On 18 September 2020, joint actions of a prosecutor from the IPN’s Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, Warsaw Branch and officers of the Warsaw Police Headquarters resulted in the recovery of nearly 300 documents, drafted in the years 1939–1944 by German occupation authorities in Łódź. The said documents were in the possession of unauthorized persons, who had attempted to sell them.

Actions aimed at identifying the places where these documents were hidden and then recovering them, undertaken in in the course of the investigation by the Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, Warsaw Branch into the case of the failure to hand over archival documents from World War II held without legal title to the IPN, were taken by officers of the Capital Police Headquarters in Warsaw.

The secured documents contain information about the actions of German occupation authorities in Łódź directed against Polish citizens in 1939–1944, and about losses and damages suffered by the Polish nation during World War II.

The documents will therefore be of significant importance for research related with this period of modern Polish history.

The act constituting the basis for the initiation of an investigation and detention of things, combined with searches, referred to in article 1. 54 sec. 2 of the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance - Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, is punishable by imprisonment of up to 8 years.

Warsaw, 29 September 2020