Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau w Oświęcimiu

The State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oświęcim came into existence in 1947, according to the Decree of Polish Parliament (Sejm). The archive is a part of the Museum. It gathers, preserves and makes accessible the documents are concerning the history of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp and other Nazi concentration camps. In the organizational structure of the archive works An Office for the Former Prisoners (Biuro ds. Byłych Więźniów). It issues certificates for the former prisoners and their families are concerning the inprisonment. Its task is also a coordination of contacts between former prisoners. 

The holdings of the archive in Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum is composed from six parts: - Original documents created by the camp's offices. - Original documents created by the prisoners KL Auschwitz beyond of formal structure of the camp's administration (e.g: documents of the camp's resistance movement). - Copies of the documents conected with KL Auschwitz received from other institutions. - Documents created after 1945 (trials' records, reports and memories of former prisoners). - The pictures' collection. - The audio-visual collection. The archival holdings were be discovered in the camp's area and in the places of their secret preservation. The archive also received the documents from the former prisoners, their families and various factories which exploited job of the prisoners. The original documents preserved in the archive are only a part of documents which were be created in the camp's offices. The significant part of records were be transfered to Germany. The other part were taken over by Soviet Army and relocated to the USSR. They are preserved in the archives in Russia and post-soviet countries. The archive possesses the following kinds of documents: I) Documents of the camp's offices. The original camp's documents were created between spring 1940 and January 1945 in the offices of six departments: 1) 1st Department (The Camp Commander): the personal records of SS-soldiers and the camp's staff, a collection of commander's orders (1941-1944), telegrams on the escapes from the camp, telegrams to the prisoner's families about the death of a prisoner, the remarks books of the officers of duty (Fuhrer vom Dienst) from May 18, 1941 to March 2, 1943). 2) 2nd Department (Political): the checklists of the new arrived prisoners, personal charters of prisoners, the prisoner's death-registers, the reports with motions on a punish for the prisoners. 3) 3rd Department (the Camp Management): a register-book of the Gipsy Camp, the day condition's book, the book of the bunker in 11 block, the register-book of the prison-blocks (No 4, 16 in KL Auschwitz and No 22 in the women in KL AuschwitzII-Birkenau), the book of the camp's punitive campaign, register of the death Soviet prisoners of war. 3a Department (the Prisoners' Job): the letters between the Department and various offices in the Third Reich and other Nazi Concentration Camps, the registers of prisoners (copies; the original documents are located in the Moscow Archive), the lists of prisoners according to particular job-group, a register of prisoners working as a electricians and locksmithes. 4) 4th Department (Economic and Administrative): documents on demand of the crematories' fuel, the permissions for cars with the transport of Cyclone B and other transports, the letters with the prisoners' families on the things left in the camp's deposit. 5) 5th Department (the camp's hospitals): the books of the camp's hospitals (for blocks 20, 21, and 28 in Auschwitz I), reports on the prisoners' death, the book of Roentgen point, reports on the extractions of gold teeth from the prisoners corpses, ill-registers. II) The Prisoners' Letters. There are letters and postcards sent legally from the camp. III) Documents of the SS-Hygiene Institute: the main books (9 volumes), auxilliary books (8 volumes), the orders of making various kinds of examinations in the blood and other secretian samples. IV) Documents of the Building Battalion (Zentralbauleitung SS): the maps of KL Auschwitz I and KL Auschwitz II, the technical documentation and cost-estimations of various building projects (e.g: project of the gas chambers and crematories). V) Documents of the Camp's resistance movement: reports on the situation in the camp sent in the secret channels, illegal letters (so-called: grypsy), the registers of prisoners' death made by Antonina Piątkowska. VI) The Trials' Records: records of Rudolf Hoess' trial, records of the trial of 40 members of the camp's staff in the Polish High National Tribunal. VII) The Copies of Transport Checklists: the checklist of the Jews deported to KL Auschwitz from Drancy (near Paris), Westerbark (Holland) and Theresienstadt (Terezin, Czech) and deported by Gestapo from Berlin. VIII) The documents are concerning other concentration camps: the checklists of prisoners transported to KL Auschwitz from KL Dachau and from KL Auschwitz to KL Dachau, KL Buchenwald, KL Flossenburg, KL Gross-Rosen, KL Stutthof, KL Ravensbruck (women), and KL Mauthausen, original personal registers of the Mauthausen Camp. IX) Documents of Camps branches: - Blehchammer in Sławęcice (near Blachownia Śląska), - Charlottengrube in Rydułtowy, - Chelmek in Chełmek, - Eintrachthutte in Świętochłowice, - Furstengrube in Wesoła (near Mysłowice), - Golleschau in Goleszów, - Gunthergrube in Lędziny, - Janinagrube in Libiąż, - Jawischowitz in Brzeszcze Jawiszowice, - Neu-Dachs in Jaworzno, - Trzebinia w Trzebionce. X) Documents from the hospital;s for former prisoners of Auschwitz of the Polish Red Cross created in 1945 in the Camp area, in Oświęcim and in Brzeszcze (e.g: the list of liberated prisoners). XI) Reports (over 3500) and memories (over 1500) of the former prisoners, members of the camp's conspiracy, and compulsory workers. The significant part are written by Polish, a part: in other languages (German, English, French, Russian, Czech and Hebrew. XII) Photographs: the negatives of the camp's photographs of prisoners (39000), the private photographs brought to the camp by Będzin Jews (2400), photographes made by SS-soldiers during a selection of Hungary Jews in Birkenau Camp, photographes made after Camp liberation. XIII) Audio and video records (feature and documentary films devoted to Nazi crimes and World War II history., audio-records with memories and reports). For further information see A. Skibinska (ed.), chapter 4. -