This preliminary research will cover the files of the employment department, personal files, cash deposit files, lists of prisoners’ personal belongings, death certificates and reports on the death of prisoners, as well as number files. In total, this encompasses more than two million documents.
"We hope to obtain about 90,000 documents. Selected documents shall be copied and transferred to the Auschwitz Museum Archive. The entire project will end with a joint scientific conference, and all data obtained on Auschwitz prisoners shall complement the database available on our website," said Ewa Bazan, the project co-ordinator at the Auschwitz Museum.
It is estimated that approximately 250,000 prisoners were transferred from KL Auschwitz during the entire period of its existence - most to KL Mauthausen (nearly 35,000) and KL Buchenwald (over 25,000).
"The existing digital database of the Museum was created based on original documents from the period of the camp’s operation. Currently, the Digital Repository contains over 1.2 million personal records, though it is worth noting that the names of many people are repeated in several different sets of archival documents. Based on this incomplete documentation, we have been able to establish the identity of about 60% of the 400,000 registered prisoners. Thanks to the co-operation with ITS we will be able to establish the identity, as well as the fate, of many other people," stated Krzysztof Antończyk, head of the Digital Repository.
As part of this project it is planned to conduct preliminary surveys of ITS Arolsen documents from KL Buchenwald, KL Mauthausen, KL Flossenbürg, KL Bergen-Belsen, KL Neuengamme, KL Natzweiler, KL Sachsenhausen and KL Gross-Rosen.
Through this collaborative project, the ITS will receive better (high-resolution and coloured) scans and some new material for its database. It will therefore be able to give improved access to its users and copy holders.