At the beginning of 2021, the Terezín Memorial built a digitization center thanks to funds from the grant Shoah Research, Education and Documentation awarded by the Claims Conference organization. The center was equipped with an I2S CopiBook Open A2+ scanner and the LIMB program, on which the scans are processed, i.e. so called post-processing. Information on the project was given at the beginning of our activities (see: https://newsletter.pamatnik-terezin.cz/terezin-memorials-new-digitalization-center/?lang=en)
After the facility was put into operation, documents, photographs, three-dimensional objects and works of art were scanned within a three-year project to be presented on the Terezín Memorial website. The Memorial’s Departments of Documentation and Collections collaborated to produce over 140,000 scans of collection items. These have been assigned to individual cards of collection items and can now be viewed in the new collection database ‒ https://www.pamatnik-terezin.cz/sbirka
Access to the scans makes it much easier for external researchers as they don’t have to visit the Terezín Memorial in person. Instead, they can access the information they need from their homes. If someone prefers to visit in person, they can choose exactly what they’re interested in ahead of time, and the research room staff will prepare everything for them for in-house study, as previously agreed.
Although the grant was terminated in March 2024, the scanning of other parts of the collection and acquisitions is still underway. An important next step will be to link the scans of the collection items with the database of the former inmates of the repressive facilities in Terezín and Litoměřice. In the future, it will be possible to enter only the name of a former inmate into the search engine. The researcher will then be shown the personal data of the individual along with any preserved documents, photographs, or three-dimensional objects associated with them, if such items are indeed available in the Terezín Memorial’s collection.
Michaela Dostálová
