhibition was presented on Kazakhstan’s Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions and the Great Famine, dedicated to the memory of the victims of Soviet terror, deportations and labour camps.

31/05/2026

🇵🇱🇫🇷 France and Poland during WW2

🟥 Poland and France – the Allies

➡On 3 September 1939, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany, fulfilling their obligations towards Poland. However, they limited themselves to propaganda efforts and attempts to diplomatically defuse the conflict. Numerous French divisions waited for the Germans to act, believing that the Maginot Line fortifications would protect the country from invasion.

➡ After crossing the Polish-Romanian border, the Polish highest state authorities were interned under pressure from the Third Reich and the USSR. On 25 September 1939, the President of the Republic of Poland, Ignacy Mościcki, handed over his office to Władysław Raczkiewicz, who was residing in France. Under Poland's constitution, during wartime, in the event of a threat, the President could choose his successor. In this way, the continuity of the state and sovereignty in deciding the further fate of the country was preserved. The newly-established Polish Government was initially based in Paris, then in Angers, and after France’s defeat it was evacuated to London.

➡ President Raczkiewicz appointed General Władysław Sikorski as Prime Minister and soon after as Commander-in-Chief. In November 1939, the seat of the Polish government was moved from Paris to Angres. The National Council of the Republic of Poland was established by appointment of the President. Its members represented the main political parties, and the council had an advisory role. It was a kind of recreated parliament of independent Poland. One of the main tasks of the new government was to recreate the Polish Army in France. The Polish-French agreement of 4 January 1940 made it possible to recreate it in exile with its extensive organisational structures. By spring 1940, 80,000 Polish troops were ready to face their enemy again, this time on French soil.

➡ Unfortunately, the Third Reich’s invasion of France found the Polish formations in the training and rearming phase. Only some of the troops were ready and could be used. Around 1,300 Polish soldiers died in combat, 5,000 were wounded, and 15,000 were taken prisoner.

➡Polish 1st Grenadier Division lost over 5,000 men during the Battle of Lagarde, the heaviest casualty rate among all Polish troops in France – but such was the sacrifice of the Poles who wanted to stop the German advance on Marne-Rhine Canal. The Polish soldiers would return to France four years later.

🟥 Poles in the French resistance

➡The defeat of France and the establishment of the Vichy government didn’t break the will of the French to fight. Many joined the so-called La Résistance – various groups of underground factions fighting against the German occupation and the Vichy traitors. Among those who fought for freedom in French WW2 resistance forces were 40,000 Poles.

➡Władysław Ważny, an ex-Polish soldier and SOE agent dropped into France, collaborated with Zdrojewski’s men. In June 1944, he sent the first report to the British about the V1 launching sites. With the help of Poles in the French resistance, he was able to send 182 reports to London about the locations from which V1 and V2 were fired. In effect, 162 sites discovered by him were later bombed. Ważny was killed in August 1944, while trying to escape arrest.

🟥 Operation Overlord

➡ The long-awaited opening of the second front in Western Europe finally began on 6 June 1944. Operation Neptun (D Day landings in Normany) was the biggest landing in military history and Operation Overlord was one of the most significant campaigns of WW2. Several Polish Navy and Merchant Navy vessels supported the invading forces. On 6 June 1944, ORP Dragon light cruiser managed to silence German coast artillery near the Sword Beach sector, and two days later it destroyed 6 tanks of counter-attacking German 21st Panzer Division. Although no Polish units were used on land on 6 June 1944, the 1st Polish Armoured Division landed in Northern France two months later, participating in the final act of “Operation Overlord”, the Battle of Falaise. Commanded by Gen. Maczek, the unit played a crucial role in closing the so-called “Falaise pocket”, which led to the encirclement of massive German forces.

➡ The “Trails of Hope. The Odyssey of Freedom” should be understood as collective peregrinations of Polish citizens during WW2 of both military and civilian nature - which were motivated by the idea of restoring freedom to Poland and the world enslaved by the Third Reich and its allies, and related to the activities of the legal authorities of the Republic of Poland. The pretext for telling Polish history in so many countries around the world will be an exhibition consisting of two parts: a general one telling the odyssey of Poles during WW2 and a local one.

🔎More about the exhibition and the project: https://szlakinadziei.ipn.gov.pl/sne

📷 French soldiers working in one of the underground artillery towers on the Maginot Line, 1940.

30/05/2026

“Deported for Being Polish”

🗓90 years ago began one of the most tragic chapters in the history of Poles living in the Soviet Union. The authorities of the USSR decided to carry out the mass deportation of Polish families from Soviet Ukraine to Kazakhstan. People were brutally torn from their homes and loaded into freight trains. They were sent to the endless steppes, where they faced hunger, hard labor, disease, and a daily struggle for survival.

➡The first major deportation affected around 70,000 people, the vast majority of them Poles. Many never returned to their homeland. On the 90th anniversary of these events, the IPN presents a unique video produced by the IPN’s Office of International Cooperation using AI technology.

➡This modern visual form makes it possible to tell the story of people from whom everything was meant to be taken away: their homes, security, and future. Yet their memory, language, and Polish identity could not be taken from them.

📽🎞📺The film recalls the fate of deported families and conveys the emotions accompanying the experience of exile, loneliness, and the struggle to preserve Polish identity on the “inhuman land.”

🕯🎗️Today, we remember one of the lesser-known, yet extraordinarily tragic, manifestations of Soviet terror against Poles. This year’s commemorations of the 90th anniversary of the deportations of Poles to Kazakhstan coincide with Kazakhstan’s Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression and the Great Famine, observed on May 31 - a day dedicated to the memory of millions of victims of Soviet terror, deportations, and labour camps.

📽🎞📺The spot is also available to watch on the IPNtv YouTube channel in Polish 🇵🇱 and Russian 🇷🇺.

👉 https://youtu.be/NTJYrWAZOTg 🇵🇱
👉 https://youtu.be/cAr8SulihNI 🇷🇺

29/05/2026

30 May 1946, Warsaw, Poland. A Douglas C-47 Skytrain lands in Warsaw with unusual passengers on board. 12 N**i criminals to be tried in Poland.

📷 These unique photos from the IPN Archives depict that moment.

➡ The following people can be identified. The commandant of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp Amon Göth, former members of the staff of German concentration camps (including Auschwitz) Hugo Więcak, Heinrich Pluszczyk, Teodor Piśniak, Gustaw Zolmer, Fritz Preuser, Paul Szczurek, Emanuel Wyleżalek and Marcin Pisdulla. Finally the female guards from Auschwitz and Ravensbrück: Maria Felser, Margarette Edel and Margarette Barth.

➡ When WW2 ended, what was left of the Polish society was waiting for justice. The Supreme National Tribunal, formed on 18 February 1946, operated between mid-1946 and mid-1948, and its seven-man panels ruled in seven trials in four cities, deciding the fate of forty-nine defendants.

➡ Arthur Greiser (Governor of the occupied Watherland) – death;

➡ Amon Göth (commandant of KL Płaszów) – death;

➡ Ludwig Fischer (Governor of the Warsaw District_ – death; Max Daume, Josef Meisinger (SS and Police officers) – death;

➡ Ludwig Leist (civilian functionary of the Warsaw District) – 8 years;

➡ Rudolf Höß (commandant of KL Auschwitz-Birkenau) – death;

➡ 40 members of KL Auschwitz staff – 23 death sentences (21 carried out, 2
commuted to prison), one acquittal, sixteen prison sentences;

➡ Albert Forster (Gauleiter of Danzig-West Prussia) – death.

➡ Josef Bühler (State Secretary in the General Government) – death.

➡ The trials were considered fair, and all defendants were provided counsellors. One of them said about his client, "The prison cell saw the death of Bühler, a criminal, and the birth of a new, decent man.”

➡ The court, however, felt that it’s not in prison cells where the defendants should have turned into decent men, but in their offices, before signing lists of Poles to be executed, or in the camps where they served, before sending hundreds and thousands to their deaths. Since it was too late to undo what they’d done, common decency demanded at least punishment.

29/05/2026

🗓On 29 May 1932, Maria Skłodowska-Curie Planted a Sycamore Tree in Warsaw.

She could not have known how much history it would witness. The tree stood beside the newly opened Radium Institute, a groundbreaking cancer treatment and research center created thanks to a nationwide fundraising campaign. The precious gram of radium needed for its work was purchased with donations collected in the United States, especially from American women and the Polish diaspora.

➡Maria Skłodowska-Curie believed science should save lives. A two-time Nobel Prize winner, she had already used her discoveries during WW1, organising mobile X-ray units that helped surgeons locate bullets and fractures on the front lines. Now, she wanted radioactivity to help fight cancer. The Institute flourished. In its very first year, it treated 1,000 patients. By 1936, it had some of Europe’s most modern pathology and biology laboratories.
Skłodowska-Curie did not live to see it, but her vision endured.

➡So did the tree. It watched the Institute grow into a modern 120-bed clinic and become a pioneer in cancer treatment. Then came war. During the German occupation, most of the Institute’s radium was confiscated. Research stopped. The remaining radium was used only to save patients already fighting for their lives.

➡Then came 5 August 1944. During the Warsaw Uprising, SS RONA units stormed the Institute. Patients were murdered in their beds. The building was set on fire. The sycamore’s bark was scorched by the flames, and bullets tore into its trunk. The marks are still there today. But both the tree and the Institute survived.

➡After the war, the Institute was rebuilt and became part of what is now the Maria Skłodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology, one of Poland’s leading cancer treatment and research centers. And the tree Maria planted continues to grow.

➡Today, the sycamore named “Maria” is over 90 years old and stands nearly 20 meters tall, a living witness to science, war, destruction, and survival.

28/05/2026

🇵🇱 🇭🇺 The IPN at the Conference “Two Paths of Revolution. The Year 1956 in Poland and Hungary”

🗓On 28–29 May 2026, Budapest is hosting the international conference “Two Paths of Revolution. The Year 1956 in Poland and Hungary,” with the participation of the Deputy President of the IPN, Karol Polejowski.

➡The conference presents the events of 1956 in a broad historical and comparative perspective, focusing on the Poznań revolt in Poland and the Hungarian Revolution in Budapest. Both uprisings are examined as defining moments of resistance against communist rule and Soviet domination in Central and Eastern Europe.

➡In both Poland and Hungary, the year 1956 was shaped by growing social unrest, economic hardship, political repression, and demands for greater national sovereignty. Workers and students played a crucial role in both movements, calling for political reform, civil liberties, and an end to Stalinist terror. While Poland experienced a period of political transformation during the so-called Polish October of 1956, Hungary’s revolution evolved into an armed national uprising that was brutally crushed by Soviet military intervention in November 1956.

➡The conference also highlights the exceptional solidarity between Poles and Hungarians during the revolution, including the humanitarian aid and blood donations sent from Poland to Hungary after the outbreak of fighting in Budapest.

➡During the opening ceremony, Karol Polejowski stressed the importance of remembering those who sacrificed their lives in the struggle for freedom: 🗨 “Very often, people emphasise the centuries-old cordial relations between Poles and Hungarians. But despite the fact that these ties date back to the Middle Ages, we always return to the 19th and 20th centuries. To the Hungarian struggle for freedom in 1848–49 and the participation of Poles in that fight. To the Hungarian assistance given to Poland during the Bolshevik invasion in 1920. The fact that Hungarian troops stationed on Polish territory during WW2 were not regarded by Poles as occupation forces. On the contrary, Hungarian commanders closely cooperated with the Home Army and the Polish anti-German resistance movement. And of course, to 1956, when this Polish-Hungarian brotherhood reached its fullest and most mature expression.”

➡During the event, Reipublicae Memoriae Meritum medals were awarded to: Dominika Teske, Ádám Dergán, Imre Molnár (golden medals) and Réka Földváryné Kiss, Áron Máthé (silver medals). The medals were awarded for outstanding contributions to preserving the history of the Polish nation and supporting the educational and scholarly activities of the IPN.

Nemzeti Emlékezet Bizottsága
Lengyel Nagykövetség Budapesten - Ambasada RP w Budapeszcie

28/05/2026

🗓85 years ago, Polish Soldiers Helped Deliver the FIRST Allied Victory of WW2

On 28 May 1940, while Allied troops were retreating from Dunkirk and Germany seemed unstoppable, Polish forces fighting in Norway helped recapture the strategic port of Narvik from the Germans.

➡At the centre of the battle stood the Polish Independent Highland Brigade, commanded by Gen. Zygmunt Bohusz-Szyszko. Formed in exile in France after the fall of Poland in 1939, it was the first major Polish land unit to fight the Germans after Poland’s defeat. 📝“For several days we have been facing these mercenaries fighting for the English… the Poles show almost animal hatred towards us,” wrote one German soldier during the battle.

➡That fury had a reason. Poland had been invaded, occupied and terrorised by N**i Germany and the Soviet Union. Thousands of Polish soldiers escaped occupied Europe to continue the fight wherever they could. For many of them, Narvik was the first opportunity to strike back.

➡Fighting in brutal arctic conditions alongside Norwegian, British and French troops, the Poles attacked German mountain infantry positions around Narvik with remarkable determination and effectiveness.

➡The battle was strategically important. Narvik’s ice-free harbour and railway connection to the iron ore mines in Kiruna, Sweden, were crucial to Germany’s war industry. Control of the port meant control of a key supply route for the Third Reich.

➡Polish forces also played an important role throughout the Norwegian campaign: on 8 April 1940, the Polish submarine ORP Orzeł sank the German transport ship Rio de Janeiro, exposing elements of Germany’s invasion plans. Polish destroyers ORP Grom, ORP Burza and ORP Błyskawica supported Allied naval operations, bombarded German positions and protected transport routes. ORP Grom was sunk by German aircraft on 4 May 1940. Polish merchant vessels, including the transatlantic liner MS Chrobry, transported troops and supplies through dangerous northern waters.

➡Although the Norwegian campaign was ultimately lost after the German offensive in Western Europe forced the Allies to withdraw, Narvik became a powerful symbol at a critical moment in the war. For occupied Poland, the victory carried enormous emotional weight. At a time when hope was fading across Europe, Polish soldiers showed that the fight for freedom was far from over.

➡From Narvik to Tobruk, Monte Cassino and the Battle of Britain, Polish forces fought on almost every front of WW2 in defence of freedom, dignity and the right of nations to exist. Their story deserves to be remembered.🔎 Learn more about the IPN project “Trails of Hope - The Odyssey of Freedom”: https://szlakinadziei.ipn.gov.pl/sne

📷Soldiers of the Polish Independent Highland Brigade withdrawing from Norway, 1940 (Public domain. Colourised using AI by IPN)

27/05/2026

IPN Seeks Witnesses and Families of Victims of WW2 German Crimes Against Polish Forced Labourers’ Children

The IPN is appealing internationally for witnesses, relatives of victims, and anyone with information related to German crimes committed against the children of Polish forced labourers in Hamburg during WW2.

➡The investigation conducted by the District Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Szczecin concerns crimes committed by officials of the Third Reich between 1940 and spring 1945 against Polish women deported for forced labour and their children.

➡During WW2, millions of citizens of occupied Europe, including more than 2 million Poles were subjected to forced labour in N**i Germany. Polish forced labourers were deprived of basic rights, subjected to racial discrimination, violence, hunger, and separation from their families. Many women were forced to work in factories, farms, and industrial plants under brutal conditions.

➡According to findings gathered so far, special childcare and medical facilities for the children of foreign forced labourers were established in Hamburg near labour camps and industrial sites. Polish newborns and small children were forcibly separated from their mothers and subjected to conditions threatening their biological survival, including starvation, denial of medical treatment and care, isolation from their mothers, killings, including by drowning. The investigation also concerns forced abortions performed on pregnant Polish forced labourers.

➡Because many victims and witnesses later dispersed across different countries after the war, IPN is calling on the international public, especially families of former forced labourers, researchers, archives, and historical institutions to help document these crimes and preserve the memory of the victims. Feel free to contact us.

📌District Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in Szczecin

ul. Wojska Polskiego 7
70-470 Szczecin, Poland
📞 +48 91 312 94 03, email: [email protected]

📷Arbeitsbuch Für Ausländer (Workbook for Foreigner) identity document issued to Polish Forced Labourer in 1942 by German authorities. Letter "P" patch that Poles were required to wear to identify them from the German population in the areas they were forced to work in Germany. This image is released under the CC0 license (public domain).

Institute of National Remembrance

01/06/2026

01/06/2026

31/05/2026

31/05/2026

30/05/2026

29/05/2026

29/05/2026

28/05/2026

28/05/2026

27/05/2026

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Poniedziałek	08:15 - 17:00
Wtorek	08:15 - 16:15
Środa	08:15 - 16:15
Czwartek	08:15 - 16:15
Piątek	08:15 - 16:15