The Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression hereby informs that in order to obtain the monetary benefits envisaged under Polish law for ex-combatants and victims of repressions, claimants must meet the following requirements:
I. in the past, they must have conducted combatant activities or experienced repressions as specified in the Act;
II. they must hold or must have held Polish citizenship at the time of their combatant activities or subjection to repressions;
III. they must produce for the scrutiny of the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression documents (in Polish or translated into Polish), which prove the circumstances required in points I and II above and other documents required by law. On their basis, the Head of the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression shall issue the appropriate administrative decision;
IV. they must present the decision of the Head of the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression confirming their ex-combatant or victim of repressions status at a Polish pensions office together with specified documents. On their basis, the pensions office shall issue a decision in regard of awarding the due monetary benefits and shall commence making the due payments.
1. Who qualifies for ex-combatant or victim of repressions status?
- type of combatant activity or repression giving the right to benefits
- activities excluding the right to ex-combatant or victim of repressions status
- requirement of Polish citizenship
2. How to acquire confirmation of ex-combatant or victim of repressions status?
- necessity of appointing a proxy to receive deliveries
- electronic delivery of correspondence
3. How to acquire monetary benefits due to ex-combatants and victims of repressions?
Types of combatant activities and repressions giving entitlement to benefits
Further to the Combatant and Certain Victims of Wartime and Post-war Repressions Act of 24 January 1991:
- combatant activity is recognised to have been:
1. military service in the Polish Army or Polish military formations at the side of allied armies during war operations conducted on all fronts by the Polish State;
2. participation in Polish military formations and organisations during World War I, in national uprisings and in struggles for the recovery or retention of the territories of the Republic of Poland;
3. service in Polish underground formations and organisations including activities within the framework of partisan detachments of those organisations in the period 1939-1945;
4. military service in allied armies as well as in allied resistance movement organisations in the wartime period of 1939-1945, excluding the Peoples’ Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (NKVD) and other special formations which conducted activities against the Polish population;
5. service in Polish underground military formations or independence organisations on the territory of the Polish State within its pre-World War II borders up to 1 September 1939 and within its post-war borders in the period from the entry of the armies of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) up to the end of 1956 provided they were formations or organisations that set themselves the aim of defending Poland’s independence and sovereignty,
6. participation in the struggles of Polish Army units and militarised state services with detachments of the Ukrainian Insurrectionary Army (UPA) and Werwolf groups;
7. participation in so-called “Destruction Battalions” (“Istriebitielne Bataliony”) in former Polish lands in the voivodships (provinces) of Lvov, Stanisławów, Tarnopol and Volhynia in defence of the Polish population against Ukrainian nationalists in the years 1944-1945.
- activity of equal status to that of combatant activities is considered to be:
1. active service in the civil authorities of national uprisings and in the underground administration of the Polish State in the wartime period of 1939-1945, as well as in the civil underground independence organisations in the years 1945-1956;
2. participation in the period to 31 December 1945 in the struggles to preserve the sovereignty and independence of the Polish State in militarised state services;
3.providing organised and professional clandestine education of children and youths in the wartime period of 1939-1945;
4. giving shelter to people of Jewish nationality or other persons, on account of whose nationality or activities conducted in the name of the sovereignty and independence of the Republic of Poland in the years 1939-1945, such assistance carried the death penalty;
5. Polish sailors on ships sailing under Polish or coalition state flags serving war purposes in the period 1939-1945;
6. participation in the years 1914-1945 in the struggles for the preservation of the Polish identity and national freedom of Silesia, Wielkopolski, Lubush Land, Gdańsk (Danzig), Pomerania, Cashubia, Ermland (Warmia) and Masuria, and other lands annexed by the partitioning powers;
7. active participation in armed action for the freedom and sovereignty of Poland in Poznań in June 1956 which was the cause of death or loss of health;
8. suffering death, bodily injury or loss of health for a period of over seven days in December 1970 on the Coast due to army or militia operations during manifestations of pro-freedom initiatives.
- a victim of repressions is recognised to be a person that was kept
1. for political, nationality, religious or racial reasons:
a) in Nazi prisons, concentration camps and extermination centres,
b) in other places of confinement, in which the living conditions did not differ from those in concentration camps, and the persons held there, remained at the disposal of the Nazi security authorities,
c) in other places of confinement in which the stay of children of up to the age of 14 was of an exterminatory character, and those incarcerated there remained at the disposal of the Nazi security authorities;
2. in ghettos for nationality and racial reasons;
3. for political, religious and nationality reasons:
a) in prisons and reformatory camps, labour camps and reformatory labour colonies subordinated to the Supreme Board of NKVD Reformatory Camps and Colonies, and the MVD USSR as from March 1946,
b) in forced evictions and deportations to the USSR;
4. in prisons or other places of confinement on Polish territory on the strength of convictions in the years 1944-1956, on the basis of regulations issued by the Polish authorities, by the common, military and special courts or without sentence in the years 1944-1956 – for political or religious activities associated with the struggle for sovereignty and independence.
The Act’s regulations are also applicable to persons who, as children, were taken from their parents for the purpose of extermination or to be forcibly subjected to a change their national identity.
Activities disqualifying from recognition of ex-combatant or victim of repressions status
Ex-combatant or victim of repressions status shall be denied to persons who fulfil but one of the premises listed below:
1. those who in the wartime period of 1939–1945 collaborated with the Nazi occupant;
2. those who were forcibly conscripted into service in the German army or voluntarily declared their renunciation of Polish nationality, if subsequently, until the end of the war, they did not participate in the struggle for Poland’s independence;
3. those who collaborated with the Soviet occupation authorities in the years 1939–1941;
4. those who served in the NKVD or other USSR organs of repression acting against the Polish Nation and State from September 1939 to the end of 1956;
5. those who in the years 1944–1956 were:
a) in the service, or held functions or were employed in the structures of the Security Office, the Security Service and Military Information, as well as in the supervisory cells of their superior units associated with the application of repressions against persons acting for the sovereignty and independence of the Republic of Poland,
b) employed, served or held functions in organisational units or posts connected with the application of repressions against persons suspected or convicted of activities undertaken in support of the sovereignty and independence of the Republic of Poland:
– in the civil and military prosecutors authorities,
– in the common and military courts,
– in the prison service,
c) employed, served or fulfilled functions in the public security apparatus outside of the structures of the Security Office, the Security Service or Military Information, if during and in connection with that activity they performed investigative and operational tasks connected directly with fighting organisations and persons acting for the sovereignty and independence of the Republic of Poland,
d) functionaries of the organs or organisational units of the Polish Workers’ Party or the Polish United Workers’ Party, in whose remit – both local and central – was the supervision of institutions referred to under points a) and b) above, or the tasks referred to in point c);
6. those who traduced the dignity of a Polish citizen exploiting the power received from institutions applying repressions to oppress co-prisoners;
7. those who traduced the dignity of a Polish citizen by acting as informants of the communist authorities against soldiers of the underground resistance movement, legionnaires, clandestine partisan organisations, and all else subsumed under Articles 2 and 4;
8. those who committed murder or other crimes against civilians in the period to 31 December 1956 in connection with activities recognised as combatant activities or of equal status in the understanding of the Act, for which they had been condemned by a final and binding court sentence.
The requirement of Polish citizenship
The entitlements accorded to persons who are Polish citizens or were such in the course of their combatant activities or at the time of being subject to repressions, are specified under Article 21 of the Combatant Act. Further to the above, an application for confirmation of ex-combatant or victim of repressions status submitted to the Office should be appended with a photocopy of a Polish passport or personal identity card (in the case of elderly people identity card forms – copies of pages containing their personal details, document series and numbers, and pages containing their place of fixed abode). In the case of persons who do not possess Polish citizenship currently, but did have it at the time of the repressions they experienced, they should submit photocopies of documents confirming their Polish citizenship in the past. If they were documents issued in a language other than Polish, they should be accompanied by a translation into Polish.
In accordance with Art. 22 of the Combatant Act, the Head of the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression issues a ruling on an applicant’s combatant or victim of repressions status on the basis of a documented submission.
The applicant should submit:
- a legibly filled and signed questionnaire,
- a curriculum vitae with particular emphasis on his/her combatant activities, especially in years 1939-1956,
- 2 current passport type photographs (with the applicant’s name, surname and date of birth written on the reverse side),
- a photocopy of his/her personal identity card (in the case of old identity forms – a copy of the pages containing personal details, the series and number of the document, and the pages containing his/her place of fixed abode) or other documents proving their Polish citizenship,
- proof confirming combatant activities or the fact of having been subject to repressions (e.g. documents from the period of his/her combatant activities or repressions, documents from various institutions, offices, archives, publications – all of the above must be in the Polish language or translated into Polish, proof in such cases can also be witness testimonies),
- persons acting through the offices of proxies should also append the appropriate powers of representation.
Caution: all copies of documents should be confirmed as true to their originals. Such confirmation may be done by notarial deed, by a Polish central or local government office or by a duly authorized representative of an ex-combatant association.
An application may be submitted personally at the information point of the Office or by post, addressed to the official address of the Office.
Language in which proceedings are conducted
In accordance with Art. 5 of the Polish Language Act of 7 October 1999, entities performing public tasks in Poland – and, hence, the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression as well – perform all official activities in the Polish language. This principle also relates to declarations of will, applications, submissions and all written items addressed to the Office by applicants. That is why proceedings relating to the confirmation of combatant or victim of repressions status are conducted exclusively in the Polish language, and the party involved has the duty to submit documents – either issued by Polish institutions, or – when using documents written in a language other than Polish – to submit them with their translations into Polish.
Necessity of appointing a proxy to receive official communications
In accordance with Art. 40 § 4 and 5 of the Administrative Procures Code Act, an applicant with permanent residence status outside the European Union, if he/she has not appointed a proxy with Polish resident status to conduct his/her affairs, should nominate a proxy in Poland to receive communications unless their delivery is to be made by electronic means (via the Office’s electronic inbox for submitting applications with the use of a secure encryption and digital signature or via a trusted electronic platform of public administration services). In the event of failure to nominate a proxy, all communications addressed to the party shall be kept in the case files with effective delivery status.
Deliveries of correspondence by electronic means of communication
Delivery of correspondence by electronic means of communication may occur if the applicant fulfils one of the following conditions:
1. if he/she delivers documents with digital signature or via an electronic platform of public administration services (Polish acronym: ePUAP) to the designated electronic inbox of the public administration unit (in this case the electronic inbox of the Office);
2. if he/she applies to the public administration unit (i.e. the Office) for such deliveries and supplies the Office with his/her electronic address;
3. if he/she expresses consent to deliveries of correspondence relating to the proceedings by these means and supplies the public administration unit (i.e. the Office) with his/her electronic address.
The Head of the Office may send a request for consent by way of electronic means of communication to the party’s electronic address. If the party resigns from using the facility of correspondence delivery by electronic means of communication, the Office shall deliver it in the form specified for correspondence facilitated by a form other than that of an electronic document.
In order to deliver a letter in the form of an electronic document, the Office shall send a message to the electronic address of the addressee with the following notification:
1. informing that the addressee may take delivery of the letter in the form of an electronic document;
2. giving the electronic address from which the addressee may take delivery of the letter and where the addressee should confirm receipt of delivery of the letter;
3. instruction concerning the method of taking delivery of the letter and in particular the method of identification at the indicated electronic address in the tele-informatic system of the Office and information on the requirement of signing an official confirmation of receipt with the application of:
- a qualified certificate with due observation of the principles envisaged in the Electronic Signature Act of 18 September 2001 (Journal of Laws 130 / 1450 as further amended), or
- the profile of the trusted ePUAP.
In accordance with information accessible at the website www.epuap.gov.pl. “the profile of a trusted ePUAP is a technical-legal tool enabling authentication of signatures made by the user in contacts with the public administration via the ePUAP portal. The trusted profile unequivocally authenticates the signatory on the basis of information contained in the signature. Information contained in the trusted profile is verified reliably in a way confirmed by the organ of the confirmatory entity - that is, by the public institution nominated by the Minister designated to deal with informatics issues - that is authorised to grant and manage the trusted profiles of officials. The function of the point of confirmation is fulfilled among others by a consul, a voivod (provincial governor), the Social Security Office (ZUS).
In order to acquire a trusted profile, one must
- set up an ePUAP account,
- complete and submit an application for confirmation of one’s ePUAP trusted profile on the platform,
- apply within 14 days to the chosen point confirming the trusted profile with one’s personal identity card or passport.
An applicant who has the possibility of submitting a secure electronic signature verified with the help of a valid qualified certificate may independently activate his/her ePUAP trusted profile if the qualified certificate contains data embracing at least his/her:
1) name;
2) surname;
3) PESEL (personal identity) number.
List of confirmatory points (consulates and embassies, items 801-940):
More information on setting up one’s ePUAP profile:
In the event of delivery of correspondence by electronic means of communication, delivery is deemed effective if the addressee confirms receipt of delivery in the above-mentioned way.
In the event of not taking delivery of a letter in electronic document form in the above-mentioned way, the Office shall repeat its notification regarding the possibility of taking delivery of this letter 7 days after the first dispatch of this notification.
In the event of failure to take delivery of the letter, delivery shall be deemed to have been effectively made after the passage of fourteen days counting from the despatch of the initial notification.
In the event of recognising a letter in electronic document form to have been effectively delivered, the addressee shall be given access to the text of the letter in electronic document form for a period of at least 3 months from the date the letter in electronic document form is deemed to have been delivered, as well as to information regarding the date of the letter’s deemed delivery and about the dates of despatch of the notifications in the tele-informatic system.
Decision of the Head of the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression can be reconsidered. The appeal from the decision can be submitted within 14 days from the date of its delivery. The decision issued after reconsideration can be appealed to the Administrative Court.
How to acquire monetary benefits due to ex-combatants and victims of repressions
Upon the issue by the Head of the Office of a decision confirming ex-combatant or victim of repressions status and the appropriate note of confirmation regarding the associated rights, the party – if it wishes to claim the monetary benefits envisaged in the Combatant Act – should initiate proceedings before the Polish pensions authorities in order to obtain a decision on the award of the specified benefits which will enable their payment.
These benefits are:
- the combatant supplement of 222.01 zlotys per month,
- the flat-rate energy allowance of 171.41 zlotys per month,
- the compensatory supplement of 33.30 zlotys per month.
The condition for awarding these benefits is:
- receipt of retirement or other type of pension, endowment for those in a state of retirement or family allowance in the Polish social security system
- in the event of non-fulfilment of the above condition, there is the possibility of obtaining benefits upon the simultaneous fulfilment of the following conditions:
a) the non-possession of the right to any retirement or other type of pension benefits, or any rights to endowment for those in a state of retirement or family allowance,
b) the non-achievement of income from work, extra-farming economic activity subject to social insurance, or farming economic activity subject to mandatory farmers’ insurance,
c) the achievement of 55 years of age by women and 60 by men.
The pensions authorities pay out these benefits on a quarterly basis, in the third month of the quarter.
With the act of 14th March 2014 amending the act on veterans and some of the people being the victims of repression during the war and the post-war period and certain other laws(Journal of Laws pos. 496) the ability to transfer benefits eligible for Polish veterans abroad to their place of residence was introduced.
More information: http://www.zus.pl/default.asp?p=1&id=5499