On April 20-21, 2015 Łukasz Kamiński, President of the IPN, Dr. Rafał Leśkiewicz, Director of IPN Archives and Anna Piekarska, Deputy Director of the IPN's Public Education Office visited Bucharest at the invitation of Mr. Marek Szczygieł, Polish Ambassador to Romania
The main purpose of the visit of the President of the IPN in Bucharest was the official opening of the Romanian version of the exhibition „The Destruction of the Polish elite. Action AB-Katyn „, prepared by the IPN. It is now on display at the National Library of Romania (Bd. Unirii 22, Bucharest).
The exhibition was opened on April 20, by Marek Szczygieł, the Ambassador to Romania, Łukasz Kamiński, the President of IPN, Claudia Serbanuta, Director of the National Library of Romania, Andrei Muraru, Advisor to the President of Romania, Ana Blandiana, President of the „Academia Civica" Foundation and Radu Preda, the President of the Institute for the Study of Communist Crimes and the Romanian Diaspora (ICCMER).
The opening ceremony was also attended by Ambassadors of Armenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Malaysia, Germany, Slovakia, the USA, Thailand, Turkey and other representatives of the diplomatic corps, local authorities, creative and media circles and local Polish community.
The exhibition is on display in the National Library of Romania until May 4. In the following weeks, thanks to the cooperation between IPN with the Polish Embassy in Bucharest, the exhibition will be presented in other venues in Romania (including the Memorial to the Victims of Communism and the Resistance in Sighet).
On April 20, the President of the IPN met with dr. Ioan Dragan, Director of the National Archives of Romania and his colleagues. The talks focused on cooperation in the field of archival exchange and joint source publication on Polish refugees in Romania and the process of repatriation after the end of World War II. The Romanian representatives gave IPN hundreds of interesting copies of documents concerning the refugees. During the talks, it was decided to set up a Polish-Romanian joint working group preparing another source publications. From the Polish side the group will be led by Dr. Rafał Leśkiewicz – director of the IPN Archives and from the Romanian - Dr. Alina Pavelescu, deputy head of the Romanian Archives. The next Polish-Romanian source volume, regarding Polish diaspora in Romania during World War II and the problem of repatriation, will be released no later than December 2016. The publication will be accompanied by an exhibition on the same subject. The meeting closed with an exchange documents and signing of the first protocol by the working group.
On April 21, IPN delegation accompanied by the Polish Ambassador visited Memorialul Fortul 13 Jilava, a memorial-museum to the victims of Communism situated at the open prison in Bucharest. Later that day the delegation met with Ana Blandiana, the President of the Civic Academy Foundation, and Dr. Romulus Rusan, Director of the Foundation during which possibilities of cooperation were discussed. There are plans to translate into Polish one of the exhibitions prepared by the Civic Academy Foundation, as well as publishing selection of its books.
Similar topics have been discussed during the meeting with Radu Preda, the President of the Institute for the Study of Communist Crimes and the Romanian Diaspora (ICCMER). The President of IPN proposed, among others, publishing a selected papers by Romanian historians in magazines issued and publishing the work of Polish historians in ICCMER magazines.
Dr. Łukasz Kamiński and Polish Ambassador met with Andrei Muraru, Advisor of the President of Romania on Relations with the Public Institutions and Civil Society. They discussed the issue of building a museum of Communism in Romania and possible IPN support in the project.