During an investigation conducted by the Szczecin Branch of the Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, thousands of original documents produced between 1945 and 1990 by the Intelligence of the Border Protection Forces, the Academy of Internal Affairs, and the communist secret service were found and secured.
On 18 November 2025, the Institute of National Remembrance announced this finding during a press conference held at the IPN Central History Point, attended by the Institute’s Deputy President Karol Polejowski, Director of the IPN Archive Marzena Kruk, and the Director of the Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, and the Deputy Prosecutor General, Andrzej Pozorski.
These materials were located in the apartment of a former officer of the Border Protection Forces’ Intelligence, even though, under the Act of Parliament on the Institute of National Remembrance, they should have been transferred to the IPN.
I appeal to all those in possession of documents that should be held in the IPN’s collections to hand them over to us. These materials form part of the legacy that describes the system of totalitarian rule and supplement our knowledge. More than 35 years have passed since the fall of the communist system, yet documents of the security apparatus of the People’s Republic of Poland are still being discovered in the private hands of unauthorized individuals, said Karol Polejowski, announcing the initiation of an investigation into the illegal storage of documents.
Prosecutor Andrzej Pozorski announced that the investigative department would examine the documents found in Szczecin with the participation of an IPN archive employee in order to determine whether all materials that had been secured in accordance with the regulations should be transferred to the archives of the Institute of National Remembrance.
Director Marzena Kruk pointed out that these archival materials are important from the point of view of the vetting proceedings and may be relevant to other prosecutorial proceedings related to crimes committed by officials. Among the secured documents are reports concerning the escape of an East German citizen who wanted to flee via Poland to Scandinavia, or materials related to the hijacking of an AN-2 aircraft in 1983.