Centre for Documentation of Deportations, Expulsions and Resettlements
Fort Skotniki 52 ½ N
ul. Kozienicka 24
30-397 Kraków
Tel. 512 861 280 / 797 996 384
centrumdokumentacji@up.krakow.pl
przymusowemigracje@gmail.com
www.zsylkiwypedzenia.up.krakow.pl
Free admission
Mondays – Fridays: 7.30 am – 3.30 pm
Director: Prof. Hubert Chudzio
Staff: Anna Hejczyk-Gołąb PhD, Alicja Śmigielska PhD, Mariusz Solarz PhD
The Centre for Documentation of Deportations, Expulsions and Resettlements (CDDER) is an entity within the university established by the rector of the Pedagogical University of Kraków, Prof. Michał Śliwa, on 1 March 2011. Its establishment is related directly to earlier activities (since 2004) of the Students Society of Historians at the Pedagogical University (UP). The students undertake these activities by engaging in projects relating to forced migrations. In accordance with its charter, the institution’s activities are aimed at protecting the memory of the fate of Polish men, women and children (living both within Poland’s present and former borders) who underwent deportation, expulsion or resettlement. The centre consists of a research unit, a museum, archives and a library. As part of its collaboration with the Małopolska Voivodeship Office in Kraków, it was granted as its seat the Fort ‛Skotniki’ 52 ½ N in Kraków which is located at ul. Kozienicka 24 as well as the surrounding three hectares of land. The staff and volunteers at the centre (mostly students and postgraduate doctoral students of the Pedagogical University) undertake many research projects both in Poland and abroad (so far academic missions have been carried out in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, USA, Israel, Republic of South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, to name but a few). The centre’s main priority is to document the fate of witnesses to history by collecting and recording their memories, as well as artefacts, documents and photographs (including professionally-made digital copies if the originals are not available). Moreover, the centre publishes academic work, organizes and prepares exhibitions (in Poland and abroad), makes documentaries, and organizes academic conferences. The centre’s key activities include documenting, renovating and reconstructing Polish refugee cemeteries in East and South Africa. The museum and educational activities, including workshops for young people, are conducted at Fort ‛Skotniki’ which is the seat of the centre. Two spacious rooms have so far been earmarked for exhibition purposes. The centre’s collections (including more than 1,000 interviews, thousands of photographs, hundreds of documents and artefacts) are related mostly to the fate of Poles exiled to Siberia, but also those who were displaced by the Germans, those who ended up in forced labour in the Third Reich, and many others. The collections are available in the CDDER Archives, at Fort ‛Skotniki’ during working hours.
Prof. Hubert Chudzio, Anna Hejczyk MA
