The Synod of the Reformed Evangelical Churches in Poland recently published its position on the vetting currently underway of alleged collaborators with the Communist secret services. “This difficult period of almost half a century in the history of forty million people cannot be clarified without great meticulousness, patience, expertise and compassion”, declare the members of the Synod who critically evaluate the steps taken so far. “One of the most important moral dilemmas that Polish society has tried to resolve in recent years – explains the Synod – consists in trying to evaluate the attitudes adopted by our compatriots to the authorities in the time of Communist Poland and their relations with the security apparatus”. Often this evaluation, continues the Synod, “is inspired by documents retrieved from the archives of the former secret services that have been preserved only in part. These archives, like the persons who work in the Institute of Historical Memory (IPN) and who have the job of examining them today, are considered reliable sources of information on the honesty or dishonesty of individuals and social groups”. “In our view – concludes the Synod – the result of all these efforts are often false or extremely uncertain condemnations of those accused of collaboration”, causing “shame and suffering” among people.
