ONLINE ACCESS TO ITS ARCHIVES FOR AUSCHWITZ MEMORIAL RESEARCHERS
Paweł Sawicki
Thanks to the two-year research project implemented by the Auschwitz Museum and the International Tracing Service (ITS), research shall be conducted on sets of documents from different concentration camps, including Buchenwald and Mauthausen, stored in the ITS archive in Germany.
The ITS archive has enabled employees of the Auschwitz Memorial to remotely access its resources and copy documents of vital importance to the history of Auschwitz.
"It is crucial for us. To date, the only digital Polish copy of this archive is located in the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN). As a consequence, access to these documents for our researchers has not been as easy and direct as for employees of the Holocaust Museum in Washington or the Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Thus, for over a decade, we have been in a weaker cognitive and academic position than our colleagues from some international institutions. Today’s co-operation with Bad Arolsen compensates for this inequality," said Director of the Museum, Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński.
ITS Director Floriane Azoulay sees remote access to the database as an important signal: "The joint project is a manifestation of the ITS’ new openness. We want to empower other memorials, archives and research institutions by offering them an easy way of accessing and interpreting the information available in our archives. Ultimately, this project will lead to better service for users of both institutions; to more knowledge and certainty for family members of persecuted persons; and, hopefully, to a better understanding of individuals' persecution histories."
Through analysis of documents created by the SS administration in other concentration camps, containing information on imprisonment in KL Auschwitz or those that were sent to other camps along with transferred prisoners, it will be possible to learn about and supplement our database of people imprisoned in Auschwitz.
"Obtaining permission to access a portion of the most extensive collection of documents in the world is of historical significance. It opens up opportunities for the Museum to continue work related to the further completion of a list of KL Auschwitz prisoners; to enrich the Auschwitz Museum Archive with new documents; and within the historical context bring about new facts related, among others, to employment or the movement of prisoners between particular camps. It is extremely important because the Museum Archive only possesses 3-5% of the documentation on KL Auschwitz prisoners created by the offices of this German Nazi concentration and extermination camp," said Dr. Wojciech Płosa, head of the Museum Archive.
The Archive shall use documents and information obtained about KL Auschwitz prisoners in preliminary surveys conducted for the families of former prisoners, for academic purposes, for publications commemorating prisoners, for educational purposes, for guides and school educators.