The Castle Arsenal Museum

ph. (+ 48 25) 792 57 17

Panstowe Muzeum w Osiecimiu / State Museum Auschwitz

Info Telefon: 033-8438202, Guides: 033-84321
http://www.auschwitz.org.pl/...

Dec16-Feb: daily 8-15 h,
March, Nov and till Dec15: 8-16 h,
April and Oct: daily 8-17 h,
May and Sept: daily 8-18 h,
June-Aug: daily 8-19 h.

Entry only with guidance. This place is not suited to children under 13. There is a shuttle bus running every hour between the former concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau.

THE ARCHIVES

The archival collections consist of original camp documents of German provenance, copies of documents obtained from other institutions in Poland and abroad, postwar primary sources (memoirs, accounts by former prisoners, court documents on Nazi war criminals, etc.), photographs, microfilms, negatives, documentary films, studies, reviews, lectures, scripts for exhibitions and films, and results of archival searches.

The present archival collection, consisting for the most part of material owned by the Museum, includes:

tens of thousands of photographic negatives of newly arrived prisoners, taken by the camp authorities as a means of identifying prisoners;
photographs taken by the SS of the selection of Jews deported to Auschwitz from Hungary in 1944, as well as photographs of the camp, clandestine photographs taken by the Sonderkommando in the vicinity of the gas chambers, aerial reconnaissance of the camp taken by American aviators in 1944, and photographs of the buildings and grounds of Auschwitz concentration camp taken after liberation;
more than 2,000 private photographs brought to Auschwitz by deportees (mostly Jewish people from the B?dzin and Sosnowiec ghettos);
enough documents to fill 200 meters of shelf space, including:
48 volumes of the camp "Death Book," containing nearly 70,000 death certificates for prisoners who died or were murdered in Auschwitz;
248 volumes of documents from the Waffen SS and Police Central Construction Board in Auschwitz (Zentral Bauleitung der Waffen SS und Polizei Auschwitz), containing technical documentatin and plans for the construction and expansion of the camp, its infrastructure, and plans for rebuilding the city of Oswiecim;
64 volumes of documents from the SS Hygiene Institute (SS Hygiene Institut);
16 volumes of personal files on prisoners;
8,000 letters and postcards sent from the camp by prisoners;
approximately 800,000 frames of microfilm (mostly copies of camp documents found in the archives or obtained from other sources);
over 2,000 audio tapes of the accounts and recollections of former prisoners;
approximately 400 video cassettes containing material on the war or the camps;
approximately 130 reels of feature and documentary films;
134 volumes of the "Statements Collection," containing more than 3,000 accounts by former concentration camp prisoners, eyewitnesses, forced laborers, etc.;
76 volumes of court materials from the trials of camp commandant Rudolf Höss and of the Auschwitz concentration camp garrison.
Archival materials may be can be made available to researchers after prior notification of the research subject and date of arrival. Persons affiliated to institutions or associations, university-level students, and other interested persons are required to submit a letter of recommendation. Archival materials are not available for loan. When a legitimate need is demonstrated, the Archives will make copies or photographs of materials, for a fee.
The Archives also offers tours to study and seminar groups from Poland and abroad, including lectures on the functions and collections of the Archives.

THE COMPUTER SECTION

Established in 1989, the Section assembles and compiles data bases related to the documents in the Museum Archives. The Section is also engaged in the computerization of the Museum departments. The goal is a single integrated system for exchanging and processing information.

THE OFFICE FOR INFORMATION ON FORMER PRISONERS

Information about the fate of former Asuchwitz concentration camp prisoners can be obtained either in person or by correspondence (write to the Museum address and add "Archivum"). It should be borne in mind that the Germans destroyed the majority of the camp documents before the liberation of the camp by the Russians. It therefore frequently turns out that no trace of the people deported to Auschwitz can be found on paper. This is especially true of the people whom the Germans sent directly to the as chambers, the overwhelming majority of the victims of Auschwitz concentration camp.

THE COLLECTIONS DEPARTMENT

The Collections Department assembles mostly camp objects and items found at the site after being plundered from the victims of mass extermination on their arrival in the camp. The great majority (90%) consists of items found on the grounds: personal effects, clothing, shoes, and objects associated with the life, work, and extermination of the prisoners. A small part of the collection was donated or purchased.

The historical collections include:

• objects such as Jewish fringed garments, bales of haircloth made of human hair, and large quantities of the personal effects of the deportees: shoes, suitcases, brushes, clothing, eyeglasses, prostheses, umbrella parts, razors, buttons, etc.;
• several thousand victims' shoes;
• about two tons of hair shorn from the heads of the victims of the gas chambers.
• The artistic collections include more than 6,000 paintings, sculptures, and graphics works made in the camp or executed after the war, including works by contemporary artists.
• The collections are available to researchers, historians, students, journalists, and film and television crews from Poland and abroad; talks are given on the Department's collections and its functions.

See some of the paintings by Jan Komski, an Auschwitz survivor.
THE LIBRARY

The holdings are strictly matched to the nature of the Museum. The library contains books, journals, and maps dealing with the history of the Second World War, the Third Reich, the occupation, and the ordeal of the prisons and the concentration camps, with particular emphasis on the history of Auschwitz concentration camp. The library holdings add up to over 20,000 volumes, more than 2,500 journals, and several dozen maps. Interested persons may use the reading room in the library.

Picture by Ryszard Domasik. (c)
 

Muzeum Slaskie / Silesian Museum

Tues-FRi 10-17 h,
Sat+Sun 11-16 h

Polonian art of the 19th and 20th cent.
 

Muzeum Historii Katowice / City Museum

Tues 10-15 h,
Wed 10-17.30 h
Thurs 11-15 h,
Fri 11-17.30 h,
Sat+Sun 11-14 h.

Muzeum Historii Kattowic

Centrum Nauki Sklodowska -Curie - Katowickie Towarzystwo na Rzecz Budowy

Dr. Jerzy Jarosz

Besucher-Email: jerzy.jarosz@us.edu.pl

"Centrum Nauki Sklodowska -Curie – Katowickie Towarzystwo na Rzecz Budowy is the Katowice non profit society established to build new science center in Silesia Region.
The Skłodowska-Curie Science Centre, which is to be opened in the heart of Katowice, will have strong references both to coal mining and metallurgical industry – the strongest industrial traditions of Upper Silesia." (Ecsite)
 

Skanzen Górniczy "Królowa Luiza" / Królowa Luisa Coal Mine

Info Telefon: +48 (0) 32 - 3701127
Besucher-Email: krolowa.luiza@muzeumgornictwa.pl

Tuesday
9:00 - 15:00
Wednesday
9:00 - 15:00
Thursday
9:00 - 18:00
Friday
9:00 - 15:00
Saturday
10:00 - 14:00
Sunday
12:00 - 17:00


Free entrance on Sundays.

Górny Œl¹sk (Upper Silesia) is known as a huge industrial region and especially as a coalfield. The exploitation of this valuable power engineering raw material for over 200 years caused a sudden development and urbanization of this territory. Zabrze is one of the cities which owes its own civilization promotion to the coal mining. The first mine was built in 1791 and after the II World War the city was determined as the “capital of the Polish mining”. It was not an accident that the first Coal Mining Museum was built in Zabrze in 1981 – firstly it was only one national museum in this branch in Poland and since 1999 as a council institution of the Silesian Voivodeship.

The collection’s foundation was the survived part of the legacy after the Federal Mining Museum in Sosnowiec which existed between 1948 – 1972. As a result of the own archival penetration, territorial searching, merchandizes and gifts, they were enriched and there have presently about 32 thousand of exhibits. The fundamental part of the collection constitutes the technical exhibits representing particular mining sections: mining, dewatering, ventilation, lightning, surveying, connection. They illustrate the technical concept development from the simple tools and mechanisms to the complicated devices with the steam and electrical engines. The rich archives (with a unique collection from the 18th and 19th century’s technical drawings) and geological collections (with the fascinating record of the carboniferous world preserved in fossils and imprints) do not exhaust the mining theme. Its inseparable part is the culture and tradition sphere. It is illustrated by the uniform and mining insignia’s collections, the exhibits connected with the mining patron worship – Saint Barbara and ethnographic collections associated with the everyday life of Silesian miners. The Silesian and mining topics are brought closer by: paintings, graphics and sculpture (among others: amazingly interesting coal sculpture), and also the medals collection, mugs and musical instruments.

The seat of the Museum is a large building of the previous starost’s office, built in the eclectic style in 1874. Its definite extension of 1906 is a work of Berlin architect Arnold Hartman. The building possesses one of the most interesting, monumental interiors in the city, among others: a huge two – storey hall crossed wooden stair case and the Stained Glass Room – in the past the room of the District Diet Meetings – with wooden, polychrome vault.


 

Muzeum Chleba, Szkoly i Czekawostek / Bread and School Museum

Info Telefon: +48 (0) 32 - 3871760

Muzeum Górnoslaskie / Museum of Upper Silesia

Closed Mon.

Muzeum-600-Lecia / Museum of Six Centuries

Objects of the History of the cloister, Peace Nobel Price for Lech Walesa.