Project Report
| Jan 25, 2022
Connecting our family stories in the new museum
![Wall of Tribute Biography]()
Wall of Tribute Biography
Connecting our family stories in the new museum
By Anna Pacewicz - Chair of the Kresy-Siberia Foundation
CONNECTING OUR FAMILY STORIESSince the 17 September 2021 "go live" on the new and improved
Kresy-Siberia Virtual Museum, we have been working hard to iron out annoying bugs and issues, as well as continuing to add further content. The three main data holding areas are complete – the Wall of Tribute, the Hall of Images and Survivor Testimonies. One area of
development that was particularly complex was the connectivity between a Wall of Tribute entry and related content. The bespoke coding for this element has now been completed and is up and running, whilst some finishing touches to the results pages is in progress.
For example, if I go to my grandfather's profile in the
Wall of Tribute - Jan Pacewicz - I can click on the red hyper-link for "
Related Images" and this takes me to all of the Images uploaded for my grandfather in the Hall of Images (all screen-shots attached). I can also click on the red hyper-links for "
Related Galleries" which will take me to, for example, the
Katyn Gallery in the Museum Galleries. And if I were to start in the
Hall of Images for Jan Pacewicz, I can click on the red hyper-link for his Wall of Tribute ID and this will take me to his
Wall of Tribute profile. Thank you Shelley Upton for successfully designing and coding this complex inter-connecdness between our three main data holding areas. Please take some time to explore, or add, your family details in the museum.
The majority of the Virtual Museum area of the site is complete and work has begun on the
Special Exhibitions, which will include specially themed areas of the website as well as virtual flipbooks to read. As well as completing the previous exhibitions, we will be adding a brand new exhibition in due course which has been provided on the "
A Trip to Nowhere" - by one of our KSVM members, Grazyna Balut Ostrom.
At the same time, we have been providing technical support for our members who are getting used to contributing their photos and memories to the new platform.
SOURCES
Lastly please do check out the many lists of sources in the Wall of Tribute. A new upcoming addition is
ROPWiM's Iran Archive 1942-1945 which has been lovingly and painstakingly digitized in a searchable format (previously it was just images of the original lists) in which the handwritten names were transcribed by Christina Zehaluk (she has a talent for deciphering hand script) and Chris Wroblewski did the editing and MS Word format.
Also transcribed and searchable digitally for the first time are going to be the
KOL 138_296 A-E and KOL 138_297 F-M, List of Polish families (civilians) evacuated from the USSR in August 1942. Thanks go to: Chris Wroblewski
(transcriber and editor); Anita Cwynar
(corrections and spelling);
(Transcribers:) Anita Watson, Barbara Gdowski, Eve-Marie Galka, Gabriela Teresa Firkowska, Izabela Spero, Liz O'Sullivan, Marcin Kawala, Michael Lester, Natalie Schmidt, Tamara Bulmer, Vanessa Shaw.
EVENTSWhilst all of this work could go on remotely during the covid pandemic, some of our on-the-ground activities have been restricted. In the UK, our annual event in February to mark the anniversary of the first of the deportations by Soviets to Siberia in 1940 was not able to go ahead due to the lockdown.
Many other events which we would usually support in the UK were similarly cancelled during the year. With the ease on restrictions a few events planned by other groups in November managed to go ahead and Kresy-Siberia was represented at the Independence Day Celebrations at the Polish Embassy in London, and at the Commemoration Ceremony at the Polish Social and Cultural Centre (POSK) in London. Members of the Group also attended a meeting of the Koa Lwówian (Friends of Lwów), the commemorative meal for the Carpathian Association for the 80
th anniversary of the siege of Tobruk and attended a commemorative event at the grave of General Kopanski, the commander of the Polish Carpathian Brigade, that helped defend Tobruk.
UK BACKGROUND WORKBackground work and planning did continue by the UK based team. We helped with preparing an application for the Siberian Cross medal and submitting it officially. The medal is granted by the President of Poland to survivors commemorating their suffering and survival during their deportation to Siberia. This award was finally presented in December 2021 at a ceremony held at the survivor’s home, by the Polish Consul General Mateusz Stasiek and the 2nd Vice Consul Tomasz Balcerowski. More information can be found here:
Wolverhampton woman, 97, who survived gulag horrors recognised with medal from the Polish Government | Express & Star (expressandstar.com)It was uncertain for most of 2021 whether the Kresy-Siberia Annual Conference, usually held in September in Warsaw, would be able to take place. A team of volunteers was put together to try and plan a Virtual conference and we had many speakers lined up and films ready to be shown. For technical reasons the conference could not go ahead, however we were able to make the seminal documentary film ‘The Forgotten Odyssey’:
A FORGOTTEN ODYSSEY English - YouTube and
A FORGOTTEN ODYSSEY Polish - YouTube available on the Kresy–Siberia You Tube Channel.
FORTHCOMINGCovid-depending, we are hoping for a
Kresy-Siberia "Generations Remember" annual conference and members' get together at the new
Sybirak Museum in Biaystok in the weekend of 16-17 September 2022, so keep an eye out for more news!
Finally, leaving on a positive note, the expansion of our social media reach continued. Our
Twitter account, which is managed by Tim Bucknall, reached 10,400 followers!
Thank you for all of our donors and volunteers for keeping their Survivor Memories alive.
![Hyperlink to related Hall of Images]()
Hyperlink to related Hall of Images
![Hyperlink to related Museum Galleries]()
Hyperlink to related Museum Galleries
![Hyperlink to related Wall of Tribute Profile ID]()
Hyperlink to related Wall of Tribute Profile ID
Links: