The Ravensbrück Archive receives Memory of the World status

On 10 April, UNESCO decided to add the Ravensbrück Archive to the Memory of the World Register. Recognising the Ravensbrück Archive as an example of a cultural heritage of outstanding value to humanity. Other entries on the Memory of the World Register include the original sheet music of Ludwig van Beethoven's 'Symphony No. 9 in D minor' and the Gold Lists of the Qing Dynasty Imperial Examinations in China. Preparations for the recognition have taken more than a decade.

– It is a great honour for the Ravensbrück Archive to receive this status and a recognition of the extensive work that has gone into creating, preserving and making the archive accessible. As a Memory of the World library, we now want to take responsibility for continuing to cherish the memory and to take advantage of the opportunity to learn from history that the collection offers, says Håkan Carlsson, Library Director at Lund University Library. 

The Ravensbrück Archive exists thanks to a unique initiative taken in Lund in 1945. Polish-born lecturer Zygmunt Lakocinski (1905-1987), who had been living in Sweden for a decade and working as a lecturer in Polish at Lund University, decided to document the experiences of Holocaust survivors in Nazi Germany's concentration camps. 

– The first interviews were conducted in the autumn of 1945. The following year, a small working group comprising nine individuals travelled between the different reception centres in southern Sweden and carried out more than 500 in-depth interviews. 

It is one of the most important efforts the world has seen to document the horrors of the Holocaust, says Håkan Håkansson.