Cooperation project with the Foundation 'Polish-German Reconciliation' to catalogue the Stanisław Dobosiewicz Archive

Stanisław Dobosiewicz, a grammar school teacher, was deported to the Gusen concentration camp in 1940 as part of the so-called Intelligenzaktion ('Intelligentsia Operation'), the aim of which was to murder the Polish intellectual elite. He was forced to spend five years of his life in the camp. After liberation he returned to Poland, where he became active in educational reform. Alongside this he was a prominent member of the 'Mauthausen-Gusen Klub' in Warsaw, a survivor association, and compiled a comprehensive documentation of the history of the Gusen concentration camp. Countless reports by and correspondence with former fellow prisoners formed the basis for several publications. His book Mauthausen-Gusen: obóz zagłady appeared under the German title Vernichtungslager Gusen (Gusen Extermination Camp) as volume 5 of the Mauthausen Memorial's publication series.

As part of an international cooperation project, which also involves the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Muzeum Stutthof, Dobosiewiecz’s archive is now to be digitalised, analysed and catalogued. The holdings will then be made accessible via an online database.

After the meeting, a presentation about the project was made to representatives of Polish survivor organisations. The audience included Wojciech Topolewski and Stanisław Zalewski, both former concentration camp prisoners, and Jacek Tarasiewicz, the Polish delegate of the Comité International de Mauthausen. The opportunity was also used to call for documents that have hitherto not been given to public archives to be made available to the project.

Ralf Lechner and Robert Vorberg for the Mauthausen Memorial