October 2022 – The Committee of Military Archives

By Flavio Carbone, CAM president

The meeting of the Committee of Military Archives held on 30 August 2022 in Wroclaw, at the Wroclaw University – Institute of History.

The Committe of Military Archives meeting

On 30 August 2022, the Committe of Military Archives convened in Wroclaw in the framework of the XLVII International Congress of Military History on the theme “Defence of the borders in military history” (28 August – 02 September 2021).

The first slide of the presentation during the CAM meeting

According to the agenda of the meeting, the Committee discussed for more than one hour of the main important topics as in the agenda:

– the Athens meeting – the Committee of Military Archives blog: facts and figures – the Military Archives Online Guide – conclusions

Eight attendees (delegates or observers) from 7 countries (Belgium, Italy, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Senegal).

After a quick introduction by each attendee, the discussion took place touching different topics of our agenda. The steering committee recapitulated the outcomes of the previous meeting held in Athens. Then the main topic was the blog, providing facts and figures, opening the discussion on possible new posts to enlarge the number of contributiors and spread the initiative in a wider community.

The main concern emerged during the meeting related to the Military Archives Online Guide.

The Military Archives Online Guide initiative has been launched since the Congress in Beijing in 2015. Unfortunately, the results were not as expected up to 2022, when the steering committee were able to see the efforts recognised thanks to the effort of Davide Borsani and the webmaster of the ICMH website.

The Military Archives Online Guide project would like to connect all the information regarding the military archives and military funds in other archives in one unique platform, the ICMH website. A dedicated post will be published in the close future.

One of the slides dedicated to the Military Archives Online Guide presenting some numbers

Because of the lack of time, the Committee planned to receive three presentations (by Kathleen Van Acker, Marius Croitoru and Patrick Nefors). Unfortunately, the organisation didn’t plan correctly the timeframe forcing the Committee to find another room available in the late afternoon.

The presentation at the end of the morning was held by our secretary-general, Kathleen Van Acker, speaking on “sources dans les archives: types et expériences”.

The CAM secretary-general presents her paper during the CAM meeting

In the late afternoon, finally we had the opportunity to book another room to continue our meeting and receive the presentations by Marius Croitoru on Romanian military national archives and Patrick Nefors on the Belgian military archives. The presentations will be published in future posts.

Poland 2022

New activities in the Committee of Military Archives meetings

28th August-2nd September 2022, Wrocław-Opole, Poland

From 28 August to 2 September 2022, the Polish Commission of Military Hystory hosted the XLVII congress of the International Commission of Military History in Wroclaw and Opole. The CAM agreed with the Polish Commission point of contact, Professor Tomasz Ciesielski, the draft of our activities. So, on 29 August, the Committee, its delegates and other participants visited the Wroclaw State Archive.

29 August 2022, Professor Tomasz Ciesielski introduces the CAM members and other ICMH congress participants to the Wroclaw State Archive

On 30 August the Committee of Military Archives had its first meeting in the morning at the Wroclaw University – Institute of History.

29 August 2022, the CAM Secretary-General introduces her paper on “Sources dans les archives: types et expériences”

The session was suspended because some delegates had other obligations on the same day presenting their papers. So the Committee convened again in the late afternoon in the hotel where the session continued.

29 August 2022, in the afternoon Col Marius Croitoru, Romanian delegate to the CAM, presents the Romanian Military Archive to the Committee.

Initially, with a first tour of the table the delegates and the attendees presented themselves. The first part of the meeting has been reserved to the approval of the minutes of the meeting held in Athens in 2021 (see the post published here). The presentation moved to the Committee of Military Archives blog, providing some facts and figures of the job done along the year September 2021 / August 2022. The steering committee asked for a strong support by the delegates and the friends of the CAM in order to launch the Military Archives Online Guide harvesting campaign during the year September 2022 / August 2023. Finally, the presentation ended with some conclusions agreed by the delegates.

Because of the lack of time, the Committee decided to meet again in the late afternoon thanks to the availability of the meeting rooms booked in the hotel. During the second phase of the meeting the delegates received the presentation of the Romanian Military Archives (see the post published in our blog) by their director, Colonel Marius Croitoru, and the archives of the Belgian War Heritage Institute by Dr. Patrick Nefors.

On 1 September, the congress moved to Opole, hosting one of the session at the Opole State Archive. Thanks to the full support of the Opole Archive Director, Professor Miroslav Lenart, the CAM members and other participants to the congress had the opportunity to visit the archives briefly.

Opole 1st September 2022, the CAM steering committee together with Marius Croitoru, Romanian delegate to the Committee, and other participants to the congress in front of the Opole State Archive main entrance.

In other posts, the steering committee will present the visits to the State Archives in Poland.