Collection GB 1556 WL 1281 - International Auschwitz Committee: Correspondence and papers

Identity area

Reference code

GB 1556 WL 1281

Title

International Auschwitz Committee: Correspondence and papers

Date(s)

  • 1959 (Creation)

Level of description

Collection

Extent and medium

1 file

Context area

Name of creator

Biographical history

The Internationale Auschwitz Komitee (IAK) was founded in 1952 by former inmates of the death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, with the following aims: to bear witness to the crimes of the Nazis in the camp; to fight for compensation for former inmates and their families; to work with the Auschwitz Museum to preserve the site of the camp as a permanent memorial. The IAK became involved in the gathering of statements and testimony against former camp guards and other Nazi personnel. Many of the witnesses who provided testimony later took part in the 'Frankfurt Trial' of perpetrators at Auschwitz.

Hermann Langbein (1912-1995), secretary of the International Auschwitz Committee was an Austrian who fought in the Spanish Civil War with the International Brigades for the Spanish Republicans against the Nationalists under Francisco Franco. He was interned in France after the end of the Spanish Civil War, and then sent to German concentration camps after the fall of France in 1940. Over the next few years he was imprisoned in several different camps (Dachau, Auschwitz and others). He was among the leadership of the International Resistance groups in the camps he was held in. After 1945 he was General Secretary of the International Auschwitz Committee, and later Secretary of the 'Comite' Internationale des Camps'. Hermann Langbein was among those awarded the Righteous Among the Nations status by Yad Vashem.

Repository

Archival history

GB 1556 WL 1281 1959 collection 1 file International Auschwitz Committee

The Internationale Auschwitz Komitee (IAK) was founded in 1952 by former inmates of the death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, with the following aims: to bear witness to the crimes of the Nazis in the camp; to fight for compensation for former inmates and their families; to work with the Auschwitz Museum to preserve the site of the camp as a permanent memorial. The IAK became involved in the gathering of statements and testimony against former camp guards and other Nazi personnel. Many of the witnesses who provided testimony later took part in the 'Frankfurt Trial' of perpetrators at Auschwitz.

Hermann Langbein (1912-1995), secretary of the International Auschwitz Committee was an Austrian who fought in the Spanish Civil War with the International Brigades for the Spanish Republicans against the Nationalists under Francisco Franco. He was interned in France after the end of the Spanish Civil War, and then sent to German concentration camps after the fall of France in 1940. Over the next few years he was imprisoned in several different camps (Dachau, Auschwitz and others). He was among the leadership of the International Resistance groups in the camps he was held in. After 1945 he was General Secretary of the International Auschwitz Committee, and later Secretary of the 'Comite' Internationale des Camps'. Hermann Langbein was among those awarded the Righteous Among the Nations status by Yad Vashem.

Hermann Langbein

Papers of the Internationale Auschwitz Komitee (IAK), 1959, comprising short statements from former inmates at Auschwitz and correspondence between the IAK (including Hermann Langbein, secretary) and other organisations regarding the prosecution of perpetrators at Auschwitz, including Josef Mengele, Adolf Heinz Beckerle, Josef Klehr, Hermann Krumey, Adolf Eichmann and Paul Kümmel.

Chronological

Open

Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.

German

Description exists to this archive on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk

Ref: 1173

Entry compiled by Howard Falksohn.

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

February 2008 Auschwitz concentration camp Concentration camps Eastern Europe Eichmann , Karl Adolf , 1906-1962 , Nazi Genocide Holocaust Humanitarian law Jews Krumy , Hermann , fl 1939-1959 , chemist Langbein , Hermann , 1912-1995 , secretary of the International Auschwitz Committee Mengele , Josef , 1911-1979 , physician in Auschwitz Nazism Poland Political doctrines Religious groups Totalitarianism War crimes World wars (events) World War Two (1939-1945) Wars (events)

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Hermann Langbein

Content and structure area

Scope and content

Papers of the Internationale Auschwitz Komitee (IAK), 1959, comprising short statements from former inmates at Auschwitz and correspondence between the IAK (including Hermann Langbein, secretary) and other organisations regarding the prosecution of perpetrators at Auschwitz, including Josef Mengele, Adolf Heinz Beckerle, Josef Klehr, Hermann Krumey, Adolf Eichmann and Paul Kümmel.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Chronological

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Open

Conditions governing reproduction

Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

  • Latin

Language and script notes

German

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Ref: 1173

Finding aids

Description exists to this archive on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

Related units of description

Related descriptions

Notes area

Alternative identifier(s)

Access points

Place access points

Name access points

Genre access points

Description control area

Description identifier

Institution identifier

Wiener Library

Rules and/or conventions used

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Status

Level of detail

Dates of creation revision deletion

Language(s)

  • English

Script(s)

    Sources

    Accession area