Poland publishes first Auschwitz staff database

Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) has published the first online database of close to 10,000 Nazi SS commanders and guards who ran the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

The database details names, place and date of birth, nationality, military service and party affiliation. Where possible, a photo is also attached.

The list was based on 30 years of data collection by historian Aleksander Lasik from archives in Poland, Germany, Austria, the USA and, to some extent, Russia, where archive access remains especially challenging.

“The world justice system has failed and I’m doing what a historian should do: expose the responsible individuals as war criminals,” Mr Lasik said.

According to IPN chairman Jarosław Szarek, the database forms part of an extensive project that aims to provide information about other concentration camps established in occupied Poland by Nazi Germany. Mr Szarek expressed his hope that the list would counter the incorrect but fairly common practice of referring to Auschwitz as a Polish-run camp.

Source: BBC News and Guardian