News
Fiber-Optic Computer Network at the Museum
Museum information technology specialists have put a fiber-optic-based area network into operation. It covers seven buildings at the Auschwitz I site and connects almost 200 computers.
The new system gives Museum staff fast Internet access and allows them to communicate with each other through the network, improving and speeding up the exchange of information between departments. The network also provides remote access to the library collections both for Museum staff and people outside the Museum.
The History of IT at the Museum
Computers
The first computers appeared in the Archives Department in December 1990. Donated by private individuals from Germany, they made it possible to start creating databases of the names of former prisoners and digital copies of original camp documents. In 1994, state-of-the-art machines worth half a million German marks, donated by IBM, replaced these computers.
In 1995, thanks to a purchase by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp Victims Memorial Foundation, the Publishing Department became the next Museum unit to obtain a computer. Afterwards, the computerization of all departments began. The Museum now has almost 200 computer workstations.
Networks
The first local area network, running on UNIX, was installed in the Archives building in 1990. Seven local networks were installed in specific departments between 1996 and 2007.
The Museum has been working since the late 1990s to obtain financing for a Museum-wide network. Preparatory work for its installation began thanks to a Ministry of Culture subsidy in 2005.
The area network that entered service in July 2007 covers seven buildings at the Auschwitz I-Main Camp site, with nearly 200 computer workstations.
Website
The Museum website went online in 1999, offering information about the history of the Nazi German Auschwitz Concentration Camp and access to archival material containing the names of more than 100,000 people murdered there. There have been more than a million hits on www.auschwitz.org so far. Work is now underway on a new version of the website.
