Three Million Names

The “Europe” funding priority reflects and documents the European dimension of National Socialist injustice. By means of their committed historical-political educational work, cross-country project networks contribute to the creation of a common European memory.
The Polish-German cooperation project “Fates of Poland 1939–1945. Remembrance Locally & Digitally” by the German Poland Institute and the Foundation for Polish-German Reconciliation has created a comprehensive trilingual database. The database brings together all available information on victims of the National Socialist regime from Poland.

The 85th anniversary of the German invasion of Poland will be marked on September 1, 2024: the beginning of a reign of terror full of arbitrariness, fear, and violence for the inhabitants. More than a fifth of the entire population, over five million people – including more than three million Polish Jews and tens of thousands of Sinti and Roma – fell victim to the racially motivated war of extermination against the Polish population.

However, their fates have no lasting place in the German culture of remembrance. In a two-year cooperation project, the German Poland Institute in Darmstadt and the Foundation for Polish-German Reconciliation in Warsaw have developed a comprehensive database with all available information on victims of the National Socialist regime from Poland in an attempt to change this situation. As a virtual memorial and extensive source of information, the online platform, available in German, English and Polish, helps to pool and systematize knowledge about the fate of millions of Polish citizens during the Second World War.

The website imparts historical knowledge on numerous complex topics, including war captivity, forced labor, everyday life under occupation and the Germanization of Polish children. Users can immerse themselves in the topic and gain a wealth of information about the fate of up to 200,000 Polish children who were forcibly Germanized. Historical facts are combined with personal testimonies from those affected, such as Henryk Wojciechowski, who was deported from a children’s home to a Germanization camp as a ten-year-old boy in 1941.

A section on everyday life under occupation tells how a new chapter in the lives of the Polish population began on September 1, 1939. The war and the five-year occupation changed everyone’s daily life. Many courageous Poles joined the resistance and took part in the growing underground movement. Some organized secret school lessons or published underground newspapers – like the poet Irena Bobowska, whose story is also told here.

The names and biographies of over three million Polish victims can be found in the database. Their fates can be filtered according to personal data such as name and date of birth, but it is also possible to search specifically for victims of forced labor, concentration camps or executions.
Among millions of other untold stories, the biographies of the forcibly Germanized Polish boy Henryk Wojciechowski and the poet and resistance fighter Irena Bobowska are also available.

The data originate from numerous Polish and German archives, such as the Polish State Archives and the Arolsen Archives. For the first time, they are being systematically brought together in the project.

In Berlin, the associations Ambasada Polek and Oświata organize school workshops on the fate of Polish women during the Second World War – including that of resistance fighter Irena Bobowska.

What all projects have in common is their participatory approach and the development of digital educational formats and materials that embed knowledge about the fate and extent of crimes committed by the National Socialists in Poland more firmly in a joint German-Polish culture of remembrance.

Life stories such as that of Irena Bobowska, whose courage and will to resist are still profoundly affecting today, need to be told.

Get to know the database and discover more stories.

Author: Sophie Ziegler, EVZ Foundation