Methodology

During the preparation of the Virtual Museum I queried Polish archives (mainly the archives of the Jewish Historical Institute, the National Archive in Białystok, the central archive Archiwum Akt Nowych in Warsaw but also the archives of the Institute of National Remembrance in Białystok); and by mail or through specialists on the spot, an query in other polish archives (for example the Auschwitz Museum archives, the Treblinka Museum archives) and the national archives in Grodno, Lithuania, and Great Britain. I researched and went through the online materials available in all of the significant American and Israeli archives, from which the biggest source were the materials gathered in the Yad Vashem archive, in the Shoah Names Database, and the archives of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum .

I researched all of the available books in Polish and English covering the topic of the life and the Holocaust of the Jews in Białowieża; as well as all of the relevant articles. Because their number is small, I sought more information about Białowieża by studying several publications and Memorial Books (if they existed and if they were available in English) concerning the surroundings of Białowieża with which the Jewish communities were connected throughout the history such as Szereszewo, Pruzhany, Kobryń, Narewka and Bielsk Podlaski; in a smaller spectrum Hajnówka and Białystok, and also special websites dedicated to them. I researched internet databases in several languages, including genealogical websites, which allowed me to find several families – descendants of Jews who had emmigrated from Białowieża before the First or Second World War. The oldest citizens of Białowieża were a huge and irreplaceable help to me – people who took part in the recorded interviews and people who were my guides when I was only beginning my research, who gave me the basic knowledge which allowed me to begin, and contacted me with people I should visit.