Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance claims that Father Henryk Jankowski, a key figure in the Solidarity movement in the 1980s, was an “operational contact” to the secret police in communist Poland, working under code names “Delegat” and “Libella”. (photo - Jankowski in early days of the Solidarity movement - archives).

The revelations come in a new book to be published by the Institute on the murder by communist authorities of Father Jerzy Popieluszko in 1984.

Father Jankowski, who was active at the original Solidarity strikes at the Gdansk shipyard in 1980, strongly denies these revelations. But the IPN says it is certain that the priest became involved with agents of the communist secret services in the early 1980s.

“With academic certainty we can state that Father Jankowski was the operational contact ‘Libella’ aka ‘Delegat’,” claims historian Jan Żaryn at the IPN, an organisation set up by the state to look into communist and Nazi crimes in Poland.

The Institute says it is in possession of several surviving operational reports on contact between “Delegat” and the communist secret services conducted during the tumultuous events in Poland between December 1980 and May 1982. According to historians, the communist secret police (SB) used to perceive Jankowski as a valuable contact, and used him for spying on Solidarity and the Catholic Church in Poland.

Information about a then unnamed person from a circle close to Lech Walesa and Primate Stefan Wyszynski first appeared in the Polish media some three years ago. Historians then failed to identify the contact. Now, however, they have no doubts.

Jankowski – as the IPN’s publication notes– could have been unaware of the way he was being used, but still actively participated in order to reduce the influence of the group of intellectuals allied to the Solidarity union - the Workers’ Defence Committee (KOR).

The priest was used as an operational contact until the imposition of martial law in December 1981 but after was perceived by the SB as an enemy and was treated thereafter with suspicion.

Father Jankowski has been a controversial figure in Poland since the Solidarity days, known for his anti-EU stance and has been accused of making anti-Semitic statements.

Last year the IPN published a book claiming that Lech Walesa was another contact with the communists under the code name “Bolek” - accusations that the former Solidarity leader has strenuously denied. (pg/jm)

Source: IAR, Dziennik, tvn24.pl