On 14 September 2018 representatives of veterans' organizations from Australia visited the Institute of National Remembrance. Bogdan Płatek, secretary of the Polish Ex-Servicemen Association Sub - Branch No. 3 in Victoria and a member of the Pilecki Committee and Zygmunt Świstak "Minoga", a representative of the Home Army Soldiers' Circle in Melbourne, visited the IPN as part of the General Assembly of the World Veterans Federation organized by the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression.
At the Institute they met with Prof Krzysztof Szwagrzyk, Deputy President of the Institute of National Remembrance, with whom they discussed further educational cooperation in Australia. The President presented the guests with commemorative gorgets from the funeral of the Commanders whose remains were found in the lot “Ł” in Powązki. Later, the veterans visited the IPN Archive, where they viewed archival materials about Australia and learnt about the work of the Center for Information on Victims of World War II. Zygmunt Świstak was touched as his identification card form KL Dachau was found in the Institute’s archival resources. The guests were also eager to learn about the work of the video-comparator. The visit ended in the Preservation Workroom, where currently a new exhibition “The Return of the Captain” is being prepared.
The veterans are personally involved in the popularization of knowledge about Captain Pilecki, the Warsaw Uprising and Australian soldiers supporting the insurgents. As a result of fruitful cooperation with the IPN, exhibitions on these subjects were presented in Australia. Thanks to joint efforts, exhibitions devoted to Captain Witold Pilecki, the Warsaw Uprising, and Poles who saved Jews during the Second World War were shown in the Victoria State Parliament in Melbourne in May 2018. In November, the exhibitions will be presented in another prestigious location - the Parliament of Western Australia in Perth.
The exhibition dedicated to Captain Pilecki, has already been on display in locations such as the Jewish Holocaust Centre, the Kadimah Jewish Cultural Centre in Melbourne and Atrium Fed Square. It is the result of the concept and the work of the Pilecki Project Committee in Melbourne, which with the help of the Polish Home Army Ex-servicemen Association created the exhibition, books, posters and booklets.