The databases of the collections consist of records of the collection items processed in compliance with the criteria laid down by the museum rules. Processing of the records of the collections stored in the Department of Documentation of the Terezín Memorial began in 1977, and since 1998 it has been computerized, with older entries being transcribed into electronic form. This process was finished in 2009.

Initially, records of the collections were not intended for publication and were expected to serve only experts of the Terezín Memorial. Even the later computerization of collection records did not count on disclosing the information to the public. The key purpose was the fastest possible transcription of the records to make the databases available to our employees in their everyday work.

The individual records are currently being checked and errors made during the transcription as well as during the original processing of the records will be eliminated. Because this requires a lot of time we have decided to make our department´s databases accessible in a form partly uncorrected to enable researchers to get a general idea about the contents of the collections stored in the Terezín Memorial´s Department of Documentation.

The databases will be continuously supplemented with records of new acquisitions in the collections, and will be regularly updated on the Terezín Memorial website. Scans of selected collection items will be gradually added to the records in the databases of the collections to enable researchers to study on-line.

For the reasons of copyright protection, only scans of those collection items to which the Terezín Memorial holds the copyrights or the copyright holder has given his or her consent will be published.

Published scans of collection items can be used only for study purposes, their copying and further distribution is not allowed.

The collections of the Department of Documentation are divided into two databases:

Database of Documentary Material
Database of Photographic and Film Material