Centre's mission in Tanzania, Kondoa/Tengeru
Tanzania, Kondoa/Tengeru 2024 is another research project in Africa led by UKEN's Centre for the...
MISSION
The Centre for Documentation of Deportations, Expulsions and Resettlements of the UKEN in Cracow is a unit of the University of the Commission of National Education established by the Rector on March 1, 2011. Its establishment, stems from the earlier, long-standing activities (since 2004) of the Student Academic Circle of Historians of the University of the Commission of National Education and the projects carried out by the Circle related to the subject of forced migration. In cooperation with the Małopolska Provincial Office, the Cracow-based Fort Skotniki 52 ½ N at 24 Kozienicka Street, along with the surrounding more than 3-hectare area, was donated as the Centre’s headquarters.
The purpose of the institution’s activities is to protect from oblivion the fate of the inhabitants of the Republic (within its current and former borders) subjected to deportations, expulsions and resettlements. The Centre includes a research unit, a museum, an archive and a library. The Centre’s staff and volunteers (mainly UKEN students and doctoral students) carry out numerous scientific research projects both at home and abroad (scientific missions have so far been conducted in the UK, Australia, Canada, USA, Israel, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, among others).
The priority of the Centre’s activities is to document the fate of witnesses to history by collecting memoirs, as well as other source materials. The Centre’s collection (more than 1,000 interviews, thousands of photographs, hundreds of documents and artifacts) relates largely to the history of Polish Siberians, but also to the fate of Poles displaced by the German occupiers, forced laborers in the Third German Reich and others.
In addition, the Centre publishes scientific publications, develops and prepares exhibitions (in Poland and abroad), produces documentary films, organizes scientific conferences, and conducts educational workshops. Among the Centre’s particularly important activities is the documentation, restoration and reconstruction of Polish refugee cemeteries located in East and South Africa. Please visit the page dedicated to Polish cemeteries in East Africa: https://polskiecmentarzewafryce.up.krakow.pl/home
Aktualności
Scientific Conference ‘Death - taboo, fear or fascination:...
Natalia Czesak, Natalia Kaszuba and Wiktoria Zarębczan participated in the National Scientific Conference ‘Death -...
UKEN students' fieldwork at Fort Skotniki
Today we had the pleasure of hosting second-year Master's students of Business Use of Cultural...
Programme entitled. ‘Reportage in Radio Kraków’.
Tomorrow the 11th of November, 4.05 pm...! We invite you to listen to the programme...
Programme ‘Towards Africa’
‘Polish cemeteries in Africa, or about restoring memory’... At this special time, when our thoughts...
Photographic project ‘Fortress of Krakow’
Today we had the pleasure of hosting Mr Marcin Koszałka, a recognised film director and...