Organised by the Head Office of State Archives

Casualties and victims of repression under the German occupation

The Head Office of State Archives has participated in the programme since its inauguration by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage on 1 September 2006. The main goal of the undertaking is to gather names of Polish citizens of various nationalities, persecuted, killed or gone missing in the years of the World War II and later to make this verified data available on the Internet. Around thirty institutions from Poland and abroad are involved in realisation of the programme.

In the first stage of the programme, i.e. in the years 2006-2009 it was coordinated by Ośrodek KARTA. Pursuant to a bilateral agreement between the Head Office of State Archives and KARTA all the state archives in Poland were included in the programme. The goal of this stage was to gather and consolidate in a central database all the information that existed on-line in given institutions. In 2007 the Head Office of State Archives made available to the project over 950 thousand records which were acquired in result of archival queries conducted in 22 archives and their local branches. It constitutes over 50% of all the information gathered at this stage of the project. The data it contained concerned almost all documented categories of victims: prisoners of concentration camps, persons detained in ghettoes, victims of Holocaust, repatriates from the East and the West, displaced persons, forced labourers and persons killed in the course of military actions.

From the beginning of 2009 the role of coordinator of the project was taken over by the Foundation for Polish-German Reconciliation. In August 2009 the General Director of State Archives and the President of the Board of the Foundation for Polish-German Reconciliation signed a new collaboration agreement for three years. Based on the documents the next stage of archival queries was resumed in two selected state archives in Gdańsk and in Wrocław. In the period from September to December 2009 archival research has been conducted in over 100 archival units. Information about more than 17 thousand persons persecuted during the World War II was found. This data was also entered in a computer database. Archival queries coordinated by the Head Office of State Archives will be continued in 2010 and expanded to other state archives subject to it, on the condition that appropriate financial resources are obtained.
As a part of promotion of the project, the Head Office of State Archives participates in the organisation of the all-Poland contest addressed to young people under the slogan: Our close ones, our history – Casualties and victims of repression under the German occupation, the contest is held under the patronage of the General Director of State Archives. In October 2009 the opening ceremony of this undertaking, with a press conference and promotion of the project’s goals took place.

The results of works to date are available at the project’s site: www.straty.pl

APENET Project – Archives Portal Europe

The project is realised pursuant to the agreement between the European Commission, the Ministry of Culture and National Archive of Spain of 8 December 2008. Under this agreement, the National Archive of Spain, as the project’s coordinator, concluded bilateral agreements with individual partners. At present the following 12 countries participate in the project: Greece, Spain, Holland, Finland, France, Latvia, Germany, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden. Poland is represented by the Head Office of State Archives. On 15 January 2009 an agreement with the Spanish partner was signed by Dr. Barbara Berska, Deputy Director of the State Archives.

The main goal of the project is to create a logical and physical model of an archive portal and to place there the information about the archive materials kept by the European archives, including presentation of archival aids according to the EAD standard. The works are to be completed by the end of 2011 and the results to date are presented at the project’s Internet site: www.apenet.eu. The project is financed from the resources of the European project eContent plus.

On 12 October 2009 in the Regional Archive in Lund (Sweden) the first plenary session of the Member States participating in the project took place. Delegation of the Head Office of State Archives also participated in the meeting during which the works to date were summarised and a decision on allowing new members to participate in the project was taken (Belgium and Ireland).

The participants of the APENET project are open to collaboration with similar European initiatives. At present close contacts with the participants of the EUROPEANA (www.europeana.eu) project are being established, within this project in the first place data on book and museum collections is made available.

Reconstruction of the Memory of Poland

“Reconstitution of the Memory of Poland” is an international programme realised under the auspices of the European Council whose main goal is to gather information about sources on history of Poland stored at foreign archives.

In 1997 UNESCO asked the International Archive Council to prepare a survey whose goal was to perform a worldwide analysis on the question of losses and displacement of archive collections and assessment of chances to solve problems related to it. Poland’s reply to the survey revealed the dispersion and destruction of Polish archive materials, that even the professional circles were not aware of, in extreme cases it reached 90% of losses suffered by the central state archives during the World War II.

This led to the decision of the International Archive Council Secretariat to prepare a pioneer and pilot programme entitled “Reconstitution of the Memory of Poland”. This idea gained recognition of the European Board operating within IAC, a group of experts of the European Council operating within the “Electronic Publishing, Books and Archives” group and the Culture Committee of the European Council.
The programme was realised under the auspices of the European Council in the years 1998-2004.

On 10 November 2004 in the office of the European Council in Strasbourg the opening ceremony of an archive exhibition presenting the results of the programme took place. The exhibition was organised with the help of the Department of Promotion of the MFA as one of events accompanying Poland’s takeover of presidency in the European Council.

INDEX Programme

The initiative of the INDEX programme came from the circle connected to the Krakow Institute of Strategic Studies. Accurate and historically reliable analysis of the scale of Nazi repression towards Poles helping Jews during the occupation and commemorating the murdered is the main goal of the programme.

The Programme Council thinks that the INDEX Programme will broaden the knowledge about the fate of Poles murdered or in some other ways persecuted for helping Jews and at the same time will support better understanding of both recent history and people’s actions – these most noble and most cruel.

The INDEX programme is not a political, national or religious undertaking. It does not aim at justifying any material claims of the victims’ heirs. Nor does it intend to negate historical truth about Poles who collaborated with the invader. The history of those who saved lives belongs to the Polish nation but it is also the history of the Jewish nation and Europe.

We intend to conduct detailed queries in archives, look for information and documents from witnesses, their descendants and friends, as well as through the media. The results of the research will be presented in the form of a database, publications, exhibitions and conferences.

We believe that the INDEX programme will strengthen civic society, will allow us to learn more and understand better the patterns of behaviour worth cultivating. We hope that this way we will promote the shared Polish-Jewish history and culture.
The success of the INDEX programme depends on organisational and financial support. We would like to invite to collaboration Polish and foreign institutions and organisations, media, scientific centres, individual researchers and persons interested in the Programme’s success. We invite to contact us all these who would like to help us in good faith, without prejudice, not driven by stereotypes nor for material, political, national or religious benefits.

We make a special appeal to witnesses of events and their descendants or friends. Your account will be invaluable help for us and a necessary supplement to research conducted in archives. If you decide to help us, please fill out the survey below and send it to the following address:

SURVEY
Naczelna Dyrekcja Archiwów Państwowych
ul. Rakowiecka 2D, 02-517 Warszawa
Ph.(+48 22) 565-46-00, Fax (+48 22) 565-46-14
(with note: Index)
or via e-mail to:
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Further information about the programme may be obtained from:

Anna Krochmal – Head of the research team
Naczelna Dyrekcja Archiwów Państwowych
ul. Rakowiecka 2D, 02-517 Warszawa
Ph.(+48 22) 565-46-21