The three family stories mentioned above, reconstructed mainly on the basis of personal documents, gives one an idea of the potential of these materials. Although we do not obtain all the information directly from them, the data contained therein may be an excellent prelude to determining the fate of their murdered owners.
In addition to private documents, the archival resources of the Museum also include the already mentioned photographs. A total of 795 photos were found. Some of them were placed in 10 albums, while the rest were in bulk. The compilation of these materials is very difficult, as a relatively small number of photographs bear annotations made by their authors or owners. On the reverse side of the photographs you can find dedications with the names of donors and recipients, as well as information about where and when the photo was taken. The photos are described in Polish, German, Czech, Slovak, French and Italian. The same applies to documents, most of which are in Polish and German, but also in Russian, French, Italian, Greek, Spanish and Dutch.
Until recently, an additional difficulty was the fact that 328 photos found in bulk were glued into a joint album. It was done by the first employees of the Museum, who probably wanted to protect the photos against loss and destruction. However, a weird creation resulted, which, as it turned out in later years, was the cause of misunderstandings and made it difficult to organise the whole collection, including photographs initially belonging to other collections, as well as some from original family albums.
It was impossible to remove the photos from the album because they were fixed to the album cards with a powerful adhesive. For many years a discussion has been ongoing about the possibility of separating the prints and restoring them to the initially created collections. Professional conservation was necessary, during which the photographs extracted from the album would be strengthened and made more flexible, and then placed in albums for archiving photographic materials as separate objects. However, the implementation of this idea was neither simple nor cheap, and few people were willing to carry out such conservation work. It was not until 2017, after the presentation of the album to the Museum's conservation officer and negotiations on how to carry out the conservation, as well as after receiving an initial, acceptable valuation of the service, that the final decision was taken on its implementation. The album will be released to the conservation studio in 2018.
The archivists waited impatiently, but also with uncertainty, for the results. They hoped to find as many clues and information as possible on the reverse of the photographs. However, the messages received from the conservator did not always instil optimism. The analysis of the glue and substrate revealed the application of casein glue, which is exceptionally durable. Any attempt to separate the photos could end in a fiasco and expose them to damage. The chances of salvaging any annotations on the reverse sides also diminished. In the conservation documentation, we read: “All photographs adhere firmly to the base of the album cards. In addition, they were glued very tightly on both sides of the cards, sometimes overlapping one another. As a result, damages were caused, such as bends or adhesive marks on the emulsion layer. The cards are dirty and dusty. The majority of the photographs are destroyed, dirty, discoloured and have many corrosive damages. The paper substrate and the emulsion layer are very weak, which is proof of microbiological activity"8.
The developed conservation plan envisaged "the removal of individual photographs from album cards (de-lamination of cards), mechanical cleaning of photographs, glueing of cracks and tears, colour integration of objects/detailing”9.
As scheduled, after a few months the photos returned to the museum collections in good condition. So, what follows next? The principles of archival work with such materials require that they are reintroduced to the original collections. And that is what happened.
Jan Ściuba, the son