Within this department research is carried out on subjects such as the history of Romanian communism, the anti-communist resistance, the Romanian prison system, but also the other Eastern-European countries. Employed researchers are used, but also a lot of collaborators from Romania, as well as from the other Eastern-European states and from Western Europe.
Tasks:
- achieving specific studies
- preparation of symposia and holding conferences on different subjects
- preparation of the guides
- cooperation with the other departments for promoting the Memorial
Important research project developed by the Research Department
- Database „ Political prisoners who died in prison during the communist period”
the data base comprises up to present almost 22000 names of those who died in prisons, labour camps, obligatory residences, deportation or psychiatric homes. Information is checked from many sources, that mentionedton the right of each name
- The archive “Incarceration fiches” and the data base “Incarceration fiches”
Copies of the incarceration fiches of the former political prisoners, fiches drawn up by the repressive system in the communist period.
Data base contains all the information from one fiche, allowing then their corroboration in order to obtain different statistics
The archive of the Center have:
- documents concerning the investigation and the imprisonment of the former political prisoners from the communist period (verdicts, investigation minutes, arrest warrants, release notes, etc). The documents have been obtained by persons or copied from the archives of different institutions that owned them.
- diaries, written testimonies of those who sufferred in the communist period, letters from prison or letters sent to the imprisoned ones
- photos – over 5000 – of certain former political prisoners, photos from the files drawn up by the repression bodies after arrest, photos from the obligatory residence, family snapshots, communist leaders
documentary movies about the communist period
On the basis of the materials from the archive, different data bases will be created that will ease the researchers’ work
Databases
- evidence of persons that were imprisoned in communist prisons
- persons that died in the Romanian prison system
