INDEX victims of repression for helping Jews

INDEX victims of repression for helping Jews is a research program implemented since 2005 by the State Archives and other memory institutions in Poland. Its main goal was to collect and analyze all kinds of preserved historical materials (primarily archival sources) and to study the scale of Nazi repressions against Poles and Polish citizens of other nationalities who helped Jews during the German occupation of Poland (1939-1945).

The State Archives conducted comprehensive research queries in Poland and abroad. In total, the research covered over 100 archives in Poland, Germany, Austria, Ukraine, Lithuania, Israel, Great Britain and the United States. Employees of the State Archives kept records of source materials in German archives (Berlin, Düsseldorf, Freiburg, Hanover, Ludwigsburg, Münster, Nuremberg), Austrian archives (Wiesenthal Archives in Vienna), Lithuanian archives in Vilnius and Ukrainian archives in Lvov and Tarnopol, as well as emigration archives in London.

We also collected information in the form of accounts from direct witnesses of the events and included church archives (diocesan, parish and monastic) in the search.

The effects of individual stages of the program implementation were entered into a central database, which collected information on over 6 thousand repressed. The results of the program were presented to a wider audience in the form of publications, exhibitions and scientific conferences.