How to find a persecuted relative's files in the IPN archive

In brief

• Anyone may see the documents in the IPN archive that concern them, and so may a relative of a deceased person — on the basis of an application¹.
• For a deceased person's files, the application is made by the closest person (spouse, parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, siblings, in-laws); if there is none, by a collateral relative up to the fourth degree².
• The application is filed in person at the IPN, or by post with the signature certified by a notary; from abroad — at a Polish consulate^2,3.
• The time limit for handling the case is four months, and both access and copies are free of charge².

This guide summarises the procedure described by the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN). It is not legal advice: before applying, read the service card and the application form on the IPN website — they are the binding version. The forms are in Polish.

Step 1. Find the files in the inventory

The IPN archive has an online Archival Inventory. Its full-text search engine searches the descriptions of archival units: you can look for persons, cases and subjects, and the advanced options narrow the results to a date range, a reference number or the place where the records are kept. The descriptions come from the internal Digital Archive (Cyfrowe Archiwum) system and are in Polish⁴.

An example: under Bogumił Studziński's name the inventory shows, among other things, the case files of the District Military Court in Kielce from 1951 — reference IPN Ki 8/1001⁵ — and the investigation files of the WUBP in Kielce, reference IPN Ki 013/1506⁶. The archive of that court is described in an inventory published by the IPN in 2014 — it is included, with other books on the military courts, in our list “Poland's District Military Courts, 1946–1955”⁷. Note the reference numbers: they go into the application. The inventory lets you add up to ten reference numbers to one application and generate it as a DOCX or PDF file³.

The inventory is not a complete list. The main information system on the holdings is the internal Digital Archive application, available in the IPN reading rooms⁸.

Step 2. Check whether you can apply

The legal basis is Article 30(1) of the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance³. According to the IPN service card²:

• anyone may apply for documents concerning themselves;
• for documents concerning a deceased person, the closest person may apply: a spouse, ascendants (parents, grandparents, great-grandparents), descendants (children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren), siblings, in-laws in the same line or degree, an adoptive relation and their spouse, and a person who lived with the deceased as a partner;
• if there is no closest person — a collateral relative up to the fourth degree, for example an uncle, an aunt, a nephew, a niece or a cousin.

Step 3. Prepare the documents

The service card lists²:

• a written application on the IPN form and an identity document to show;
• for a deceased person's files — a document confirming the death, such as a copy of the death certificate (not needed if the death is a fact known to the authority);
• documents confirming kinship or affinity, i.e. the relevant civil-status certificates;
• a partner of the deceased — a statement about living together; a collateral relative — a statement that they know of no closest person of the deceased.

Step 4. File the application

The application is filed in person at an IPN office, in the presence of an employee who confirms your identity, or by post — in which case a notary must certify the signature. People living abroad can file it in person at a Polish consulate. You may also act through a representative².

The application is decided by the director of the IPN branch competent for the applicant's place of residence. For people living abroad, the last place of residence in Poland counts; for those who have never lived in Poland, the IPN branch in Warsaw is competent².

Step 5. Wait, then read

The time limit is four months and there are no fees. The documents are made available at the IPN office chosen by the applicant — not necessarily the branch that decided the case. A person given access has the right, among other things, to free copies, to learn the identity of those who passed information about them or their closest person to the security services, and to add their own corrections and explanations to the files².

What the archive holds

The IPN archival holdings measured 92,798 linear metres (as of 31 December 2020). They also include the files of people persecuted for political reasons produced by civilian and military courts and prosecutors, and the files of prison units⁹.

Why we write about this

W lochach socjalizmu is a memoir: a story told from memory by the man who lived it. The investigation and court files show the same story from the other side — through the eyes of the apparatus that tried him. There were many such stories: according to an internal Ministry of the Interior report, 491 clandestine youth organisations with about 6,340 members were uncovered after the war¹⁰. Behind each of those names stands a family that can now check what remains in the archive.