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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)

The year 2027 marks the 85th anniversary of the signing, on 13 January 1942, of the Declaration of St James’s Palace on the Punishment of War Crimes. To commemorate this landmark event, we are organising an international academic conference addressing the history and significance of governments in exile and political refugees in 20th-century Europe.

Research news

PhD Candidate from the University of Potsdam on a Research Visit to the Pilecki Institute

Between 1 October 2026 and 31 January 2027, Melcher Abramowski, a doctoral candidate in law at the University of Potsdam, is completing a research stay at the Pilecki Institute under the Erasmus+ program.

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Previously unpublished German archival materials from France’s ECPAD at the Pilecki Institute and the Warsaw Rising Museum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

Research news

How Can Individuals Claim Reparation for Wartime Violations? A Seminar at the Pilecki Institute

On Friday, September 11, the Pilecki Institute hosted the seminar "Redressing Wartime Violations: How can individuals claim their right to reparation?" at its headquarters located at Sienna 82. The session analyzed structural mechanisms and legal frameworks for processing individual compensation regarding wartime violations.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Commemoration of Rozalia Socha, Murdered for Helping Jews During the German Occupation | Called by Name

On 2 June 2026, in Wola Rafałowska near Rzeszów, the Pilecki Institute unveiled a stone with a plaque commemorating Rozalia Socha, who in 1942 was murdered by the Germans for hiding a group of Jews: Izaak, Fajga, and Regina Goldman, as well as two women and three children. This was the 41st commemoration held as part of the “Called by Name” program.

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On better protection against crimes against humanity: Summary of the international conference “The Roots of Crimes Against Humanity”

The international conference “The Roots of Crimes Against Humanity: Bridging the Normative Gap” successfully concluded at the Pilecki Institute in Warsaw. Organized on the 20th and 21st of April 2026, in cooperation with the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the event aimed to provide historical and academic foundations for the first-ever United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity.

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April 30 Deadline: Poland Proposes "Child-Sensitive Approach" for New UN Convention

Beginning with today’s (April 30) deadline for all nations to submit their official comments to the United Nations on the draft of the proposed Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity, Poland has made an aggressive bid to become one of the leaders representing the globe’s most vulnerable victims.

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Research cooperation between the International Centre for War Crimes Trials (ICWC) and the Pilecki Institute

The Witold Pilecki Institute of Solidarity and Valor has entered into official cooperation with the International Centre for War Crimes Trials (ICWC) at Philipps University in Marburg.

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Research paper of an employee of the Pilecki Institute in a Q1-indexed journal

Dr. Tomasz Chinciński published an article in the Q1 journal Cogent Arts & Humanities on the attitudes of the German population in Poland incorporated into the Third Reich.

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Second debate in the “Berlin in Warsaw” series. Discussion on reparations and compensation [video]

“Compensation, damages, reparations: what is realistic, what is symbolic?” This was the title of the second debate in the “Berlin in Warsaw” series. Experts on Polish-German relations presented different perspectives on the difficult relationship between the two nations.

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Pilecki in NYC. The debate “Lessons from Nuremberg for the 21st Century”

The debate “Lessons from Nuremberg for the 21st Century” focused on the legacy of the Nuremberg Trials and their real impact on the development of contemporary international law and the methods of prosecuting war criminals.

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Germany on Poland: Images, Memory and “Blind Spots” | Event video recording

“What is one ‘missing frame’ in the German imagination of Poland?” Dr. Aleksandra Burdziej asked the German guests in the opening question of the discussion launching the “Berlin in Warsaw” series.

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"Germans Appropriate the Polish Experience of Victimhood. Colonial patterns of thinking emerge in the debate on collaboration" by Hanna Radziejowska and Mateusz Fałkowski

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, March 11, 2026. Article translated from German into English.