Results of archival research in Berlin

During intensive researches in Berlin's archives and libraries, the researchers of the CMJW have come across further documents relating to the Lamsdorf prisoner-of-war camps from both World Wars. Dr. Piotr Stanek and Dr. Maria Bula searched through these materials at the State Library in Berlin, the Secret State Archives Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the Federal Archives in Berlin-Lichterfelde and Berlin-Tegel.

Our researches looked up a dozen or more name indexes in each the aforementioned institutions, taking several thousand photographs of valuable documents in total. The archival research produced  significant findings about the history of the Lamsdorf POW camps. It was possible to obtain rich source material, including previously unknown reports of international humanitarian organisations. Particularly interesting are the successive accounts of the visits to the camps, which shed new light on the living conditions of the POWs and activities of the aid organisations.

The copies made during the Berlin research are a valuable complementary to the existing collections and offer new research perspectives. We assume that the materials will allow us to create a more comprehensive narrative about the fate of the POWs, which, from the perspective of museum education and the dissemination of history, provides added value to the primary scientific objective of the CMJW.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that the five days of work by our researchers could not have been possible in such an intensive and fruitful way it hadn’t for the help of the staffs of the Berlin institutions.

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