1. General premises of the ‘Book of Names’ database

The Memory of Treblinka Foundation collects information concerning the victims of Treblinka Extermination Camp (Treblinka II) and their families. The data obtained is inserted into the database, the contents of which, expanded over time, are made available on the Foundation’s website. Data in the database relates to people who died during the Holocaust and of whom, based on recovered documents and other sources, it is certain or highly probable that they are:

a) the victims of Treblinka, i.e.:

  • they were arrested in order to be sent to Treblinka and there is no information concerning their potential release,
  • they died on the way to Treblinka or there is no information about their potential escape during the transport,
  • they reached Treblinka and there is no information that they left it (escaped either on their own or during the uprising, or were transported to another camp);

b) close family members of people who were victims of Treblinka II (family includes antecedents, descendants, their spouses and siblings, and other people in particular cases).

We establish a given person ‘died during the Holocaust’ if it follows from a trustworthy source or testimony (made, in most cases, by a person identifiable by their full name) that they lost their lives not due to natural causes but as a result of the actions of the Nazis or other parties assisting them in perpetrating the Holocaust.

2. Data inserted into the database

The following data are collected: name (occasionally names or nickname); surname(s); mother’s and father’s names; mother’s maiden name; date and place of birth; age at the time of death; position in the family (f.e. mother, son-in-law, granddaughter); profession, address (addresses) before the war (comprising street name); wartime address; place of death; other information; photos. For every person we provide sources according to the list of sources (source abbreviation, testimony number, publication title).

3. List of Sources for obtaining data to be published on the Foundation’s website (the list is not complete):

  • Baza Yad Vashem – Pages of Testimonies
  • Other databases available online: warszawa.getto pl, the archive of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (ushmm.org), the archive of the Foundation for Polish-German Reconciliation (straty.pl), lists of transports from Terezin to Treblinka (holocaust.cz)
  • Materials available at archives: f.e. rulings of local and regional courts concerning declaring death in absentia, IPN (Institute of National Remembrance) archive
  • Published databases: phonebooks, official journals, Yizkor Books
  • Dictionaries and encyclopaedias: Wikipedia, Polish Biographical Dictionary, Polish Jewish Studies Dictionary
  • Published testimonies: diaries, memoirs
  • Testimonies deposited in archives: JHI, Yad Vashem, Korczakianum, Memory of Treblinka Foundation
  • Other testimonies available online
  • Oral testimonies, recorded or transcribed – oral history (USC Shoah Foundation, KARTA, and others)
  • Other (f.e. the collection of the Museum in Chrzanow, entries in newspapers, correspondence)
  • Oral testimonies given in the presence of members of the Memory of Treblinka Foundation (or other people)

 

Details concerning the sources and structure of the database are provided on request.