GLAM/Newsletter/December 2021/Contents/Poland report

This Month in GLAM – Volume XI, Issue XII, December 2021

Poland report

Safeguarding the heritage of a community

Help us translate historical articles and preserve memory of a Jewish community

The Auschwitz Jewish Centre has begun a project aimed at filling some gaps in Wikipedia related to the community that existed in the city of Oświęcim before the Second World War, the people living in the city, their culture and the collections of the Auschwitz Jewish Center itself. The project is called "Digital Heritage: Memory for the Future".

Before the Second World War, Oświęcim was a bustling town with a mostly Jewish population with synagogues, study houses, clubs, and schools. The Jewish community had lived there for centuries and were active in all spheres of life. Out of over 20 synagogues, only one survived the war, and only a few traces of the community remain.

The Wikipedian in residence and a group of students from several universities have already written or expanded the first batch of articles. The Center hopes to find Wikipedians interested in Jewish culture who might be interested in translating the articles into more languages. Hebrew and German translations will be provided by local volunteers. In particular we are looking for contributions in Russian, Ukrainian, Belarussian, Spanish, Italian - but any translation will be greatly appreciated! Please see the table of articles and their language versions - any additions or modifications are welcome.

The AJC is also uploading its open collection of images into Wikimedia Commons. It includes high-quality digitised historical items from the Great Synagogue, belongings of the "last Jew in Auschwitz", photographs of the community members before the war and other valuable media.

We would like to invite volunteers from your communities to participate in this project! We are looking for interested Wikipedians to help verify, translate or illustrate related articles in other languages, as well as make suggestions regarding the selection of articles.

See the initial project description, list of articles, and image statistics - and don't hesitate to get involved!