News - Instytut Pileckiego

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  • Call for Papers | Exile Governments and Political Refugees in 20th-Century Europe: Sovereignty in the Face of Totalitarianisms (Deadline: November 15)

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    Call for Papers | Exile Governments and Political Refugees in 20th-Century Europe: Sovereignty in the Face of Totalitarianisms (Deadline: November 15)

  • Virtus et Fraternitas Medals Presented at Belweder Palace

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    Virtus et Fraternitas Medals Presented at Belweder Palace

    The President of the Republic of Poland has awarded the “Virtus et Fraternitas” Medal to 18 individuals from 7 countries: the Czech Republic, Japan, Norway, New Zealand, Ukraine, Hungary, and Poland.

  • The Face of Crime: The Life and Death of Roman Shukhevych | Damian Karol Markowski
    Zdjęcie Damiana Markowskiego.

    News

    The Face of Crime: The Life and Death of Roman Shukhevych | Damian Karol Markowski

    In recent years, the Ukrainian central and local authorities have been actively commemorating Roman Shukhevych, one of the leaders of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), perceiving him as a powerful symbol of the fight for Ukrainian independence from the Soviet Union. Within the last few months, President Zelenskyy named a military unit after the UPA, while the Lviv Oblast Council declared 2027 as the year of the UPA and Roman Shukhevych. Crucially, however, Shukhevych – the head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), the commander of the UPA, and the deputy commander of the Nachtigall Battalion – had actively collaborated with Nazi Germany and was responsible for ethnic cleansings, pogroms of Lwów Jews, and the mass murder of Polish civilians in Volhynia in 1943. Among others, he was the author of an explicit order to murder civilians. We look back at his life story and involvement in these and other crimes.

  • The Second International Congress of the Pilecki Institute: A recap

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    The Second International Congress of the Pilecki Institute: A recap

    Congress “Embracing the New, Preserving the Old: Studying Fascism, Communism, and Totalitarianism in the 2020s” took place on October 14 and 15, 2026 – two packed days of stimulating papers, keynote events, debates and discussions.

  • Conference “Shared Experiences – Different Paths? The Turning Point of 1956 and Its Significance for the Countries and Societies of East Central Europe”
    Poster for the International Scientific Conference titled "Common Experiences – Different Paths? The 1956 Turning Point and Its Significance for the States and Societies of Central and Eastern Europe". The conference takes place on October 19–21 at the Pilecki Institute at 82 Sienna Street in Warsaw.

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    Conference “Shared Experiences – Different Paths? The Turning Point of 1956 and Its Significance for the Countries and Societies of East Central Europe”

    The Pilecki Institute and the Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences invite you to participate in an international academic conference, Shared Experiences – Different Paths? The Turning Point of 1956 and Its Significance for the Countries and Societies of East Central Europe, which will be held on 19–21 October 2026 in Warsaw. The event is part of a series of conferences devoted to the history of transformations in East Central Europe after 1945.

  • New Jork | The Augustów Roundup – the largest Soviet crime committed against Polish citizens after World War II. Workshops and Presentations

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    New Jork | The Augustów Roundup – the largest Soviet crime committed against Polish citizens after World War II. Workshops and Presentations

    Learn the history of the Augustów Roundup, a Soviet operation carried out in July 1945 that resulted in the arrest and disappearance of hundreds of people.

  • 80th Anniversary of the Nuremberg Judgment | Master lecture by Prof. William Schabas and an international discussion panel
    Promotional graphic for the event “80th Anniversary of the Judgment of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg”, featuring a black-and-white photograph from the Nuremberg Trials.

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    80th Anniversary of the Nuremberg Judgment | Master lecture by Prof. William Schabas and an international discussion panel

    – “1 October 2026 marks the 80th anniversary of the Judgment of the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg, which was a watershed moment for the development of international criminal law.” – emphasized Dr. Dominika Uczkiewicz from the Pilecki Institute.

  • Previously unpublished German archival materials from France’s ECPAD at the Pilecki Institute and the Warsaw Rising Museum
    Three men in suits are standing side by side, holding blue folders bearing the Pilecki Institute logo.

    News

    Previously unpublished German archival materials from France’s ECPAD at the Pilecki Institute and the Warsaw Rising Museum

    The Witold Pilecki Institute of Solidarity and Valor and the Warsaw Rising Museum have signed a strategic trilateral cooperation agreement with ECPAD (Établissement de Communication et de Production Audiovisuelle de la Défense / Defense Communication and Audiovisual Production Center), the French military audiovisual archive based in Ivry-sur-Seine, France. The agreement gives the Polish institutions access to unique Second World War photographs previously unseen in Poland, opens access to the vast holdings of the French archive, and launches a partnership of major significance for research into Polish history.

  • Redressing Wartime Violations: How can individuals claim their right to reparation?
    Redressing Wartime Violations: How can individuals claim their right to reparation? SEMINAR, Pilecki Institute, Sienna 82, Warsaw

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    Redressing Wartime Violations: How can individuals claim their right to reparation?

    War inflicts profound damage on nations, non-state actors, and individuals alike—affecting both combatants and civilians. Since the end of World War II, Poland has consistently advocated for individual compensation regarding wartime violations.

  • „Soviet Central Asia as a Totalitarian Testing Ground” - international academic conference
    Four people sit in white armchairs on a stage during a panel discussion, against a black curtain backdrop. In the center, a woman in a colorful kimono and blue skirt speaks into a microphone. Two small wooden coffee tables with water and books stand between the panelists. In the foreground, the blurred silhouettes of the audience and a camera on a tripod are visible.

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    „Soviet Central Asia as a Totalitarian Testing Ground” - international academic conference

    Three days, dozens of presentations, and researchers from Poland and abroad summed up the international academic conference held at the Pilecki Institute in Warsaw on 2–4 September.

  • The hitherto unknown memoirs of a German official from occupied Poland have been donated to the Pilecki Institute
    Black-and-white photograph showing a group of German officials and military officers standing beside a border sign reading “Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete – Grenze 280 m.” Trees and rural terrain are visible in the background. The bottom of the image bears the credit “Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe” (National Digital Archives).

    News

    The hitherto unknown memoirs of a German official from occupied Poland have been donated to the Pilecki Institute

    A unique document has been added to the Pilecki Institute’s archives: the previously unpublished and unknown memoirs of a German official who worked in the civil administration of the General Government during the Second World War.

  • Evil Woven into Everyday Life | Dr Joanna Nikel on the Memoirs of a German Official from His Stay in the General Government

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    Evil Woven into Everyday Life | Dr Joanna Nikel on the Memoirs of a German Official from His Stay in the General Government

    "It is rare for a document to find its way into archival collections in which the voice of an official of the occupation apparatus himself – written down without any intention of accusation, and even stressing his own sense of normality – becomes one of the most eloquent testimonies to the criminal nature of the system he served", writes Dr Joanna Nikel in her initial commentary on the materials received by the Pilecki Institute.

  • 14 books nominated for this year’s Witold Pilecki International Book Award

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    14 books nominated for this year’s Witold Pilecki International Book Award

    On Saturday, 5 September, at the Autumn Book Fair in Warsaw, the Pilecki Institute announced the titles and authors of 14 books nominated for this year’s Witold Pilecki International Book Award.

  • New Jork | Exhibition: Between Life and Death. Stories of Rescue during the Holocaust

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    New Jork | Exhibition: Between Life and Death. Stories of Rescue during the Holocaust

    Through October 29, the Pilecki Institute in New York is hosting an exhibition about the people who risked their own lives to save Jews during the Holocaust—and those who survived thanks to their courage.

  • „Soviet Central Asia as a Totalitarian Testing Ground” - international academic conference

    News

    „Soviet Central Asia as a Totalitarian Testing Ground” - international academic conference

    The international academic conference organized by the Pilecki Institute is the first initiative in Poland to bring together interdisciplinary research on Soviet Central Asia, a region with an exceptionally complex history of totalitarianism, mass repression, and forced deportations, that also include the experiences of Poles.

  • Call for Articles – Volume 9 of the Totalitarian and 20th Century Studies yearbook

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    Call for Articles – Volume 9 of the Totalitarian and 20th Century Studies yearbook

    The Editorial Board of the Totalitarian and 20th Century Studies yearbook announces a call for submissions for the next special issue of the publication, covering the years 2025–2026. We invite researchers from various disciplines, including history, political science, law, and sociology, to submit scholarly articles, editions of source materials, and reviews in line with the profile of our yearbook.

  • Karol Madaj appointed Director of the Witold Pilecki Institute of Solidarity and Valor

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    Karol Madaj appointed Director of the Witold Pilecki Institute of Solidarity and Valor

    Marta Cienkowska, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, has appointed Karol Madaj Director of the Witold Pilecki Institute of Solidarity and Valor in Warsaw. His five-year term will begin on 30 August 2026. From 1 September 2025, Karol Madaj served as the acting director of the Pilecki Institute.

  • Hacker attack on the websites of the Pilecki Institute in Warsaw, Berlin, and Augustów

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    Hacker attack on the websites of the Pilecki Institute in Warsaw, Berlin, and Augustów

    On the night of August 13–14 our websites suffered another serious hacking attack. Content bearing the hallmarks of Russian propaganda and disinformation — targeting Polish history and reinforcing anti-Ukrainian narratives — was deliberately placed on the Institute's pages devoted to Augustów, Berlin, and Warsaw.

  • Academic conference “Oppositional Engagement of Women in Authoritarian and Totalitarian Systems of the 20th Century: Poland in a Comparative European Perspective (1919–1989)”
    Four speakers during the question-and-answer session. From the left: a participant in a leather jacket is speaking into the microphone. Next to him sits a speaker wearing glasses, a shirt with a subtle check pattern, and beige pants. Next to them is a female speaker in a white outfit holding the conference program, and a participant in a navy blue blazer. On the table in front of them are bottles of water, glasses, and a blue folder containing conference materials.

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    Academic conference “Oppositional Engagement of Women in Authoritarian and Totalitarian Systems of the 20th Century: Poland in a Comparative European Perspective (1919–1989)”

    The second academic conference in a series “Oppositional Engagement of Women in Authoritarian and Totalitarian Systems of the 20th Century: Poland in a Comparative European Perspective (1919–1989)” brought together representatives of various fields of the humanities and social sciences from numerous research centers in Poland and abroad.

  • Accountability for War Crimes. New book from Pilecki's expert
    It is an expanded English-language edition of the monograph "Problem odpowiedzialności karnej za zbrodnie wojenne w pracach rządu polskiego na emigracji (1939–1945)", which in 2023 was awarded a grant under the Ministry of Science and Higher Education’s “Excellent Science II” program for the translation and open-access publication of the book abroad.

    News

    Accountability for War Crimes. New book from Pilecki's expert

    It is an expanded English-language edition of the monograph "Problem odpowiedzialności karnej za zbrodnie wojenne w pracach rządu polskiego na emigracji (1939–1945)", which in 2023 was awarded a grant under the Ministry of Science and Higher Education’s “Excellent Science II” program for the translation and open-access publication of the book abroad.

  • 12 July | Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Augustów Roundup
    A monument dedicated to the victims of the Augustów Roundup, bearing the inscription “LIPCOWI,” in front of which numerous wreaths and bouquets of flowers in white and red have been laid. Soldiers stand on either side of the monument, performing an honor guard.

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    12 July | Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Augustów Roundup

    12 July is celebrated as the National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Augustów Roundup. The roundup began 81 years ago on this day – on 12 July 1945, two months after the end of the Second World War.

  • The Volhynian Crime: The Pilecki Institute and its scholarly and research activities
    Portraits of Ukrainians who saved Poles during the Volhynia Massacre and were awarded the Virtus et Fraternitas Medal.

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    The Volhynian Crime: The Pilecki Institute and its scholarly and research activities

    On the Sunday of 11 July 1943, units of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, the armed wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (Stepan Bandera faction) – a radical fascist organization striving to build an independent Ukrainian state without any national minorities – carried out a coordinated attack on almost a hundred Polish settlements in the German-occupied Volhynian Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic.

  • Announcement

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    Announcement

    The Witold Pilecki Institute of Solidarity and Valor, the sole shareholder of Pilecki Institute (USA), Inc., announces that the Board of Directors has appointed Jack Fairweather as the interim President (CEO) of Pilecki Institute (USA), Inc., effective as of 18 June 2026. His task will be to expand the program strategy in line with the statutory mission of the Pilecki Institute’s New York branch.

  • Colloquium “Writing and Teaching Environmental History of Ukraine and East Central Europe”

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    Colloquium “Writing and Teaching Environmental History of Ukraine and East Central Europe”

    The colloquium aims to advance the environmental history of Ukraine as a research field and teaching area by addressing related challenges, identifying opportunities, and planning future directions.

  • The MODEERN FREEDOM exhibition at the Pilecki Institute NYC is now open!
    The organizers in front of the exhibition poster.

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    The MODEERN FREEDOM exhibition at the Pilecki Institute NYC is now open!

    The largest group presentation of Polish contemporary art in New York since MoMA’s legendary “Fifteen Polish Painters” exhibition in 1961.

  • Pilecki Institute USA presents MODEERN FREEDOM exhibition - contemporary art from Central and Eastern Europe in Lower Manhattan, NYC

    exhibition

    Pilecki Institute USA presents MODEERN FREEDOM exhibition - contemporary art from Central and Eastern Europe in Lower Manhattan, NYC

    The largest group presentation of Polish contemporary art in New York since MoMA’s legendary “Fifteen Polish Painters” exhibition in 1961.