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  National Agencies

Poland

The Institute of National Remembrance

Czech Republic



The Office for the Documentation and the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism

List of the aides of the Czech State Security

Information on cases investigated by The Office for documentation and the investigation of the crimes of communism

Romania

The National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives

Low no. 187/1999 concerning the access to the own security file and revealing the security as a political police

Bulgaria

Committee for disclosing and announcing affiliation of bulgarian citisens to the State Security and the intelligence services of the Bulgarian national Army

Access and Disclosure of Documents and Announcing Affiliation of Bulgarian Citizens to the State Security and the Intelligence Services of the Bulgarian National Arm?d Services Act, 19.12.2006


Germany

German Federal Commissioner for Records of the State Security Service of the former DDR

 

 


Hungary

The Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution

The Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution (hereafter 1956 Institute) considers itself primarily the successor of the Imre Nagy Institute of Sociology and Politics, which operated in Brussels between 1959 and 1963, and of other western emigrant organizations and writers that maintained the inheritance of the Hungarian Revolution for more than three decades. In Hungary, the efforts of what was to become the 1956 Institute go back as far as the early 1980s, when participants of the Revolution began to reconstruct and historicize the events of 1956. The history of the Revolution had been and to some extent still is obscured by the distortions, falsifications and obfuscations of the Kadar regime. With the help of interviews, memoirs, discussions, and with what documents could be collected, these scholars have attempted to establish a genuine account of the events in Hungary in and around 1956. The Committee for Historical Justice was founded partly with the same purpose in the spring of 1988. The Oral History Archives was established in 1986 with the primary goal of recording as many interviews with figures of the Revolution as possible. The preparatory committee and temporary international board of trustees of the 1956 Institute were formed on June 17, 1989, the day after the reburial of Imre Nagy and his fellow martyrs. On March 1, 1990, the 1956 Institute and its foundation were legally registered. On March 16, on the initiative of Domokos Kosary, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences formed the Academic Documentation and Research Group for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. In 1995, the government of the Hungarian Republic granted the 1956 Institute, until then a social organization, the official status of a public foundation.

 


Poland

The Institute of National Remembrance - Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (IPN) was created by the Polish Parliament on December 18th, 1998. The Institute is headed by the President of the Institute whose post is independent of the state authorities. The president is elected for a five-year term. The Institute started its work on July 1st, 2000. The headquarters of the Institute of National Remembrance are located at the Palace of Justice in Warsaw. Ten Branch Offices of the Institute have been established in the cities where Appellate Courts are located.

The Institute of National Remembrance was created to address issues which are considered essential to the legislative power in Poland, primarily to preserve the memory of:

  • the losses which were suffered by the Polish Nation as a result of the WWII and the post-war period;
  • patriotic traditions of fighting against occupants, Nazism and Communism;
  • citizens' efforts to fight for an independent Polish State, in defense of freedom and human dignity;
  • the duty to prosecute crimes against peace, humanity and war crimes;
  • the need of the state to compensate for damages which were suffered by the repressed and harmed people in the times when human rights were disobeyed by the state. This is the expression of belief that no unlawful deeds of the state against its citizens can be protected by secrecy or forgotten.

The Institute of National Remembrance - Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation (IPN) has been charged with fulfilling this mission.

On the basis of the statute constituting the IPN, Communist crimes are understood as the deeds performed by officials of the Communist state in the period from September 17th, 1939 to December 31st, 1989, whose aim was to repress individuals and groups of people or to break human rights in another way. Crimes against humanity are understood mainly as crimes of genocide defined by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of December 9th, 1948, as well as other forms of persecution and oppressions by official agents which were directed against people who belong to a defined national, political, social, racial or religious group. In accordance with the principles conveyed in international law, no statutory limitation shall apply to war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity, whether committed in time of war or in time of peace, irrespective of the date of their commission.

Thus, the IPN is responsible for gathering, assessing, custody and disclosing the documentation created between July 22nd, 1944 and the December 31st, 1989 by Polish security agencies. The documentation would also include records pertaining to Communist, Nazi and other crimes committed against Polish citizens in the period from September 1st, 1939 to December 31st, 1989 as well as political repressions carried out by officials of the former Polish investigative and justice organs in that time. The documentation concerning the activities of the security organs is also the subject of interest to the IPN. The access to the IPN records is granted to foreigners on the basis of reciprocity.

Another major responsibility of the Institute is to investigate Communist and Nazi crimes as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity and peace. The IPN is obliged to investigate crimes against not only Polish nationals but also other nationals of Polish citizenship and other citizens who were harmed in the Polish territories.

Finally, the IPN is in charge of public education and has been engaged in research pertaining to the years 1939-1989 as well as dissemination of research results in the form of publications, exhibitions, seminars and other ways.

The activities performed by the IPN while fulfilling its mission must take into consideration the need to protect personal data of the repressed people.

The goals of the Institute are carried out by the following three departments:

Act of 18 December 1998 on the Institute of National Remembrance - Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation

 


Czech Republic

The Office of the Documentation and the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism (UDV) was established by decision of the Minister of the Interior on January 1, 1995 as a fusion of the Office for the Documentation and the Investigation of the Activity of the State Security (being a part of the Ministry of the Interior) and of the Resource Center of the Unlawful Conduct of the Communist Regime (working at first under the Attorney General and later under the Ministry of Justice). Starting January 1, 2002 according to the Act no. 283/1991 Sb. as amended (Police of the Czech republic Act) the UDV forms a part of the Service of the Criminal Investigation Police.

Investigation responsibilities enable the UDV to expose and to prosecute criminal acts from the period 1948-1989 where it couldn't be decided by final judgment for political reasons. The UDV is located in Prague, it enjoys a full-state competence and in order to arrange the work a more efficient way another detached branch office was established in Brno.

In addition to the investigation there is as well its documentation activity which is equally important and consists especially in collecting, analysing and evaluating of materials, infor-mation and documents showing the criminality of the communist regime as well as of its repressive apparatus. The time competence for the documentation field is extended from 1999 by the period starting January 1, 1945 up to the assumption of power through com-munists in February 1948. On the one hand acquired materials and information are used for investigation activities of policemen, on the other hand they are opened to the public in a suitable fashion, ie mainly by publishing and distributing free of charge (as a matter of priority to public libraries and to the whole system of secondary schools and universities) of various publications (collections Securitas Imperii, monothematic Issues and editorial series Testimony), further by cooperation with mass media and universities (lectures and seminars), as well as by the cooperation with a lot of important domestic and foreign institutions including the cooperation with institutions in post-Communist countries dealing with the same problems.

As a police body the UDV takes part in pursuance of security vettings according to the Act no. 148/1998 Sb. regulating the protection of classified information. The data output of the UDV represents important source materials for issues of certificates of the National Security Office. As well an important contribution of the UDV on the declassification of archives of the former central committee of the Communist party of Czechoslovakia at the turn of years 1999/2000 is worthy of mention. Information about actual activities of the UDV are continuously presented on internet pages of the Office.

At the date of 1.11.2003 the Office for the Documentation and the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism (UDV) has prosecuted on the whole 179 persons in 92 criminal cases. So far it has been entered 83 statements of claim (of which 29 repeated) agains 103 accused to the respective public prosecutor's departments. Based on above suggestions it has been brought 62 charges (of which 18 repeated) against on the whole 82 persons.
(Information about cases >>>)

 


Romania

National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives

Low no. 187/1999 concerning the access to the own security file and revealing the security as a political police

 


Bulgaria

Access and Disclosure of Documents and Announcing Affiliation of Bulgarian Citizens to the State Security and the Intelligence Services of the Bulgarian National Arm?d Services Act, 19.12.2006

 


Estonia

International Commission for Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity

Estonian President Lenart Meri created this commission in October 1998. It included international scholars, politicians and public figures. Its purpose was to clarify the crimes against humanity perpetrated in Estonia during the Soviet occupation 1940-1941, the German occupation 1941-1944, and the second Soviet occupation from 1944 on. With the commission, two teams of historians collaborated, studying all available archives and interviewing witnesses. The commission will make its findings public after concluding its work. So far, the reports on the first Soviet occupation and the German occupation has been published.

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