[1][2][4] There are also differences in unofficial translations of the commission name in various sources, with Main used instead of Chief, Research(ing), or Examination instead of Investigation, Nazi instead of Hitlerite, and Atrocities instead of Crimes, one example being the name Main Commission for Researching Crimes against the Polish nation.
[5][6][7][8] From 1945 to 1949, it was known as the Chief Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Poland (Główna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce).
Formation in 1949 of the German Democratic Republic as an official ally of Poland within the Eastern Bloc created the need to limit somehow the postwar rampant anti-German sentiment among Poles, e.g. through replacing the object of hate, namely Germans, with the more abstract Hitlerites, therefore the body became known until 1984 as the Chief Commission for Investigation of Hitlerite [instead of German] Crimes in Poland (Główna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich w Polsce) In 1984, the latter name was expanded to include for the first time also the designation of the IPN, initially as a honorary suffix title only, resulting in the body being named the Chief Commission for Investigation of Hitlerite Crimes in Poland – Institute of National Remembrance (Główna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich w Polsce – Instytut Pamięci Narodowej) until 1991.
The end of Communism in Poland paved the way for investigating also the crimes perpetrated by the Soviets along with the Polish puppet government installed by them, necessitating in 1991 a fresh rename of the body into the Chief Commission for Investigation of Crimes against the Polish Nation – Institute of National Remembrance (Główna Komisja Badania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu – Instytut Pamięci Narodowej), which continued under this name until 1999.
[1][2] The journal has changed its name several times; since 1995, it is published as Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość [pl] ("Memory and Justice").