The Department of Documentation brings together both written source material (prison documentation, correspondence, manuscripts, private writings, the recollections of former prisoners) and pictorial material (photographs and postcards) relating mainly to the history of Terezín from its foundation to the year 1945. The greater part comprises material from the Second World War period coming from the concentration camp for Jews – the Terezín Ghetto, the Gestapo police prison in the Small Fortress at Terezín and the concentration camp at Litoměřice. A smaller part relates to the persecution of Czechoslovak citizens in other parts of the Nazi repression apparatus, e.g. at the Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Auschwitz Flossenbürg and Dachau concentration camps and their branches.
The earlier history of Terezín (to 1939) is represented in the collections mainly by pictorial material (period postcards). At the end of January 2011 it contained 12,830 indexed items.
A library is also available to researchers, where it is possible to study relevant professional literature. The department is based in the Small Fortress, in the “Mansion” building.