Międzywojenne akta personalne więźniów i policyjne arkusze dossier. Źródła do badań „milczących” warstw historycznych
Interwar personnel files of prisoners and police dossier sheets. Sources for the study of “silent” strata of history

Author(s): Mateusz Rodak
Subject(s): History
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: interwar period; prisoners’ personnel files; police dossiers; digitalization of files; online databases
Summary/Abstract: The author tries to answer the question about the desirability and aim of digitizing personnel files of convicted prisoners imprisoned during the interwar period, and dossier sheets created as a result of the activities of the then police structures. There are at least 40,000 of these types of documents in Polish archives. These documents are excellent sources for the study of “non-historic” social strata, i.e. those that did not generate written sources themselves (criminals, beggars, prostitutes, etc.). Currently, due to their dispersion, as well as the volume of material, only exogenous research is possible. The author argues for the purpose of digitizing these collections. This process cannot be completed as traditionally understood editing is done. However, the nature of the information contained in the files allows the creation of generally accessible databases; through them the access to digitized originals placed on the Internet is enabled. The article presents the possible structure of such databases and the specificity of information that should be included therein. The critical edition of a source was also done in the article.

• Details
• Contents