1. The duty of the Polish State is to preserve the memory and national dignity shaped on the foundation of the past. The Polish state cannot accept the phenomenon of anti-Polonism, which humiliates Polish dignity and national memory. There were no "Polish death camps", nor co-responsibility of the Polish State for German crimes during World War II. There was no co-participation of Polish civil-military authorities in exile or in Poland in the crime of the Holocaust. Concerned about the situation of Jews and the genocidal machine of the German occupant, the authorities of the Republic of Poland not only appointed the Polish Council to Aid Jews by the Government Delegation for Poland, but also alarmed the international community, as evidenced by reports of Jan Karski and Captain Witold Pilecki or the significative suicide of Szmul Zygielbojm. The dramatic information about the Holocaust was, unfortunately, trivialized by the Western powers, even considered improbable.
2. Countless crimes of genocide, whose victims were primarily Jews and Poles and other nations, were the work of the German state - the Third German Reich. The memory of victims should unite and not divide. The Polish and Jewish sensitivity with regard to those times of contempt for human life should be a warning to present and future generations.
3. The crisis that has occurred in connection with the amendment to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance is undoubtedly the result of negligence in the field of popularizing Polish history abroad. Therefore, in Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia or Israel, the image of the Polish past is shaped mainly through the media, which too often disseminate untrue information and distort historical reality. The deficit of historical truth in the media should give way to historians, their scientific research presented through international dialogue at conferences or within the pages of scientific publications. A long-term promotion of the truth is necessary, calm and matter-of-fact, but consistent, showing Polish merits for rescuing the Jewish population, but also certain regrettable attitudes which were consistent with Germany's extermination policy. We realize that in German and Soviet-occupied Poland,
as in other countries, there were criminals who committed crimes against their Jewish fellow citizens. An effective historical policy based on the potential of not only the Institute of National Remembrance, but also universities and other scientific and cultural institutions is needed. Reliable scientific research and the promotion of its results are the path of historical truth as well as the good name of Poland, which suffered enormous casualties and losses during World War II.
4.We also address the path of historical truth to our neighbor - Ukraine. Memory, history and common heritage cannot hurt or overshadow the mutual relations between our closely tied nations. The truth never humiliates, but builds dialogue and reconciliation. Understanding the complexity of the fate of our nations, we believe that the pursuit of historical truth is a necessity.
Warsaw, February 27, 2018
Chairman of the IPN Council, prof. dr hab. JAN DRAUS
Deputy Chairman of the IPN Council, dr hab. SŁAWOMIR CENCKIEWICZ
Deputy Chairman of the IPN Council, ks. prof. dr hab. JÓZEF MARECKI
Deputy Chairman of the IPN Council, prof. dr hab. TADEUSZ WOLSZA
Member of the IPN Council, prof. dr hab. PIOTR FRANASZEK
Member of the IPN Council, prof. dr hab. ANDRZEJ NOWAK
Member of the IPN Council, prof. dr hab. WOJCIECH POLAK
Member of the IPN Council, BRONISŁAW WILDSTEIN
Member of the IPN Council, KRZYSZTOF WYSZKOWSKI