10. 10. 2006 - A Workshop on Finalizing the Data Structure - The National Archives

A workshop on finalizing the data structure for the project called "Documenting the fates of the active anti-Nazis who were affected by the measures taken against so-called enemy population in the post-war Czechoslovakia".

On 10 October 2006 in the lecture hall at the National Archives, a workshop of experts from the National Archives, the Institute of Contemporary History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (ÚSD AVČR) and the Museum of Ústí nad Labem was held with the aim to enable all the present experts to comment on the project's final data structure. Project Coordinators of the National Archives PhDr Alena Nosková and PhDr Zdeňka Kokošková in cooperation with Jiří Bernas, an IT specialist, presented the results of the introductory phase of the archives research to the participants. At the same time, a search of the documents deposited in central authorities' archives had facilitated the start of work on some project subtasks, namely on the creation of the project addressee database structure. After the consultations within the institution, it was possible to present the particular sections and to make basic changes.

The database, which will soon be made available to all three participating teams, is going to consist of data about individuals found on various anti-fascist lists of the post-war time (e.g. those who have antifascist certificates, between-the-wars members of the Social Democratic and Communist Parties, people in the so-called antifatransport, and specialist excluded from the resettlement) as well as detailed information about individuals who have reacted to the announcements and who are able to give valuable testimonies of the events over sixty years old. In that way, many facts from accurately quoted documents of official nature will be combined with the information collected by the researchers using the method called "oral history". On the audio-visual media, the materials can be complemented with digital copies of private documents and family photos.

The database structure has been set in a way that enables to chart well the individual life stories within the Project framework, i.e. from the annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938 until the post-war punitive measures taken against the "enemy population". Apart from basic personal information, the database also contains data about emigration, participation in the resistance movement, political persecution by the Nazis and its reason, duration and locality, membership in the anti-Hitlerian coalition's armies, and about each individual's post-war fortunes. At the same time, the database is open to being supplemented by any of the teams that participate in the Project.

Present at the Workshop also was Mr Tomáš Pštross, a representative of theMinistry of Foreign Affairs, the Project Guarantor. Mr Pštross expressed his appreciation of the amount and quality of the work on the database that had been done by the experts of the National