Yad Vashem Archives Director visits the Institute and Archive
Prague, 23 May 2011 – Director of Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem Archives Haim Gertner has made a reciprocatory visit of the Institute for the Study of Totaltarian Regimes and Security Services Archive, following the March visit of directors of ISTR and SSA Daniel Herman and Jana Poddaná in Israel. The directors have discussed together with Mr. Herman’s advisor Pavel Žáček and the ISTR international relations coordinator Neela Winkelmannová the future cooperation projects, especially on fields of education, e-learning and remembrance, joint conference and research organisation. The fact that Czech institutions have inherited many documents of the Gestapo and SS due to German reorganisations at the end of the Second World War makes such cooperation very interesting for Yad Vashem and its mission.
Mr. Gertner has viewed archive materials concerning the Theresienstadt/Terezín ghetto and archives on Gestapo and SS, as well as documents on post-war emigration from Czechoslovakia to Israel, which are part of the SSA archives. He was very interested about principles and techniques of digitalisation of archive documents managed by the ISTR – the Yad Vashem memorial is one of only two Israeli institutions conducting digitalisation.
The concerned institutions are currently drafting a treaty on mutual research and archive cooperation. It is also possible that the ISTR and SSA researches and educators will participate on educational seminars and conferences organised very successfuly by the Yad Vashem.
