Polish and German institutes holding sensitive communist-era secret police archives have agreed to share historic documents which may shed light on some of the darkest events of communism.
Poland's Institute for National Remembrance (IPN) and Germany's Gauck Institute agreed on Tuesday in Warsaw to exchange files of the once feared East German Stasi and Poland's SB secret police.
IPN chairman Professor Leon Kieres and head of Germany's Gauck Institute Marianne Birthler also agreed their institutes would co- operate closely on sensitive research projects.
On Tuesday the Gauck Institute handed over Stasi files on an East German agent code-named 'Josef' who had spied on top figures in Poland's 1980s anti-communist Solidarity opposition, including its leader Lech Walesa.
The identity of the man who posed as a photographer and Solidarity sympathiser was not released. It could be made available to the IPN upon formal request, Birthler said.
The agent was charged with gathering personal information of opposition figures in Poland. Two of his photographs of Lech Walesa were handed over to the IPN on Tuesday, along with other items including letters, photographs and postcards.
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