Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) has brought charges against 25 former officers at a communist-era internment centre whom it accuses of abusing opposition activists detained during the period of martial law in the 1980s.
Martial law was declared on 13 December 1981 by the communist regime in response to growing opposition, in particular the rise of the Solidarity movement. It remained in force until 22 July 1983.
On this day in 1981, martial law was introduced by Poland's communist government, with tanks on the streets and protests brutally suppressed.
To mark the anniversary, we publish a selection of photos by Jerzy Ochoński, who captured the period on film https://t.co/x7Zlor045O
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) December 13, 2019
During that period, dozens of people died at the hands of the security forces while around 10,000 were imprisoned without trial in internment centres – a practice that was in violation even of the laws in place at the time – notes Karol Nawrocki, the head of the IPN.
There were 52 such centres, one of which was in the town of Kwidzyn in northern Poland. At that facility (pictured above), prisoners launched a protest in August 1982 after being denied the right to meet with their families.
After that protest was suppressed, prisoners were beaten and subjected to other humiliating treatment, says the IPN. “This is a deep wickedness that has never been punished,” says Nawrocki.
Poland’s state historical body, the IPN, is reopening an investigation into the 1982 killing of three people by riot police who opened fire on a protest against the communist authorities.
The officers who fired the fatal shots have never been identified https://t.co/VOjInCXNEH
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 5, 2022
Last year, on the 40th anniversary of the prisoners’ protest, the IPN launched a project to document and investigate what had taken place in Kwidzyn. It was as a result of that investigation that charges were brought this week against 25 officers from the internment centre, who could face up to eight years in prison.
Andrzej Pozorski, director of the IPN’s commission for prosecuting crimes against the Polish nation, revealed that prosecutors in various parts of Poland have questioned 19 of the accused subjects. Six others refused to speak with investigators.
Among the abuses that took place in Kwidzyn was prisoners being forced to pass through a corridor of officers, who beat them with batons as well as punched and kicked them, causing extensive injuries, says Pozorski.
Poland has commemorated its largest postwar communist crime, the Augustów roundup, in which hundreds were killed.
This “founding murder of communist Poland…reminds us of the importance of ensuring [our] security" from Russian aggression, said the PM https://t.co/t3vN90j3Aw
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) July 11, 2022
The guards also inflicted psychological abuse, including forcing the prisoners to scratch and lick inscriptions off walls and to destroy religious symbols.
Nawrocki pledged that the IPN would continue examing abuses that took place in the 1980s to ensure “truth and transformational justice”. He noted that “those responsible for many communist crimes have not yet been held accountable”.
In 2020, a new law came into force that lifted the statute of limitations for communist crimes to ensure that hundreds of cases the IPN was still investigating would not be forced to end due to the passage of time.
Poland has removed the statute of limitations for communist crimes, many of which would have otherwise been time barred from the start of next month https://t.co/DEcpOJBIkv
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) July 20, 2020
Main image credit: IPN
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
